How do you figure out pricing?

[Flem]

That Osage must have some narcotic effect on you guys, you are with obsessed with it to the point of self abuse

This has given me some ideas though. Like we should have a Bowyers Olympics! Think about all the fun events. The log hump with increasing weight and distance. The duel; who ever could craft a bow, string and arrows and shoot their competitor the fastest. Etc,etc Eddless possibilities

[Roy from Pa]

All that smoke is getting to ya, HUH?

[kennym]

So Mike, I guess we ain't much help huh? 

[Eric Krewson]

When I got my first notion to make a bow I didn't know what this "osage" stuff the bow building books of the time (mid 90s) were talking about. I lived in Muscle Shoals Alabama so I drove around looking for those green balls on the ground, dang, the stuff was everywhere. I didn't know bow worthy osage from the other stuff but I quickly learned. When you find a good tree it is like finding gold, it does have magical properties that draw one in and makes you a bit crazy, it is like an addiction that has to be fed.

[Mike L.]

On the contrary, Kenny, y'all gave me all kinds of ideas.  If he complains about the price, I'll ask him if he has any idea how hard it was to split all this Osage, and if he asks what happened to the walnut bow we were planning I'll backhand him and walk away. 

He didn't ask for the cost list, I just totaled it up; I did that with the other guy too, cause he wanted a trad bow but money was tight.

I got the impression he was worried about short changing me, and I'm worried he'll be surprised at how much it costs. Cost never put me off a bow I wanted, though, and the one he took to his son's archery camp was a big hit.  The instructor shot it and was impressed with it, which was a good feeling, cause I thought it felt pretty good, but it's nice to have someone else verify it. 

Incidentally, is that a serious risk, being sued if it breaks?  I don't think it would happen, but would you guys recommend having an attorney write up some kind of liability agreement?  Maybe not this one but if I start selling to strangers?  Stranger danger clause.  lol

[Mad Max]

Just tell  them you get 500.00 all the time online + shipping.

[Bowjunkie]

I agree with Flem, I've cut many trees, some very large, split, humped em out, sawed, seasoned, resawed, and ground them for glass bow lams and risers. It can be every bit as much work as cutting wood for selfbows... more even.

I can't say which is easier to put up, selfbow wood or glass bow wood because it depends a lot more on the tree and location than what type of bow it will be used for. Selfbow and backing wood can be 'easy' if it has easy access, a tractor loads it onto my trailer, and my buddy's skid loader unloads it onto his sawmill, he cuts it up, then loads it back onto my trailer. There's been a few times putting up selfbow wood has been super easy, relatively speaking... not that I'm either complaining or ungrateful because I've really busted my butt plenty of times getting wood home and put up.

Sure, buying ground lams and riser wood from a supplier and assembling a glass bow is 'easier', but not if you do every bit of the tree cutting and seasoning yourself, by hand. I know others who do it too. I've checked the man hours in various types of bows when I do all the work myself(except making fiberglass) and there can be practically no time difference between selfbows and glass bows. Actually, it depends more on each bow as an individual.

Heck, plenty of times when I bring a big osage, mulberry, ironwood, cherry, etc tree home, it ends up being used in a wide variety of bow types... selfbows, backed bows, glass/wood lam bows, etc... all from the same log.

A couple weeks ago I brought that giant mulberry log home, that was a rough one. That one hurt.

Just yesterday I looked at a big triple trunk black cherry tree that blew down at my mother's place. There's glass bows in it, and some trilam material... it's going to be a ton of work too, but I don't mind. I like black cherry under clear glass. An underrated wood imo. I'll get going on that thing as soon as it quits raining and dries up a little.

People have no idea what some of us go through or spend to have good, seasoned bow wood to work with... regardless of the kind of bows that result. I wouldn't answer a question like "how much does the material cost?".

[Roy from Pa]

From Bowjunkie-I agree with Flem

Well that's your first mistake:)

[Flem]

From Bowjunkie-I agree with Flem

Well that's your first mistake:)

Hey, at least somebody here has some cojones

[Bowjunkie]

I've made plenty of mistakes pal.

I started cutting that cherry tree yesterday. Cut right into a nest of pine squirrels in a hollow spot in a big branch. Cut one squirrel in half, and his two siblings hit the ground and crawled away. They seemed about 3/4 grown and uninjured from what I could tell. What a way to go. I felt bad. I hope the other two make it ok.

[Eric Krewson]

The biggest lesson I learned from cutting down trees is never to invest a second in one that has been hit by lightning. My neighbor had one with the top blown out of it by lightning, the log looked great so I salvaged it for gun stock planks.

A friend with a sawmill graciously cut it up for me.

[attachment=1,msg2975200]

It looked like great stuff.

[attachment=2,msg2975200]

It was hot day so I watered the slabs down and covered them with wet leaves to stop them from checking.

[attachment=3,msg2975200]

The next day I pulled out a slab to seal it and found the wood was like a sieve, the water had run through tiny lightning caused fissures in the wood and out the other side. It was like a bomb had gone off in the wood, it wasn't useable and became firewood.

[attachment=4,msg2975200]

[Roy from Pa]

Damn Eric, that would have been 200 bows:)