Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: iowabow on May 20, 2012, 10:40:23 pm
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On Wed all day and evening Beadman and I will be working with 7 new bow builders. I am kinda trying to build a primitive group/club for the area. I told each of them the price from my teaching was to teach one other person what they learn. So hopefully these 7 will bring 5 more into the circle. I will post pictures as we are we are working.
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Great,good for you,hope it goes well for you. :) :)
Pappy
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I hope that gradually groups continue to spring up all over the country. Interesting how sometimes groups will develop a style amoungst themselves. Finding places to hold group builds are difficult in parts of the country. I still have a dream that hear in So Cal we can buy a piece of land with some buildings just for that purpose.
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I like how the Tn bow club has things setup but it would not work the same here so I am sure it will take on its on life as it develops. It is funny that for this group beadman and I will be the experts. I have so little time in making bows but if we don't do it who will? I wished that we had something like two oaks around here so well I guess I am just going to get things hopping. I hope we can create a culture of good will and keep it about fun! Everyone I meet at the Classic made for good role models. I was kinda thinking I would try to get this "Iowa gang" to travel together in the future and come to the classic.
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If not you, then who?
If not now, then when?
I really like the attitude of "each one teach one" and how you are starting out creating a culture of good will. I really think you are the right person in the right place at the right time. Won't be long until Isaac is helping teach, I bet!
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Good for you !
Thats the spirit !
Just go for it !
Have fun !
Guy
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Maybe all of theses people will come to the iowa jam and will bring a friend. I am shooting for 40 people this next time around. That will be double.
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Ok here are the picture from today. We worked on four bow to floor tiller. I am tired!
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23171238.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23123922.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23123854.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23103719.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23103711.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23085719.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23173313.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23171234.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23171151.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23190725.jpg)
(http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/iowabow2/2012-05-23190456.jpg)
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Looks like a great time!
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Excellant, John! 8)
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Pat B I was thinking of you and the crew at twin oaks today. What a lot of hard work it is to help new bow builders.
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Looks good,it is a lot of work but after a year or so the ones you taught will help out and lighten your load.As it gets bigger you have to have that,hard to handle over 4 or 5 at a time per. teacher/mentor. :)We sure couldn't do it with out all our friends pitching in. :) You got a good start,I have found only about 1 in 5 keep the intrest and build more than one bow,so it is a slow process , you just have to keep doing it and you will finely get a good group. :) :) Good luck ,very worthy cause. Pass it on. :)
Pappy
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Looks good,it is a lot of work but after a year or so the ones you taught will help out and lighten your load.As it gets bigger you have to have that,hard to handle over 4 or 5 at a time per. teacher/mentor. :)We sure couldn't do it with out all our friends pitching in. :) You got a good start,I have found only about 1 in 5 keep the intrest and build more than one bow,so it is a slow process , you just have to keep doing it and you will finely get a good group. :) :) Good luck ,very worthy cause. Pass it on. :)
Pappy
I would have been over my head if beadman did not come and help. Ed is a very good hearted guy that worked all day keeping them on point. We divided the work so he was drawing lines and I was running the bandsaw. We both ran from one person to the other trying to prevent them from going through a ring. Toward the end we jump on the staves and doubled teamed a stave and chased a ring in about 15 mins. That was the fastest I ever saw it done. Jeff, Shannon and and a couple others at twin oaks once ran a ring so fast and at the time I thought it was impossible to ever do it so quick but with practice it is cake now. These boys were go getters and I was very proud of them at the end of the day. Part way through the day we had them teaching each other how to do different parts of the process. It was a different but equally rewarding part of primitive archery to be passing on what others have given me. Pat, Pappy, Jeff and Shannon, through me you made 4 people very happy yesterday.
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Good set of pics! Very rewarding endeavor and I commend your charitable spirit. Giving your time in so many ways is hard to do as a husband and dad. Those of us who know, understand. ;)
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Yep they were an easy group to give direction to.Did'nt shirk any task in front of them with enough handiness of hand tools.Even a 4 and a 1/2 foot rat or bull snake came slithering by to join the fun.All the young bucks wanted blood,the older bucks seen enough blood.The snake ended up making his way back to the woods with his skin.LOL.John spoke up and said my land my snake,he lives on.Sure was a beauty though.We added a liitle coals to the fire of building a bow by having them shoot a few finished bows and that was enough.The imagination and ideas started appearing in their brain about shooting and hunting a self bow.Graicious of John for the wood.I see the Primitive Archer magazine did about the same thing with Marc St. Louis showing some people bow making in a barn with some elm wood.The beat goes on.LOL.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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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.
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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.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/osage%20cutting/osagelog4.jpg)
George is as tough as a hickory knot and was well over 60 when he did all the osage cutting.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/osage%20cutting/osagelog9.jpg)
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.