on forums
scp
make selfbows out of staves for physical exercise. That means I don't
bother to finish them. I rarely even sand them.
If you want to do original researches here, you would probably be
disappointed. They are not even bothering to correct the clear mistakes
in TBB. I once tried to further our understanding of the mass principle
and got mostly defensive and dogmatic replies in the other forum.
Life is too short for bickering. If you really wanna learn how to make
good bows, you better get in touch with the masters in person. If you
just wanna talk about what you enjoy, we have more than adequate forum
here. I'm rather grateful for what we got here.
scp
All depends on why you are making selfbows. If it's primitive enough to
buy a stave worth several hundred dollars but it's barbaric to use
fiberglass tapes to back selfbows, I must be more into barbaric bows than
primitive bows. In my book, being primitive means using whatever I can
get easily and cheaply. I cut down trees in my yard and make bows out of
them for fun. I wonder how primitive it is to try to make the fastest bow
in the world.
That does not mean I don't want to make good bows. Recently I gave in and
bought the cheapest chronograph. The results are just as suspected. What
matters most is the quality of the stave. One of the earliest bows is
faster than all others, 145FPS at about 40#. Pretty good for a simple
stick. But just as I suspected not that impressive. I used the
chronograph for an afternoon and stored it. If I want to make fast bows,
I need to find and buy good staves. Nothing particularly primitive about
that. I would rather make decent bows out of wood I have.
scp
I don't like to use fiberglass. I would rather use burlap to back
questionable bows than use fiberglass. But I also hesitate to use epoxy,
In what sense is it a natural material? We probably allow it it because
we cannot easily and non-destructively verify its non-use.
As for the errors in TBB, I learned most of "theoretical" things about
bowery from those books. The first volume definitely deserve a page or
two of errata. That means, those book are that important.
There is a big different between stating the facts and defending an
opinion. I believe Mr. Baker deserve a forum of his own. If he wants I
can make him one in an hour. He can do whatever he wants there so long as
such a policy is made clear up front. Why don't I make one and stay
there? Who would come to it? I'm no Baker. In a public forum, we better
not get upset about the tones of other posters. We don't have to read
everything and we usually can't.