Bow building classes

[Badger]

    I recently moved out to a new area and it seemed like a really good area to start a bow-making group. I started a post on the local Facebook page that after the first of the year I was going to have a class for anyone interested. I got a great response, but it is about 75% of women who want to take the class. In the past, I have not had much luck teaching women or kids under about 16, they just quickly lose interest. Not really sure how to handle this tactfully?

[bentstick54]

Tough call. It seems there are more women getting involved in archery and hunting every year. How many interested in making selfbows and sticking with it is anybodies guess. How many will be willing to exert the work involved in the total process of gathering staves, debarking, chasing rings, etc., again is anybodies guess.
Maybe have an introductory meeting 1st, and go through the whole process, explain the amount of work involved, and  the time investment, then see how many are still seriously interested?

[GlisGlis]

I dig the idea of the introductory meeting.
It could be useful both for the participants to understand what they are going to face and for you to calibrate the lessons on the expectations of your audience.

[bambule]

I have worked a lot with women in teaching shooting the bow - it`s not the same as bow building but my experience is, that you have to change your teaching method. Women respond in another way to my words and "pictures" as men do. It`s a challenge when you have years of experience of teaching bow building and now you have to do it different - but it`s worth doing it! Women have such a different view on things  - I often can`t agree with them but it`s always interesting.
With kids I have the same experience in bow building like you - if the kids are too young, they lose interest very quick...

Greetz
Cord

[Badger]

I have worked a lot with women in teaching shooting the bow - it`s not the same as bow building but my experience is, that you have to change your teaching method. Women respond in another way to my words and "pictures" as men do. It`s a challenge when you have years of experience of teaching bow building and now you have to do it different - but it`s worth doing it! Women have such a different view on things  - I often can`t agree with them but it`s always interesting.
With kids I have the same experience in bow building like you - if the kids are too young, they lose interest very quick...

Greetz
Cord

     I have known dozens of women who started off to make bows, but very few showed up for a second session. I wasn't the teacher here, just talking about different groups. I only know of one woman who became a semi-serious bow builder, I don't remember her name, but she was either at twin oaks or mojam. I have had several incidences where a father brought his kid for lessons and the father ended up getting interested and finishing the bow. I like the idea of an introductory meeting, maybe I could show some bow-making videos along with some other primitive skills that women might be more inclined towards such as basket weaving, shelters, pottery, leather, arrow making, etc. My goal is to get a group going using twin oaks as the basic model. I wish I could figure out a way to get Pappy down here, I think he is the magic behind twin oaks.

[bentstick54]

I’ve only made it to Twin Oaks once in 2016 for the Classic. You’re right, Pappy is the magic there.
I recently acquired a new place to cut some Osage, and the lady of the house was very interested when I told her I wanted it for selfbows and not firewood. She had been watching some shows, I assume on something like the History channel, and then started doing a lot of reading on the subject. She walked me down to the wood lot and started asking me questions about which trees, what size, how to read the bark pattern, what are the best growth rings, etc. I was amazed at how interested she was. I don’t know much about her background, and if she would ever take it any farther than the knowledge stage, but you never know.

[bjrogg]

Badger I would really like to see updates on how everything evolves for you.

If I wasn’t so busy with my other passion of farming I would really like to try something similar.

I’m curious about the ladies though. My experience with doing demonstrations is that the women are the ones who are most interested and ask the best questions.

Bjrogg

[bradsmith2010]

I would say give it a chance,, you can always stop if its not working,,
 :)bow making is just harder than it looks,, and people do get discourged or loose interest when they come to that realization...my driving force when I first started was not just make a bow,, I wanted to make a bow that would hunt,, so that kept me going

[willie]

Do you know any women in the archery community you could invite to critique the class/students/teaching style?

