first bow building group

[Dane]

Great job all the way around. Dont feel bad if it isn't Twin Oaks, as nothing can be, and Pappy had to start somewhere, too. Teaching is so rewarding, too, as many of us know, and you will develop your own traditions if you keep this group going. It looks nice and secluded, pretty area with room to grow. Dane

[Badger]

  That was great, a group like yours can grow faster than you think, students can quickly become teachers and it can mushroom. Maybe some farmer in the area will join your group in the future and give you a place for a permanent set up like twin oaks, you never know. I want that for Ca.

[Eric Krewson]

You are lucky to find a group of young guys who will work so hard.

My experience has been a bit different; I held two bow bees at my house with a total of about one dozen folk. All would watch me make bows all day but none would touch a thing, always saying" I am afraid to work on a piece of wood because I might mess up and ruin the wood".

I have run about a dozen people through my shop, free instruction,  materials and as much time as they want or need. Only two have completed a bow and these only because I took the reins and did the finish tillering work for them when they stalled out.

When my buddy Joe and I started making bows we went at it like a house on fire, cutting trees, drying wood and really cranking bows out. 16 years later I am still cranking them out.

I haven't found anyone with this "fire" and bow making drive yet, I will keep looking.

[PEARL DRUMS]

My fee's are the same as yours iowabow. Teach somebody and I will teach you. Great idea, great group and I hope it spreads like wildfire across Iowa and Lee and Tiff have to move to Kansas or something

[Badger]

  Eric, and others interested. A good topic for discussion might be how to introduce someone to bow making. First impression is everything. One time I heard a Dr. on a radio show say something like, " when we fall in love what we actually do is fall in love with the way we feel about ourselves when we are in the presence of that other person".  You can apply that same thing to work relationships, frienships, business and even hobbies. If a person comes over and I convince him I am the worlds greatest bow maker he will be intimifdated, but if he feels he has a nack for it himself and that I am enjoying working with him he will almost certainly come back. The trick is getting the group started, once you get it started we teach each other and some of the pressure is off the starters.

[Eric Krewson]

I  have real easy teaching style and keep several of my goof-ups in the shop just to emphasize that messing up is part of the process.

I overlooked my best student when I said I had to finish most guys bows.

George wasn't an archer but he is an inquisitive guy, smart as they come. He called after making contact with another bow making friend who directed him my way. George had the fire, work ethic and interest.  He had permission to cut osage on thousands of acres, went at it like a logging crew and soon had more wood than ten of us could use in a lifetime. He had so much good osage he discarded everything that needed a little heat correcting to the burn pile. I rescued truck loads of good osage from his reject pile.

Here is one of George's one day osage hauls. He split all this out in 100degree heat, took him a month. He wouldn't let me make the first splits with a chainsaw.



George is as tough as a hickory knot and was well over 60 when he did all the osage cutting.




He made bows and more bows but not being a serious traditional archer, the final tiller always remained a bit of mystery to him, his bows were incredibly well crafted, all works of art.

Then he moved on, as was his nature. Next was blade smithing, then bowl turning(osage makes spectacular bowls), then custom duck call making(osage barrels of course) and so forth.

The common denominator for all the good bow makers I know is they find almost anything crafty interesting. The guys who don't have it don't find anything one makes with their hands very interesting.