My son turned down my new Morrison Cheyenne, He'll learn from that mistake one day. But anyway, he wants a bow BUT it has to be in the color blue. Anyone know of any bowyers out there making kid friendly bows, in blue.
Call Mike McCreedy, Mad Dog Archery
See what Elk Ridge Archery can do, they make one with pink maybe they can do a blue one.
If it's for a 5 year old, make it yourself. I made one for my daughter when she was 4 out of a piece of hickory. The guys who I knew that built a bunch of bows said on a bow like that I could just ignore the grain and make it flat through the limbs and tiller the width. It worked good.
I put little walnut tip overlays and a handle overlay on it too and she really liked it. It lasted years until her younger brother came along and decide he wanted to see how it would bend if he stuck a limb in between two pieces of wrought iron railing and pushed real hard... I tell ya, boys are different that girls...
You could make one as a sort of father-son project and color it with some blue rit dye from the hobby section at wallmart. I bet he'd remember it for the rest of his life.
Look at Lowes, Home Depot, Sutherlands or whatever decent lumber story you have in your area for a board with nice straight grain and have at it.
Oh, by the way, when I was talking about ignoring the grain, I only meant that you didn't have to follow a ring for the back of the bow. You can build it with edge grain instead but you DO want to look for a piece with reasonably straight grain.
There was a post just recently here about a board bow build along that had great pictures and explanations. I'll see if I can find it and bring it back up.
Well, couldn't find the thread I was looking for. Maybe someone else out there remembers it? I believe the guy who posted was a school teacher or something similar and had a program where he helped kids in school build a bow. He used boards and had some real good pictures showing grain orientation, what to look for, what to avoid, layout etc.
I searched "board bow" and a bunch of topics come up but not the one I'm looking for. Also searched "build along, building, board, and making" but didn't find it.
If you read some of the board bow posts, it should get you what you need to know but I really liked this one particular post.
I bought my daughter a bear brave recurve and painted it pink for her. I had to use special paint that sticks to plastic. Its a good bow that takes alot of beating without the big price tag and the fear of scratching a nice new custom bow. Good luck, Bhill
Pm sent
What Dave Bulla said.. if you have interest in building a bow now or ever it will never be easier than making a young kids bow. Fun too. My son "helped" me sand on his and one I made for a friend. Also if you make it cheap like a board bow then it doesn't hurt as much when they use it for a cane or throw it down to go get arrows.
Fun project.
I did see an article in Traditional Bowhunter about making one out of a PVC pipe, easy to make and I can spray paint it blue. No Splinters.