WHEN CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A BOWYER

[half eye]

All of you fellas build bows because you love it. Being called by a certain name (bowyer) or not probably wont keep you from making the next one, or the next, etc. So I guess it shouldn't matter what you are called ....long as it aint late for dinner!

Don't get wrapped up in the name thing....you are all good people who have a common love (hate?) relationship with this whole bow thing I'm proud to be amoungst all of you whatever you call yourselves.
half eye

[HoBow]

Lots of people call themselves hunters or fishing, but they haven't or rarely kill or catch....it's about the pursuit.  Same with being a bowyer- it's about the pursuit of building a bow.

[Badger]

    I can accept Gordons definition. I like to reserve the word "Bowyer" out of respect for some of our long standing artists and craftsman still alive today who honed their craft over a period of years. Some of these guys have lots of little tid bits of knowledge even they don't realize they have. In some ways we do an apprenticeship here on this sight and sights like this. Information and tricks get passed down pretty quickly. I would call myself an "experimental bowyer" as I have not honed down all the fine finishing tecniques that make many of these bows what they are. I save the word "bowyer" by itself for those guys who do it all.

[Bowmonk]

Well, maybe this sounds crazy but to me the transition of making bows to becoming a bowyer would be when:

It' finally in your blood so deep you can't possibly shake off the urge to create a better one.

It's when the bow that you created is something that everyone wants, and yet you are still looking for some way to improve it.

It's an attitude... a confidence... a time when the light comes on upstairs and you can say... I feel good about teaching someone else what I have learned.

[Michael C.]

Well, maybe this sounds crazy but to me the transition of making bows to becoming a bowyer would be when it is finally in your blood so deep you can't possibly shake off the urge to create a better one.

That happens during the first one though doesn't it 

[Bowmonk]

But is it something that everyone wants?  lol

[Jesse]

I see your point El D. Gordons description best fits the way I think of it. But yeah to each his own. I think of most of you guys on here as bowyers but thats just how I got it in my head right or wrong. To be respected in the archery world you gotta make bows people respect your title isn't whats important. 

[medicinewheel]

... Gordons description best fits the way I think of it. But yeah to each his own.... 

Yes, sure!

[FVR]

What do I know, I just build shooting sticks.

I've always contemplated the term Bowyer.

Many layout their designs on paper then transfer them onto wood.  They make specific cuts, they look at thickness and limb length and truly make a beautiful bow.  Allan made me a static recurve that is just awsome.  It has matching limb widths and thickness.  The handle is cut out and a shelf is cut in and it is sanded and is a basic work or art.

Then you have guys like me.  I get a stave, take it down with no specific idea in mind.  I don't steam out limb twists but use them when they don't break....LOL.  I truly have no idea what the bow will look like when I start.  My horsebows start as unbacked longbows that I complete without a finish, shoot in, then cut down, recurve, and sinew then retiller as needed.

We all fall into our own diff styles that we like to build.  I truly make crappy board bows, but give me a stave and it's a diff. story.  Not that I can not make a board bow, been there done that, but they do not perform and I don't enjoy them like a stave bow.

As far as when you are considered a bowyer, well I guess that depends on the guy making the bow.  When the person building can sit down and talk bow building, not be an expert but knows enough that he, the builder is content with his ideas.  Now, there will be conflicting ideas as many who have been doing this for awhile know.  Many big time bowyers debate limb styles, thickness, recurve %, etc...

I've broken two of the last 4 bowys I've made.  I guess the old saying is true, if you are not breaking them, you're not making them.  I'm working
on a glued up lemonwood, purpleheart, and bamboo bow now that I traded for.  It is a blank, so I feel that I am cheating, but it is such a beautiful blank that I had to trade for it.  It will be turned into a 72" Cherokee D bow, with a little ELB flare.  Then it will be back to a piece of hickory that is calling.........Frankkkkkk........make me something.

[vtclimber]

I am nothing more than a purveyor of fine sawdust that happens to make bows, guitars, furniture, cabinets, etc.....

[Badger]

FVR, I seldom ever use a tape measure when building a bow. I do find the center and mark the ends but rarely lay a stave out.. I just carve them into shape. I love the tecnical discussion but my own personnal bows are rough to look at. The longer I build them the rougher they seem to get. By the same token I have a great appreciation for some of the nice finishing tecniques I see here. I reserve that for my favorite bows. Steve

[Justin Snyder]

You can call yourself a bowyer whenever you want. Getting other bowyers to call you one might be the true measure.

[FVR]

But then you really have to care if others call you a bowyer.

I am content with builder of shooting sticks.

[wodpow]

I wouldn't want to be a boyer I always thought a boyer was someone who made his living making bows for the kings army and that was all he did.  Me jack of all master of none If I had a nice shop would I make better bows yes. I work out in my backyard  so I must be a fair weather summer time backyard Boyer my bows shoot good I have a young guy shoot them for me  at a indoor range and tells me If  they shoot good and what there doing thats not right when he hits a playing card at 20 yards five out of five I quit adjusting  things.

[FVR]

Back in the late 90's I use to do many rendezvous, art shows, and pow wows.  Between the printing co., the frame co., and building bows/arrows and prim. googas for the shows........it burned me out.  I sold bows that now I wished I'd kept.  They ranged in prices from 200 t0 1,000 dollars and it was an okay living.  I can tell you, I was no Jimmy Taylor, he has it down pat.

Today, I will not sell a bow.  NO Way.  I will make a bow and would rather give it away than sell it.

I have the up-most respect for those bowyers that make and sell selfbows or any hand made bow to the public.  It's like you put your heart and soul into it, for what? 500 bucks? 

I sold that one bow for a gran, and I wished I had not.  I sold my soul with that sale and have not made another one since.  At the time the money was nice, but it's only money. 

I learned my lesson, I'm not a seller of bows that I make.

Live and learn.