It's Mime Time

In the last week, I've made some serious tweaks to my osage orange wood bow, all for the better. Now my bow's handle is made from hemp cord wrapped in duct tape. Yup, duct tape. Not only does the tape offer more protection against splitting at the handle, but it's also more comfortable to hold than the cordage. Another change I made was I replaced the braided bow string with one strand of retractable dog leash. The dog leash cord is amazing stuff. Not only does it have a considerably higher breaking point than the cord I was using, but it also more comfortable for my shooting fingers, less blisters is good news!

But now, it is time to move on. Time to begin my mime training. Remember, there was a point in 7th grade where I wanted to become a professional mime. This passion for miming was inspired by one man: Cary Trivanovich. Holy crap. This guy was amazing. As soon as I got home, I tried copying some of his moves. I attempted to walk my invisible dog, I tried to walk in place, I even braved falling to the floor in slow motion. I was going to be a mime, gosh darn-it. I convinced my parents that night to buy a few mime technique books from Amazon.

In a few days, I got the books and continued my adolescent training. But, like all of these life passions I'm redoing, my passion for miming fizzled out within a few short weeks. The mime books were put on a bookshelf, never to be looked at again. The miming techniques forgotten...

Until today. Starting today, I'm bringing back out my mime persona for one final performance. One last performance to bring closure to my miming attempt.

You may be asking, "Why miming? Aren't mimes those people with white painted faces who always get picked on in music and film?" My answer to you is that miming as an art form exists in every form of public performance. Miming, in its essence, is telling a story only through the use of body movements and facial expressions. With that definition, basically every public performance uses elements of miming. And, if you were wondering, no, I'm not going to paint my face white. No need. The mimes I will be emulating don't have painted faces.

The mimes I will be studying are both inspirations, each in their own unique way.

Mime number one: Charlie Chaplin

 Arguably the first famous mime, Charlie Chaplin created and subsequently revolutionized what it meant to be a silent performer. With his quirky body movements and facial expressions, Charlie Chaplin commanded the rapt attention of his audiences, young and old. Haven't seen Charlie in action? You're in luck! I've posted one of his funniest movies below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjGXaA9xGAY&feature=related

Mime number two: Cary Trivanovich

 The mime who inspired me. Cary now does public performances at schools all over the United States, inspiring students, just as he inspired me more than ten years ago. Check him out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d95Cvnoa4E

And so the miming training begins again!

A Comprehensive Guide to Bow Making

Here it is folks, Guy Taylor, the man behind Greenman Archery has provided me an excellent, comprehensive guide to bow making. He has generously allowed me to post his advice to me here. Happy reading! 


"Tim Baker is a leader in the art of wood bowyery (is that a word?). Way back not that many years ago when everyone was using compounds and only a few people were using fiberglass laminated traditional bows, Tim was beginning to learn how to make wood bows.


Wood bows used to be all there were. Then fiberglass came along and it changed the archery world. But now a lot of people like you and I are becoming interested in the wood bow again. Forward, into the past!


Tim Baker is one of the principal authors of the Traditional Bowyers Bible series of books. One of the things he really loves to do is to introduce new people into making their own wood bows. To do this he likes to use an easily available piece of wood: a red oak board from Home Depot, or Lowe's. He's written a couple sheets on how to make the bow. Here are links to them:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000043and
http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/47638/Tim-Baker-s---Wooden-Bow-Reposted--Tim-s-Permission?page=-1
I am including both of these links in the chance that there may be slight differences that could help explain some point or another.The most important thing for making this bow is to get a good board. Follow Tim's instructions for choosing a board with the right grain. If the grain isn't good, the bow stands a very low chance for success.


Second most important is good tiller. Tiller is getting the two limbs to bend evenly along their length and evenly to one another.


Your trimming plane will work for making this bow but it will take a while longer due to the small amounts of wood that it will remove with each pass. If you can get ahold of a spoke shave you may find it more useful. I've seen Tim make a bow in 30 minutes using a spoke shave on a red oak board. He's a professional, don't try to go that fast yourself. Take your time. It's easy to take wood off but it's develish difficult to put it back on.

The osage billets you got could probably have made a good bow but they would have been for someone far more advanced than where you are at now. They should have been glued together with a Z-splice and appropriate glue. This older thread on PaleoPlanet shows the complete process. He began with billets just like you did: http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/15498


Reading that thread you'll also see how he chases the back of the bow so there is one single growth ring along the whole back from one end to the other. This is absolutely critical with osage orange, if it's not done the bow is guaranteed to fail. I'm guessing here but I think you may not have known about that. No shame in not knowing, you are starting in a virtual bowmaking knowledge vaccum.

