A traditional bow seems to me to be more than an inanimate object.  I know some other traditionalists feel the same way.  The bows seem to have a personality, almost a soul.  They are things of beauty as well as function.  I rarely give a name to things I own, but want to find the right name(s) for my two recurves. I'm newly back to traditional archery, and so have limited time with these bows (a few months). Do many of you feel this way, and so have named your bows?  How did you get that perfect name, and what are some examples of the names?

For me, if a bow want's a name......it will kind of pick it for itself. You just have to listen, some bows talk.

Winterhawk1960

Well, since I din't know any trad bowhunters... and when i first showed up I got laughed at and was told I'd probably kill a deer with that old recurve When Pigs Fly... It was in good fun... But I decided that i would prove them wrong (tell an old Jarhead that it isn't possible and he'll find a way) When I got my first custom bow made, I decided to have "When Pigs Fly" instead of my name on the bow... Sometimes when I look down and read it.... I see how many things have changed and that comment challenged me to stick with it...

QuoteOriginally posted by Winterhawk1960:
For me, if a bow want's a name......it will kind of pick it for itself. You just have to listen, some bows talk.

Winterhawk1960

Well said.  
I've had 2 bows speak to me....neither was mine..   :rolleyes:

A wise archery guru once told me, "You can't give a bow a name, it has to earn it!" So, pretty much what Winterhawk1960 said.  

A fiberglass recurve or longbow made from a factory is the same as a compound in my eyes, they have no soul. A bow that I carefully selected from a limb off of a tree and crafted with my hands has a uniqueness to it that no other bow has

I name each of the bows I build, and that's getting to be a lot of names.   Here's the last few:

Osage Can You See - I was feeling patriotic

Cherry Pie - I wanted to see how simply I could build a glass bow... a single lam of cherry and a cherry riser.  I wasn't sure it would turn out nice so while I worked the song "Can She Bake a Cherry Pie, Billy Boy, Billie Boy" came to mind.   That's too long, so she became Cherry Pie... and a sweetheart of a 30# bow!


Le Chasseur Noir - A black glass flatbow that's a bit heavier than my norm.  Darned if I know what happened, but it told me it wanted to be named Black Hunter... but not in English... and I don't even speak French.  Had to look it up.  

Foxy Lady -  Yew and bamboo bow with dark brown Argentine Mesquite riser... came off looking red and brown and very lovely. It may be the prettiest bow I've built.

Forward Scout - Tried a forward riser longbow and wanted the name to reflect that, so it was named as a tribute to the forward scouts of the Viet Nam war.

Maybe the best name on any of my bows was given it by my wife.   I made a longbow from red cedar closet lining and while I was pondering a name, she popped out with "Out of the Closet".   That was too good to resist.

My wife has named all my bows...She looks at the rack and she names them....

One is called - "too much damn money!"

Another is called - "don't you have enough bows?"

Still another is - "your son needs money for college!"

And the other one is - "if you sold this one, we could go out on the town!"

All of mine have been called "Piece O' Crap". As they never ever put all of the arrows where they should have :-)

One of mine is called "Angel" because she sure is an Angel to shoot

The rest of em have been named by my wife like Raging Water's LOL

I had Chad build me a custom LC NAT. We picked out the woods and he got started on her. The more I thought about it the more I thought that I just needed it to be a tribute to my father. He gave me the thrill of the hunt and the joy of being outdoors. His nickname was "One shot Bobby"
So I called up Chad and asked him to put the name "One Shot" on it. Everytime I hold that bow I know he is still with me.

I have a 60# no name on it from the bower, so its named after my newest grand daughter Sophia, so the bow is name Phia.

Don Thomas writes about naming his longbow in "Longbows of the far north", awesome read. I did name my Mohawk, his name is "Harvest".

A good name for my "best" bow would be LIAR LIAR. The rest don't even deserve a name, they are all being punished so they stay in the closet LOL.........Just having a little fun here guys

Winterhawk has stated it well. You and the bow must find your way together, you are both living things. Bows do talk, they do not say the same things.
It is said that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. The bow and you, it is much the same  

I had Chad Holm make me a bow,And I called him up and told them to put the name

" Come On "

Because that's what I'm always saying in the woods " Come On One more step "

He gave me exactly the woods I wanted ,And he gave me exactly the image I wanted put on the bow, a deer bouncing with the busted flag up On one side,And the butt of the deer on the other side .He matched the limb tips with the riser ,and the front of the riser with matching wood to the rest of the bow ,The limbs are made out of zebra wood with bamboo core,And the zebra wood was cut different then the other zebra woods that you see.

Chad Holm,Is a very particular Bowyer ,He does excellent work ,A perfectionist and an artist.  Oh by the way did I mention that he gave me exactly the poundage I wanted .


Thank you for  "Come On " Chad


Carl

 

Of course now the bow is set up with an arrow rest ,And it looks great .And shoots like a dream .

I was shooting a recently built longbow in my backyard one afternoon, I noticed a hawk sitting in a tree watching me. He was close about 12 yards from the target and he was looking down at me as I pulled my three arrows from my target bag.. I continued this routine twice more. I thought for a moment about taking a shot at the bird deciding against that     and to see what the bird was going to do.

As I shot the final three arrows, the hawk swooped down towards the third arrow in flight meeting it midway on its 23 yard flight to the bag.. I think he thought it was a bird as the fletchings were a bright yellow.. He didnt catch it, but it sure looked as if he wanted to. From that day forward that bow has been the "Hawk"

I still cherish that moment...    

I thought of naming mine Becky, but my wife is already jealous of all the time we spend together

My dear ole Dad's favorite joke (the only one I ever heard him tell) was about an Injun Chief who named rivers.  Chief Bowels always named a new river whatever he said first thing in the morning when exiting his teepee at a new camp location. You can imagine what he stepped in outisde his teepee door that first morning. The river is called "Whoshi-tall River.  Sorry.  I simply call my bows whatever the bowyer calls it with the very critical pronoun prefix "my" added.