WHEN CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A BOWYER

[mullet]

 I think you can call yourself a Bowyer anytime you want. Everybody else will tell you if you are a "Good Bowyer" or not.

[Mechslasher]

if i remember right, this was discussed about two or three years ago on here.  i think the consensus then was to be called a bowyer, you have to have made 100 solid, shootable bows.  i think if you have the skill to choose a draw weight for a stave and hit that weight with the bow, just about everytime, you're a bowyer.  i remember reading to hearing a quote from an old indian to the effect that, "anyone can make a bow, but to make a good arrow is a heap-a-lot of work."

[George Tsoukalas]

I think it's like being a saint. You can't campaign for the job. It's what do your peers  say. Badger, as far as I am concerned you are a bowyer. Jawge

[Josh]

well, Merriam-Webster defines all of us as bowyers...

Main Entry: bow·yer
Pronunciation: \ˈbō-yər\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English bowyere
Date: 14th century
: a maker of shooting bows


I think terminology is over-rated.  call yourself what you want, I just enjoy making and shooting wooden bows... there's nothing else like it    -josh

[DanaM]

Q: What came first the chicken or the egg?

A: Who cares, they both taste good

Me I'm a yooper turd herder that makes a few bows

[Blacktail]

this is what i wanted to hear...and that is every ones opinion...i was just curios about what you thought about the title bowyer...for me i just like the craft of taking a stick and making it into a functional weapon...and i have learned that i like to challenge my brain in this way...plus i love the earth smell of vm...john

[Rod]

Who is Marion Webster and what does she know about it? 
You can call yourself anything you want, it won't make it so.

Rod.

[Josh]

...how true  -josh 

[aznboi3644]

i just call myself a beginning bowyer venturing into the uncharted world of bent sticks

[Badger]

      Some famous guy?? Once said, if he has made 3 bows listen to what he says cause he knows something you don't.

Just for the heck of it lets make a list of all the areas a bowyer might be proficient in, things related to bowyering.
 
Collecting Wood 
 
1. Recognising most at least 90% of potential bow tree species.

2. Being able to judge the bow making worthiness of a tree before cutting

3. Ability to harvest and split such tree minimizing waist

4. Ability to dry and store harvested wood without ruining it.

Preparing Staves. 

1. Ability to use micro splitting tecniques following radial grain as well as growth rings

2. Successfully chasing a clean ring on the back

3. Bow layout on a particular stave

4. Judging possible designs

5. Use of cawls for Straightening and maintaing staves through the drying process

Preparing Staves ( power tools )

1. Proficient with bandsaws, sanders, etc.

Bow making.

1. Proficient at how many designs?

2. Ability to hit weight

3. Level of performance and shootability with various designs

4. Skill in bending wood as in recurves or r/d designs ( use of heat, steam, jigs, etc.)

5. Speed and accuracy while working, use of bow making tools, benches, tiller trees etc.

6. Knowledge of finishes and handle wrapping, cutting nocks etc.

7. Setting up a bow to be shot

8. Understanding wood behavior durring the tillering process

9. Knowledge of wood and design and how they relate to each other.

10. Tillering and how it relates to various designs.

Please feel free to add more! I usually buy my staves and have the greatest respect for those that are able to supply me.

I believe if a proffessinal bowyer made only one kind of bow from one kind of wood and did a good job of it he could rightfully call himself a bowyer. Everyhting else is icing on the cake kind of like degees in martial arts.

Steve



 

[Josh]

good list Steve, I can't think of anything to add besides running in to a potentially fatal problem for a potential bow and having the knowledge and foresight to fix it before the bow blows up and salvaging it and making a working bow out of it.  I think in order to be a good bowyer you have to be able to differentiate between something worth saving and knowing when to call it quits and start another.  just my 2 cents.  -josh

[canidsong]

      Some famous guy?? Once said, if he has made 3 bows listen to what he says cause he knows something you don't.

Just for the heck of it lets make a list of all the areas a bowyer might be proficient in, things related to bowyering.
 
Collecting Wood 
 
1. Recognising most at least 90% of potential bow tree species.

2. Being able to judge the bow making worthiness of a tree before cutting

3. Ability to harvest and split such tree minimizing waist

4. Ability to dry and store harvested wood without ruining it.

Preparing Staves. 

1. Ability to use micro splitting tecniques following radial grain as well as growth rings

2. Successfully chasing a clean ring on the back

3. Bow layout on a particular stave

4. Judging possible designs

5. Use of cawls for Straightening and maintaing staves through the drying process

Preparing Staves ( power tools )

1. Proficient with bandsaws, sanders, etc.

Bow making.

1. Proficient at how many designs?

2. Ability to hit weight

3. Level of performance and shootability with various designs

4. Skill in bending wood as in recurves or r/d designs ( use of heat, steam, jigs, etc.)

5. Speed and accuracy while working, use of bow making tools, benches, tiller trees etc.

6. Knowledge of finishes and handle wrapping, cutting nocks etc.

7. Setting up a bow to be shot

8. Understanding wood behavior durring the tillering process

9. Knowledge of wood and design and how they relate to each other.

10. Tillering and how it relates to various designs.

Please feel free to add more! I usually buy my staves and have the greatest respect for those that are able to supply me.

I believe if a proffessinal bowyer made only one kind of bow from one kind of wood and did a good job of it he could rightfully call himself a bowyer. Everyhting else is icing on the cake kind of like degees in martial arts.

Steve



 

Let us not forget:

Attitudes and Obsessions:

1. Judges prospective new residences by the shooting opportunities the yard might offer

2. Considers buying bamboo laminate flooring even though he/she does not need a new floor.

3. Makes or feels compelled to make bows form materials everybody swears will never work.

4. Sees the world in a trunk of tree, and heaven in a stand of cane.

[Del the cat]

Hey Badger, nice list, but I saw the word 'speed' in there...
Can you explain that word to me please ?
Del

[rossfactor]

A bowyer makes instruments, and and instrument is not only functional but also a work of art.  The people I consider bowyers may set out to makes something functional, but if it is truly functional instrument of wood, and of the energy they put into it, than the bow will invariably also be beautiful in the end. 

So, I think the: efficiency of the bow, the ethics  and care with which it was harvested and formed, and the beauty of the instrument all speak to the quality of the bowyer.  And I'd like to think, that you can tell when you hold a bow, or sometimes just see it, that these qualities are present.  Bows are alive, and so Bowyers are in a way more like parents than like manufacturers. What makes a good parent?   

Gabe

[Badger]

Del, I know individuals who can lay tile at home for instance and do a great job, but it might take them 5 times as long as a pro tile setter, the results might be the same. Same way with a bowyer, an experienced bowyer may take 4 hours to do what takes a less experienced bowyer 20 hours. results may be the same. Steve