Well fellas, I just joined up on this sight a little while back and have been studying up.  I figured today might be a good day to start a bow.  Now, I don't have all the tools necessary to do this, but! I did manage so far.  The tool that I am currently using is an Ulu that I made a couple months back for scraping hides and cutting leather.  Not sure if you guys have ever used one of these.  I am still looking for a good drawknife.  It is a little hard on the wrists, but needless to say I won't need to go to the gym to work out for a while. Although, if I keep it up I might look like Popeye... =)  Anyways, I got a piece of inferior osage for nothing with a nicer stave that I bought and figured some practice might be in store before I do some work on a nicer stave that is drying.

So far today i just got the bark off and have been taking the sapwood off slowly but surely.  Just for those of you out there that are wondering why it looks like I am inside.... it's because I am!  I work at a christian college here in Pa as a Resident Director.  I don't have a garage or anywhere else to do some work, so here I am in my apartment.  God Bless my wife, she said I can continue as long as I clean up. =) Fair enough. I hope she doesn't see the next picture, I am not really sure she know how bad this can get.  
  As a side note, the students here are going on spring break, so I have a whole week of vacation.  I might try to put together a Bowyers bench to help me work the stave a little easier. As for now, I have been working on it as you see it in the pictures.

Maybe tomorrow I'll take it down to the good stuff! I can see yellow...=)  Just want to give out a quick thanks to Daniel for helping me out with the drawknife dilema.  Blessings!

QuoteOriginally posted by superkodiak:
 

Curious about your tool, a Ulu?

Did you break it or is it suppose to be that way?   :confused:

well its's a start and we all start somewhere. that Ulu is beautiful. Kudos to Daniel.....Mac~

I'm not surprised you are working at a Christian college. Your wife must be a saint.    

I hope she likes yellow decor when you go to scrapers and sandpaper.   :D

Great start Shawn, keep us posted.

Yep, the Ulu is supposed to look that way.  It has an antler handle on it.  It is a tool that eskimos used to scrape fat and meat off of hides, and for other daily chores.  I could see it being a very useful tool in the kitchen.... and as I have been informed by Daniel.... it was traditionally used only by women.... that is until now. =)  I did actually make it for it's traditional use, to prepare hides for the tanning process.  My wife is a sweetheart, but I might be on the couch once everything in the apartment is covered in yellow dust.  Nothing a dinner and movie can't fix, right?

there is more work to be done! I might grab a bite to eat and bust out my Nicholson 49.... after doing some research it looks like you guys really enjoy that file, so i figured, sure why not, let's give it a try. I got it in the mail a couple days ago. Can't wait to use it.

So I took it down to a "decent" ring in the osage.  Remember that this is just a scrap piece that was given to me in order to practice a bit.  There are lots of knots to work out!  I finally got the wood worked down to a manageable piece... there might just be a bow in this freebie!  Anyways, things are really shaping up, and the #49 is amazing.  I don't really know what I would do without it at this point.  The picture above is of the back of the bow.  I didn't get a chance to work on the stave as much as I wanted to today, but I'll be sure to keep you posted.  My question for you guys, what kind of dimensions should I be looking at in order to make a flat bow?  The stave wasn't very thick, so it might be best suited to at least try to work it into that style of a bow.

Had some great weather here today in Western PA, so I headed out to do a little stump shooting, collect some rose shoots, and yes..... create some more yellow dust.  Since the sun was out, I took it outside a while until dark and I am just no taking a break to type this up.  I'll post some more pictures soon.  One of my concerns at this point, is that because the stave was pretty thin, I wasn't able to save a great deal of wood for the handle.  If I am going to put a handle on this bow, what kind of wood should I use?  I don't really have anything available at the moment. Aren't some Native American bows without built up grips?  Ok, back to work! =)

Started to fade towards the tips and near the handle.  Things are shaping up. My wife came home from work tonight and was surprised to see "a bow" So, I must be making some steps in the right direction.  I'll work some more tomorrow!

Cool thread !!!

Looking good! Your patience amazes me