[superdav95]

I agree with bjorg here.  I’ve done some teaching with many women in firearms training and they learn well and often times faster then the men.  I think this is partly due to the ego perhaps getting in the way for men and firearms and in this case bow building.    Women that I’ve taught are like sponges and they do ask lots of questions which would be good.  I know this isn’t an exact comparison to bow building but I think you may be pleasantly surprised.   I would teach them differently for sure like was already said.  Women like to be empowered and given lots of good encouragement on any progress.  I found men to be a little more independent when given a task.  Obviously some exceptions of course.  You may have to simplify the course a bit for them and by this I mean have the staves halfway prepared perhaps or lengthen the time allotted for the course.  You’ll want to provide some gloves for the ladies and be prepared to do more then usual demonstrations of how it’s done.  They are fast learners but many if not most will not have the background working knowledge of hand tools and such.  The nice thing about women is that they don’t commonly come preloaded with a chip on their shoulders either.  So many times I can remember a group of men and women coming through for some firearms training and often the men would be stuck in bad habits and too proud to admit to go back to basics to fix the issues.  Women on the other hand don’t usually come preloaded with these habits and often outshoot the men because of this.  This has been my observation with teaching firearms for several years.  Young kids under 16 is a different story these days.  Like you say if they come with a father or other adult then would be ok I think.  Best of luck. 

[bjrogg]

I know it’s not the same with everyone, but my experiences have been similar to what Dave said.

It’s always easier to teach someone who doesn’t already “know” everything.

I really haven’t done a bow class yet , but I’ve helped several people with different steps in the building of their bows.

I think the two hardest types to teach are the ones that already “know” everything. And the ones that just become paralyzed with fear of doing something wrong and just can’t seem to make themselves do anything.

I’m pretty sure both groups can be found in either gender and color. It’s just in the personality.

The quickest learners know they don’t know everything. Listen and ask good questions.

They have either enough confidence or just plain aren’t afraid to learn from their mistakes.

I think most of them probably handle most challenges in life using the same personal traits

Bjrogg

[BowEd]

I've had many on this yard that shoot bows intrigued about the self bow craft.Over 90% of the time when they inquire about owning one I tell them to come back when they have time and I'll help them make themselves one.9 out of 10 don't return.They would rather buy one.A shortcut.
Learning is to advance yourself.If they don't feel that way.Who am I to argue.Some have the desire to push themselves and some don't.
It's a craft of attraction not promotion.
The field is wide open of different styles once it's explored far enough.Some want to explore them all and some want to make the same type bow.
That's learning too.
I really don't care what the sex of the student is.

[Eric Krewson]

I have tried to host two bow-bees, I had about a dozen newbies at each one as well as 3 or 4 of us experienced guys, the newbies would watch us work all day long but wouldn't touch a thing. They all said they were afraid they would mess something up. The second bow-bee went the same as the first so I abandoned the idea. A good friend tried the same thing twice on his farm near Huntsville Alabama, he wanted to develop a meeting like MoJam, he had the same result as I did.

I have run over a dozen students through my shop, everything is free, I supply the wood, tools and an unlimited amount of my time but only had one student turn into a bow maker and a very good one at that. The rest would just couldn't pick up the process so I would finish their bow for them, half of them just stopped showing up.

It could be that I do it for free, had I charged several hundred dollars for the class perhaps they would have stuck with it to get their money's worth.

As for ladies, the manager at the local Dicks directs people to me who need traditional strings or their bow set up.

He sent me a gal that wanted to learn to shoot a recurve. When I answered the knock on the door there was a lady with multicolored hair, covered up with tattoos and piercings, I thought what have "I gotten myself into".

Was I ever wrong; that lady was one of the nicest, hardworking students I ever had at my place, she had no knowledge about traditional archery and was like a sponge absorbing all the info she could. She followed instructions to a T and picked-up bow shooting faster than anyone I had taught before.

On a side note; she said her work took her to some pretty rough places and she was thinking about getting a pistol but she had never shot one. I got out one of my 9s, again the perfect student.

[Badger]

   Erick, my experience has mirrored yours. I usually have had 3 or 4 so smaller groups. Most of the time we finish them up 1 bow and they are done.

[George Tsoukalas]

Same here. One and done. I've never charged anyone for my help so money was not the issue.

Having said that the best eye for a tiller has been my oldest daughter. I guess watching her help correct my tillers over the years has given her that gift.

I agree. Don't  discount women.

Jawge