Shawn — Not to rain on your picnic, but with only 2 weeks you’d be lucky just to find a good stave, much less build a bow. It’s not a process that fares well when rushed. My advice is to spend whatever bowbuilding time and energy you have right now on getting a copy of The Bowyer’s Bible Vol. I and reading it cover to cover, then with that knowledge deciding what kind of wood you want to use, and asking around (including of course here) where’s the best place to order it. Staves only get better as they age, and as the guy who got me started once advised, “You don’t need a special place to build a selfbow. If you really want to do it badly enough, you’ll find a way. I once built a nice selfbow on the tailgate of my pickup in a WY blizzard.” Bow building is a great hobby, with all the satisfactions of fine woodworking and a whole lot more. No need to rush. Best luck, Dave (who long long ago wasted his leaves home with reloading .45 ammo and shooting it up as fast as I could pull the trigger, when I could have done that on Uncle Sam’s expense anytime, anywhere I was stationed) 😛

You can always try a board bow. In the traditional bowyers bible vol. IV (I think Dave meant 4 not 6) there is a good description on your first board bow. A lot of lumberyards will have hickory and ash available and lowes usually has red oak. You can make a solid hunting bow out of a board in 10 – 12 hours without too much experience.

Dave is right, tracking down a stave would be tough. A board might be just what you need.

Have fun!

I was gonna say “When did they pop out 5 and 6?!!?” 😉 But yes, the TBB series is fantastic. Volumes I and IV are the best for getting started. The middle two both have some cool stuff in them, but are specific to certain types of archery and whatnot. More like a how-to-history rather than a pure nuts and bolts. Vol IV would probably be best if you can grab just one.

That said, I’ll add a second reccomendation for the Lowe’s/Home Depot/your local lumber yard here for sourcing red oak boards. They won’t have very many good ones at any one time, but you’re likely to find a couple that will work.

You might look at this sitehere… It’s got some good take aways in it.

Actually guys, I mean Vol. 1 (nor corrected in my original post). Just forgot to put the space in the V. 1 😛

Shawn;

have you called the guys at RMSG, when I was in Tuesday it looked to me like they had a couple of pieces of wood that could be used as stave’s. If not you might want to post on CraigsList might get some luck there.