In my quest to learn bow about bow building i keep seeing the words stave. Can anyone explain it to me? i just dont understand what exactly it is..
A stave is a split lengthwise from a log out of which you make a bow.
(http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/4runr/intostaves.jpg)
Here are two of them.
It is a split or sawed slice of whole natural wood to extract a bow from. Jim
"stave" just means a strip of wood that you make something from.
A bow stave can be split or sawn. It's simply a piece of wood you make a bow out of.
People often differentiate a stave bow as being made from a piece split out of a log from a board bow that comes from a sawn board. But it doesn't have to be that way.
A stave is also full length for a bow, such as 70 inches or so, as opposed to a billet which is about half that length and needs to be spliced.
(with another billet)
A stave is your worst nightmare! You get one you will want two.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/stavecollection1.jpg)
You get two you will want twenty.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/stavecollection2.jpg)
And then there are the billets(short pieces you can splice together to make a bow).
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/billetcollection.jpg)
It never ends!