If you go through with this red oak bow you'll eventually need a bowstring so you can begin bending the limbs and ultimately shoot the bow. Let me know when you need it and I'll be happy to make one and send it to you. I'll make one with a loop on one end and a bowyer's knot on the other. Using the bowyer's knot allows you to adjust the length of the string as the bow progresses and then use the string for everyday use when the bow is finished".  


Thanks again, Guy!

Broken Bow = Unsure Future

Quick Warning- This will be a short blog post.

I have the unfortunate job of typing here that my archery bow, only three days old, died today. Here is a picture of the bow in its broken state. *Cue funeral music

Mr. Archery Bow only got off one great shot before meeting its end. After having continued troubles with its main cord, the bow re-split into its two separate wood parts. It is very unlikely that I'll be able to salvage these wood parts for another archery bow.

So, I'm looking at a solid brick wall right now. A serious impasse. I don't know how I will achieve my goal for this month of shooting a bulls-eye from 15 yards.

I'd love some suggestions for what I should do at this point. Here are the requirements:

Goal: Shoot an arrow into a target's bulls-eye from 15 yards away.
Supplies: Two 35" osage orange wood planks
Money: Very little, I spend most of my money set aside for this project on the supplies needed to build this bow

How can I reach my archery goal?

Amazon Orders, Whittling 2.0, Advanced Woodworking Techniques, and a Finished Bow

First off, a shout-out to Amazon.com. Living in the mid-west puts me at a significant disadvantage as far as hobby supplies are concerned. Living in a town of 20,000 limits my archery shopping options. Amazon has been a life saver. Through Amazon, I have been able to pick up all of the necessary supplies to build my own archery bow.

Oh, how is the process coming along? I'm finished, finished with making my own osage orange archery bow. Take a look:

My bow stands at an impressive 60 inches. The handle of the bow is wrapped in cord and held together with gorilla glue- epoxy.

I started with two separate 35 inch osage orange wood staves. At first, I just whittled away at the wood staves with a simple kitchen knife. It wasn't easy.

Check it out. To the right is a picture of the wood that resulted from over two hours of repetitive, finger numbing whittling. For two hours work, this isn't a lot of progress. So, in order to finish my bow in time and without developing carpal tunnel syndrome, I had to develop a faster, more effective system for cutting the wood.

After some thought, I figured it out. In our backyard is a beautiful deck. I decided to use this deck to my advantage. Using car tie down straps and ratchets, I held my osage orange wood stave in place. With my trusty, durable, freakin' sharp, kitchen knife, I began slicing into the wood. This wouldn't have been possible without a hammer to drive the knife down. I'm not going to lie, this was a challenging process; but, after only 30 minutes, I had my second 35" osage orange bow stave cut down to size. 30 minutes! It took over six hours to reach this same point with the traditional whittling process.

I've learned a lesson through this. When possible, use a more advanced technique to complete a process. It may take a little more time up front to set up the process, but you will save time in the long run. Think about this in your own life. What hobbies, crafts, or projects are you knee deep in right now? Is there any way you could be more efficient? Any time-saving techniques you could employ? Try it out! I hope it saves you time and energy!

Tomorrow, I will be taking better pictures of my bow, as well as take my first real shots from it. I already have my arrow all set up for the practice shooting. I've attached a cord to my arrow. When I shoot my arrow, I am hopeful that the attached string will keep the arrow in a safe distance. Because safety is of number one importance to me in archery.

Safety was driven home in my mind from my very first shot from a bow. I remember, very clearly, being told, "archery can be just as dangerous as shooting a gun." It's true. Tomorrow, I will be shooting a thin, metal-tipped hard piece of wood at a rapid speed toward a tiny target. With the power of the bow, my arrow becomes dangerous. I don't want to put anyone or anything in danger of getting hurt. So, the string attached to the arrow (which I have already tested) will act as a safety tether for my arrow. With this safety system in place, I feel confident enough to begin practicing tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

A Life Lesson Through Woodworking

I've been thinking a lot about my whittling/woodworking experience yesterday. Though I'm probably only about halfway through whittling out my archery bow, I've grown to love the process of whittling. There is something strangely cathartic about striking a piece of wood with a sharp knife, over and over again, taking off one tiny sliver of wood at a time. I'm learning a life lesson from this process. If you don't mind, I'd like a second of your time to explain my epiphany here.

My light bulb realization-

Mastery takes hard work, painstakingly slow, often painful, hard work. To be good at anything, to accomplish anything of value takes pain, time and dedication. This may sound simple enough, but truly think about it. I'll use myself as an example. All of my life, I've tried to avoid confrontations; but not just with people, with activities as well. This explains why I never reach my goals in my hobbies. As soon as the going gets too hard, I quit and switch over to something easier; choosing short term pleasure over long term gain. Explains why I've struggled at becoming a successful author. I'm always such in a rush to publish something, the quality and quantity of my published works suffer.


