My Return to Bow Making

During my four years at college in Southern California I didn’t have the time or resources to stay involved with my beloved hobby of traditional bow making. However, after a long break I have once again started making traditional bows at my house in Connecticut. When I got back to the little workshop in my backyard I had to restore the old tools back to functionality, but most items ended up being in good working condition. The draw knife, hand planer, and rasp all worked just as I remember them. I even still had bow wood sitting around, and some of it had survived the foraging of insects during their long neglect. I found this surprising given that most of my wood was from insect prone species. I had some massive quarter logs of sugar maple that may have actually only reached moisture equilibrium a year ago (one of the benefits of taking extended time off with massive logs lying around). I also had some maple hardwood 1x3s in the rafters that I wanted to start on. I found Tim Baker’s chapter on “Bows from Boards” in the Traditional Bowyer’s Bible: Volume 2 extremely interesting. Amazingly, the maple boards had the grain running more or less parallel on the edge and side views, thereby satisfying the main criteria for a fully functioning bow. Perhaps I had chosen them for this reason four years ago, but I can’t honestly remember.

My bowyer's workshed with the newly formed eastern woodland style D bow standing to the left of the door. This was the first bow I made upon return to this fascinating pastime.