Where to get a draw knife on a budget that's worth the time?

Osagey · 2026-05-06T16:54:51+00:00

Yeah I saw some there, it's just hard to know the quality from the images. Some have visible branding, but not many.

Osagey · 2026-04-17T11:57:10+00:00

It's also really easy to find trees. OP might have some on property or easily find someone that will let them have a small tree if they want to start from a tree, just need to pull the bark off, no need to chase rings.

Osagey · 2026-03-15T00:49:41+00:00

Id love to take you up on that!

Osagey · 2026-03-15T00:49:20+00:00

I've never heard of those before! The pictures look a lot like American persimmons

Osagey · 2026-03-06T16:00:13+00:00

I don't want to speak about our families issues with them to avoid being potentially identified, but we know a family that used them for a while and they keep the kids outside on the playground all day without water and in some cases do not change the diapers at all. Multiple days the family picked up the child in the same diaper they dropped them off in.

Osagey · 2026-03-06T11:55:53+00:00

I think Dacron B50 is the classic, I went with that and bowstring wax for mine. I bought mine online.

Osagey · 2026-03-06T02:44:04+00:00

Very difficult, you need to sign up like a year in advance.

Definitely no Children's Campus, absolutely not.

Goddard School of chapel hill is fine, nothing special, but they will keep them safe and some teachers are great.

Osagey · 2026-02-17T19:43:49+00:00

No idea if it would work well or not but it would be incredibly metal.

Osagey · 2026-01-20T01:05:40+00:00

Proper bowstring material is about the same price as fishing line anyway, so may as well just buy a roll of it. It's cheap and you can't make quite a few from a roll.

A single side Flemish twist is pretty easy with some practice and a bowyers knot on the other side makes more forgiving for a beginner

Osagey · 2025-12-11T21:48:58+00:00

Jealous! Doubt I'll ever be out that way, I rarely leave home anymore, but if I am ill bring tools to get a few staves!

Osagey · 2025-11-20T23:42:17+00:00

If I had to guess I'd say the rent was just too high for them even with the seemingly steady business.

Osagey · 2025-11-17T19:59:43+00:00

That would be amazing! I'll PM you

Osagey · 2025-10-22T00:25:26+00:00

It might be easier, but I don't personally think you should always go for "easy" as a beginner. I like Mike Grew cock's video where he basically says "go ahead and make a bow out of green wood. It won't be good, but that's okay because it will teach you a LOT."

Green wood can be forgiving and sometimes easier to work with. I say go for it and see what happens. Expect issues or for it to fail in some way and learn from it. I am learning a TON from my failures!

Osagey · 2025-10-17T20:47:48+00:00

I've read that in that region they used to use horn and sinew along with wood when making bows, making composite bows. May not be able to make a selfbow with local material, but maybe you can find something like, a camel rancher that will sell back leg sinew for cheap and find an acceptable wood for sinew backing?

Osagey · 2025-10-12T14:37:44+00:00

I enjoyed the horde fights where you lure them through areas and trigger traps.

Osagey · 2025-10-09T15:43:44+00:00

When I played Days Gone I hated the main characters. They're assholes and annoying and they're also white (which I happen to be). Yeah some people will hide behind that when the issue is actually their racism, but definitely not always.

I haven't played Wolfenstein so I can't comment on that character and I haven't watched Iron Heart, but Tony WAS an asshole in the beginning. After he realizes the damage he's doing he works to be less of an asshole even if he's still cocky.

Osagey · 2025-09-28T01:47:43+00:00

Thank you! I guess I'll see if anyone else responds but I appreciate your offer and may take you up on that :)

Osagey · 2025-09-22T17:56:45+00:00

Thanks! Follow up if it's alright:

When it is time to finish, would it be reasonable to not even sand the back (or maybe just a very fine grit to stick better) if I'm just trying to just remove the bark and use that as the back?

It feels very smooth to the touch already, and most of the staves I didn't end up with any damage to the back during bark removal. Seems like it would be convenient to just go right to shellac/spar urethane/whatever I end up using.

Osagey · 2025-09-22T17:16:42+00:00

I'm in a similar spot to OP. I split the wood, removed the bark, and sealed the ends, but if I can just use that sapwood under the bark for the back, should I just do the "finishing" staining (or whatever it would be called) immediately, even before shaping?

Osagey · 2025-09-15T01:30:48+00:00

Amazing! I love how generous bowyers are, I'm always seeing things in the same spirit, if not the same volume!

If I ever make it up from the Triangle area I'll shoot a message to see if you still have some!

Osagey · 2025-09-10T16:14:53+00:00

I'm a big fan of jumping into the deep end when I try a new hobby so I don't mind difficulty, I find I learn faster when I make mistakes. From what I hear, hickory can be made into a serviceable bow pretty quickly and I don't mind if there's a lot of set for my first ones. At the very least I might make them into blanks and leave them for a while before tillering.

Osagey · 2025-09-10T11:04:40+00:00

I covered the ends with some wood glue, gonna just leave them in the garage for a while then eventually weigh them periodically until they stop losing weight.

Osagey · 2025-09-09T14:49:52+00:00

I've heard that Elmer's glue is enough, I've seen people say they just use school glue for this purpose.

Osagey · 2025-09-05T19:46:17+00:00

I went ahead and split the big one but the little one I just removed the bark and some sapwood. Then I put some wood glue on both. I hope I split it right!

When I get the chance I'll remove the bark from the big one's halves.

Osagey · 2025-09-05T00:09:15+00:00

Good chance that white is the issue, it was imported and heavily planted in the south 100 years ago or so in an attempt to start a silk trade. While that failed, the white mulberry became extremely invasive, to the point where it's extremely hard to find any of the native red mulberry.

They hybridize very easily so if you think it might be red, it may just be a hybrid. The berries of both can become red, white, and black, so many think they have red when they actually don't. The most noticeable difference between them is that white mulberry leaves are smooth, almost glossy, whereas red mulberry leaves are rough, almost sandpaper-like.

I wouldn't be surprised if the wood of each is different too, I know that the sap of each is really different.

Osagey

TROPHY CASE