I was wondering if any of the fine people at trad gang could recomend the best bow building book for a first timer.           thanxs in advance
                          Jim Brown

For wooden or glass bows?

Depends on what kind of bow you'd like to make.  

All natural/wood bows - go with the Traditional Bowyers Bible series.

Laminated bows - Jack Harrison's Traditional Bower, More Unnecessary Fun is pretty good.  Lots of theoretical info on bow design.

For selfbows, look into "The Art of Making Selfbows" by Stim Wilcox.  Great book and very imformative.

I second the Jack Harrison book , but the info from Binghams is probably better for a beginner.

I think that no matter what type of bows you want to build the  Bowyers Bible is a must read.There is much information on design and bow building basics that apply to all types of bows and will get you off to a good start.

If you're interrtested in building selfbows, "Hunting the Osage Bow," by Dean Torges and "Bows&Arrows of the Native Americans," by Jim Hamm are very good.

For self bows, all those recommended above plus "The Flat Bow" by Hunt and Metz.

Jim

I second Deans book. Just finished it up, Great read!

Kris

What Orion said. After reading both Dean's and Jim's books, you will know all you need to know about building osage bows. Plus, besides chasing rings and tiller, Dean and Jim will keep you entertained and fired up about building bows. Both of these are much more that just "how to build a bow" books.

Some great information can be found right here on TradGang! scroll down to "The Bowyers Bench" and use the search function. If you want to read about bow forms then type  bow form  in the search box. I have the Binghams building a one piece recurve DVD and pamplet. The DVD is good but only shows the basics, I found more detailed information here..for example. I could not get my first bow form square and without dips using the Binghams method of using a drill press drum sander,I used the search function and found out thru a post by KennyM and another by Dmaxshawn that using a template and a router with a pattern bit was a great way to get it perfect, I bought a router and Two 2 inch pattern bits and have made 2 perfect forms so far. I bought the Jack Harrison book last year and picked up a bunch more info.

thanks for replies,this site is the best,friendly people seem to be in short supply these days