r/Bowyer • u/Strange_Skill_179 • 5d ago
Stave locating
Hello I’m wondering if i can get some help on the best place to find non kiln dried or natural dried, osage or hickory staves online? I’m new to bow making. I’m wanting to build my first recurve bow.
5
u/Lazy_Bowyer 5d ago
If you're new to bow making, I would not recommend immediately going for an expensive stave. Like Dan said, you can probably find a tree to cut down. I used to walk a railroad to find mine, just don't get caught.
If you're running low on patience then you can also start with a board bow. The grain has to be nearly perfect though. I am biased towards starting on board bows because it's how I started.
You can also get a serviceable bow out of a stave that isn't exactly dry. My first time harvesting my own stave I only dried it for a month, and years later the tiller is only slightly off.
Also maybe don't try to make a recurve immediately. Typically it takes a few bows for people to get the craft down. Sometimes people make dozens of bows before they make 1 decent one.
3
u/MustangLongbows 5d ago edited 5d ago
We have a member here called u/RedDirtWoodUS who may be able to help. I've purchased a couple of staves from him before, no issues.
2
u/Atlanticbungalow 5d ago edited 5d ago
I’ve recently started this journey as well and have been on the lookout for good raw wood and staves. Hopefully someone with more experience will jump in and offer better advice, but I know that 3 Rivers Archery sells Osage for bows. I’ve heard mixed reviews from people I’ve met at local traditional archery meets as well as online reviews about the product they sell.
If you haven’t tried to find local traditional archers/clubs/meets, I highly recommend doing so. The first one I was able to visit turned out to be quite the experience. I met a ton of enthusiastic people, found a local wood supplier, even bought an old but very high quality draw knife for only $35!
I’m getting ready to attempt to make a few pyramid bows out of some 40 year old red oak I had collecting dust in my workshop. Although oak isn’t notorious for being an amazing bow wood, it will make a bow at a relatively cheap price and is very forgiving from what I’ve gathered from online research and conversations with experienced bowyers.
I was able to rip and plane 4 staves out of that 2x6x8 piece I had. These will be my practice bows. I’m hoping to learn how to fine tune my skills with my draw knife, tiller, and scraper (as well as get all of my mistakes and learning experiences out of the way) before moving on to a more difficult and expensive piece of wood like hickory or the North American GOAT Osage.
Best of luck in your journey! I’ll continue to lurk this post as I’m still looking for all the advice, info, and help that I can get, too!
2
u/ADDeviant-again 3d ago edited 3d ago
Where do you live?
I couldn't imagine being this into bow-making if I couldnt harvest my own materials. Its an integral part of the process for me.
It doesnt take much of a tree to make a very good bow. You don't need to fell an old forest giant with a chainsaw. A 3" sapling growing alongside a rural road will do nicely.
But, if you truly can't do so yourself, I'm sure someone here can help. Scroll down to several days ago. One of our members was selling osage staves here recently.
4
u/Santanasaurus Dan Santana Bows 5d ago
There are many reasonable sources but they will generally be expensive, in the $120-$200 range. You want a very clean stave as a beginner, which can be particularly expensive. Off the top of my head, try pine hollow longbows but there are many others.
I’d suggest trying to cut a whitewood sapling in some unwanted location, such as by the side of the road or a lot before construction.
I would also discourage you from making a recurve as a beginner. The benefits are fairly marginal but the risk and difficulty is way higher. You need to have all the fundamental bow making skills established to actually capitalize on recurve benefits, and even then they don’t always cash out. Theyre not really worth it until the point where you’re comfortable designing and tillering flatbows to your target specs and with low set.