First off I want to say hello!
I am a new member here. Been lurking for a long time and absorbing all that I can as I ponder the idea of making bows.
I am really impressed with the great camaraderie on this site and all of the very helpful and sharing members, you guys and gals are awesome, thank you!

I have tried the search function many times with success but one I cannot seem to find is, not including designing or building forms, how many hours do you typically have in a build,  just the bow build itself?

I am guessing you will ask what kind of build. My curiosity currently lies with recurve bows, one piece and take down but would love to hear about other types of bows as well.

I've never timed it, but there is quite a bit of wait time involved such as oven time, finish curing, etc.  If it were a race I'd probably be complete in a couple days.

I would say 15 to 20 hours depending on how much you do yourself. As in making lams and such.

I would be right behund Mike I'm thinkin...

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Kenny.

Depending on complexity and the desired level of finish,15 to 20 hours. Exclusive of time spent waiting for epoxy to cure.

I grind all of my own lams and make virtually everything except glass, EA-40, and phenolic so this probably adds time.

To answer your question about time required to make a one piece recurve in practical terms, count on two weeks.  Evenings and weekends.

Thanks guys!
Yep, just actual hours doing something and not any down time waiting is what I was after.
Labor hour or man hours on a project is what I probably should have asked.

Years ago I kept track of my hours on a d/r glass/wood longbow build and it was 22 hours of actual work time.

Some are less, but I've made 'simple wooden bows' that took over 50 hours easy.

I build wood bows 10-15 hours  is about the norm.

Never timed one either.  But I agree with the two weeks working evenings and weekends.  I still do a lot of thinking and pondering every step of the way.  So I would guess I have 30-40hrs in a one piece glass bow.

30 to 40.

For me I build 3pc takedown longbows. I figure I have about 20-25 hours in a build. That is everything from scratch. That include footing a riser.

I can almost build two simultaneously in the same time as it takes for one.

That's in a perfect Bowyer's world, which pretty much doesn't exist.

I usually have about 12 - 15 hours of actual hands on work.
This is outside of oven time and finish dry time.

Any of you guys count, grinding laminations, making strings, spraying finish,horn/antler nocks etc... making a bow sleeve, as part of the bow making process, just wondering ?

I did figure that in my 30 to 40.

Should we figure in beer breaks?

In Roys case he added in the time to make the beer run.

Brad,
I was part of one of these discussions once before and won't get sucked into, beer break/coffee break comments again.
Mine as do Roy's take anywhere from 30-40 hours depending how fancy folks wanna get with risers and overlays etc.
Regards.
Bert

QuoteOriginally posted by Bert Frelink:
Any of you guys count, grinding laminations, making strings, spraying finish,horn/antler nocks etc... making a bow sleeve, as part of the bow making process, just wondering ?

I "grind" my lams in about 90 seconds.  Takes that long to email my order to Kenny.  

I'm usually around the 50 hr mark. I grind my own lams. I know I could speed things up but I like to do a lot of my riser grip and shaping with my hand files and rasps..  also I find going to fast you end up ****ing something up. Slow and steady always wins in the end

I grind my own lams and a hybrid longbow from start to finish take about 25 hours work time. A straight longbow takes about 15 hours (no need to fiddle around much matching the riser to the form).
I'm working almost only at night time.