A Bow Maker's Notebook: Sharing The Bow Making Experience of John J Riggs Archery

I've been making bows for a few years now, have a lot of books on the subject, and bought this mostly to support the author's continued Youtube videos. To my surprise however, I found quite a lot of new and useful information here. The author has a nice down-to-earth writing style, and did an excellent job in drawing the many illustrations to support his points. I was surprised by the fact that the text in this book is the author's handwriting. Fortunately, his handwriting is quite legible. I highly recommend this book.

This is a fun and useful book for the begging bowyer. It has plenty to offer an experienced bowyer as well. The drawing are well explained and executed. The how-to part of this book worked well for me and I did not have any problems completing the three bows that are described in each build-along. The author also has a YouTube channel that addresses all his book topics. So if there is a question, you can go look at it being done.

Funny, I wound up being asked to review this book because I bought two to sign for a customer. I wrote it, but I'm not biased: It's the best book ever written in the history of the World, I tell you!!!

I have tinkered with bows for years and have read a multitude of resources including the highly mentioned bowyers bibles and I must say, even if you think you've got it down, you dont, this book is the simplest, most intuitive, and in-depth description of bow making that greatly compliments any and all previous knowledge or resources and is my top recommendation especially for beginners as it is a fantastic foundation. It is also a fun read, John's way of talking is present throughout the book and I find it very receptive and entertaining.

Excellent book. Lots of good, practical information presented in a useful format. I would highly recommend this book especially if you are already somewhat familiar with bow making.

I was very pleased with this book. John does a excellent job of explaining how to make a bow. The different types of wood and what type of bow each is suited for. He does a fine job of describing how to pick out a board in a lumber yard to make a bow with. He describes making three types of bows. I would recommend this to anyone interested in how making.

I like John's dedication and passion for not only his Archery building skills, but also, his everyday job. Get to know John by his youtube site, and buy his book for some great information that keeps bow making more of an art and less of a science!

John did a awesome job on how to build your bow and it translates well on paper along with pictures. If you are just starting out with making bows give this a try or check out his YouTube channel

Excellent and useful for all bow makers but a great resource of straightforward information for beginner bowyers. A charming hand-written and illustrated notebook that brings you closer to the author who is a great companion as he describes three bow-types and how to make them. Highly recommended as a one-stop-book for those of us starting out on the fascinating journey that is bowyery.

Das Buch überrascht zunächst in seiner Machart: es ist eine Kopie des in Druckbuchstaben verfassten Manuskripts. Leider hat der Verlag diese Vorlage etwas lieblos in viel zu kleinem Format eingescannt. Der Platz auf der Buchseite hätte eine vergrößerte Darstellung durchaus zugelassen. So gestaltet sich die Lektüre mühsam. Das ist schade, denn das mit vielen Zeichnungen angereicherte ca. 200 starke Paperback ist durchaus lesenswert und beinhaltet zahlreiche Hinweise aus dem Erfahrungsschatz des Autors. Dabei wenden sich die beschriebenen Projekte an Primitivbogen-Bauer mit hinreichend Erfahrung. Wer also das Buch zum Einstieg in diese Materie mit vorgefertigten Bauplänen sucht wird hier nicht fündig werden, für den Fortgeschrittenen mag es eine Fundgrube sein.Fazit: lesenswert für erfahrene Primitivbogen-Bauer, aufgrund der Einschränkungen der gedruckten Ausgabe sollte man auf die Kindle Version zurückgreifen.

This hand written text, though rough, is an entertaining read and very informative (inspirational even) for the intermediate bowyer. Will definately be ysing some of the techniques outlined.

This was an enjoyable read with some good information in it. The author walks you through 3 project bows in a fair amount of detail. I'm looking forward to giving a couple of these a try