Sure, I've had moderate success with my only fully finished book- Poked and Prodded, but that is only after I took the time with it to do the necessary revisions, rewrites, and edits which brought the story to the standards it should have been at when I first published it. Now, after putting in the difficult work I should have put into it before publishing, Poked and Prodded is a book I am proud to promote and sell. But from start to its finished state took over three months, not including the time it took to write it! Mastery takes hard work. A type of hard work that takes slow precision and dedication to the craft. A type of hard work that has never come naturally to me.

Starting today, I'm going to switch my focus. Instead of driving for short term goals and rewards, I will be shooting for longer lasting, harder to achieve, long term goals and rewards. This is not to say I am going to stop my year long challenge. I will continue reaching my monthly goals. However, I will not take the easy, fast routes to achieve these goals. I will work through the pain and work through the seemingly impossible hard work to achieve my goals. This may mean that some of my goals I will not be able to reach, but I am okay with that, because I will have proven something much more valuable to living a successful life. Mastery is more important than short term rewards.

Mastery is painful. Mastery is hard. Mastery is not easy. Mastery causes problems. Mastery seems impossible, at times. But mastery is worth all of this. When you see your finished product exceed your wildest expectations in the marketplace, when you achieve the highest prize in your field, when you know your best work is shown, seen, and shared by others, the feeling of utter jubilation and pride you experience is unmatched by any short term reward.

So shoot for mastery. Endure the pain. Push on. And one day, you will look back and decide:

it was all worth it.

-And so, in the spirit of pursuing the long term, I will be removing the first part of Life Through Our Eyes from Amazon on Monday. I know now that it will be better to wait to reveal Life Through Our Eyes until I am completely finished writing, editing, revising, and rewriting it to perfection. I don't know when this will be, but I know that when Life Through Our Eyes is published again, I will be proud of it.  

Making My Bow and A Three Day Free Sale!

I had a few hours of free time today. What did I decide to do? First, I've published the first installment of Life Through Our Eyes. 

Starting tomorrow, Friday, you can download the first 33 pages of Life Through Our Eyes for Free!

Please, try it out. There's nothing to lose. Well, except for the one hour you will spend reading the first few chapters. I won't be able to refund you that hour, unless someone invents time travel by then. Hey, it's possible.

Second, I started work creating my bow. Unfortunately, I haven't received the wood plater I ordered from Amazon yet, so I had to improvise. Today, I worked on whittling down the osage orange wood stave using a kitchen knife. Let me pause here to say I know whittling out an archery bow with a kitchen knife is unconventional. But I was excited to get started today, even if that meant being unconventional. But don't worry, I was safe.

Wood whittling rule #1: Always cut away from your body. Always. Always. Always. Whittling is a type of cutting that uses a substantial force, and slips are common. That's why you must always cut away from your body and your hands. A single slip could lead to a bad cut or worse. So unless you don't mind potentially cutting off your fingers, cut away from your body. 

Want to see how far I got on my bow today? Mind you, I whittled tirelessly for about five hours straight and this is what I have to show for it:

Ta-da! Yea, okay, it's not that impressive. Especially considering this picture makes my half-whittled bow look like a skinny toothpick. 

I can't wait for my wood planer to come in.

Resources for Archery Bow Making

In my research, I've stumbled across many great resources. I'd like to share them here:
*Ordered from general information to specific instructions
http://www.vintageprojects.com/archery-plans.html- Cool vintage blueprints for bow making
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Bow-and-Arrow- A simple description, but clear, nevertheless
http://www.ehow.com/how_4910235_make-archery-bows.html?ref=Track2&utm_source=ask- Another simple guide
http://www.3riversarchery.com/selfbows.asp-Much more in-depth and specific instructions
http://web.mac.com/paleotool/Paleotool/Bow_Making.html- building a bow with osage orange wood
http://www.buildyourownbow.com/splitting-an-osage-log-into-bow-staves/- explains how to cut and shape osage orange wood

Additional Resources:
http://www.vintageprojects.com/archery/Flatbow-plans.pdf- Vintage self-bow plans
http://www.easterrossfieldarchers.org/flatbow.htm
http://www.3riversarchery.com/Primitives+Primitive+Bows+%26+Kits++Hickory+Flatbow+Self+Bow+Kit_c13_s189_p0_i7051_product.html- A whole self-bow kit for purchase

I'd like to now add PaleoPlanet.net, thanks to Mr. Taylor! Additionally, he suggests the books: The Bent Stick and volumes I and IV of The Traditional Bowyers Bible.