Sunday, March 29, 2009

Bow Making workshop

The bow making workshop that was held on March 26-29 was a great success. Everyone had a good time and made great bows. The class was small with only 3 people so we had plenty of space to work. Its always fun to watch people turn a big log into a beautiful shooting bow. This was a beginner bow making class that focused on design and proper tillering of white wood bows, specifically hickory. We build pyramid style bows that are a charm to tiller. Hickory is one of the most forgiving woods when it comes to making mistakes. It is also one of the hardest woods to carve into shape. Many lessons were learned by all of us over the past couple of days. One of the students had previously attended the class a couple of years ago and worked on an osage stave. His stave was full of checks and cracks that went completely through the stave. We weren't sure if he would get a serviceable bow out of it. The weather was damp and rainy for most of the time that we were building the bows so we had to stay in the bat cave to work. The sun did shine for the final day of shooting, giving us the perfect conditions to try out our new toys. Enjoy the video.