Bowyers near Grays Harbor WA?

[huisme]

I'm working on making this my full-time business, going to any club or shop that'll look at my 'average' bow, and I realized I feel kinda alone as a bowyer out here.

Where do you get your staves? I have black locust in my field, a bit of pear, lots of apples, some holly, and my favorite white wood vine maple. After that runs out, though, I'm not sure what to do besides buy trees from the local farmers. There's a bit of a reputation for black locust to fall down in deep freezes, so I imagine I could talk them out of that and some vine maple.

[vinemaplebows]

I am on the middle satsop rd.

VMB

[huisme]

I am on the middle satsop rd.

VMB

Whoa. Hi neighbor 

I could have guessed you were in western Washington. The vine maple is awesome.

[vinemaplebows]

How long have you been building? There are more bowyers here than you think...some just don't care for the net.

[ionicmuffin]

I live in washington, more specifically in port orchard. I would love to get together this summer but at the moment I'm away at college.

[huntinoly]

I am in Olympia.

[huisme]

I've been building for almost a year, but I stopped bothering to count at thirty (I'm guessing forty-ish now?) bows and they're coming out very consistently due to my being able to build all of most days. Most of my time goes to making logs into staves, but I get time to knock out a vine maple and a black locust every once in a while. I just need to stockpile before I set up appointments.

I've only met other bowyers through the net. One guy built a board bow (maybe two?) but stopped once the weather cleared up so he could shoot a bow he bought ( a nice primitive bow, but kinda wish he'd kept building  )

I got the chance to start when I had to leave college due to thinking I was going to move to Nevada, but here I am still in the wood surrounded by my beloved trees 

I'm surprised. With all the hype over Osage and the need for low humidity I thought I was the only Washingtonian nutty enough to do this

[vinemaplebows]

Before you go jump in the lake, you better know how to swim. I was where you were several yrs ago, and although making bows is a lot of fun.....you better look at ALL the aspects of being a bowyer. It may seem as easy as getting material and making bows for people, BUT I can tell you from experience there is SOOOOO much more. I wish you luck on your adventure, and if you want to ever get together PM me, I may be able to give you some advice, I learned the hard way!

VMB

[huisme]

You mean stuff like marketing, accounting, etc? That's kinda what I went to college for, though at the time I didn't know I'd be making bows.

My big worry is that I'm underestimating demand. I can only knock out two from prepared staves a week before spending the weekend on finishing work. I suppose I could work faster with a band saw to cut out the profile instead of a machete, maybe reduce the belly to an inch, a belt sander with fine grain to clean up. Maybe get to three a week. But still, what if I get twelve orders from the start?

Of course, I could be overestimating. I could get six orders my first month and then run out of people to buy bows.

Yeah, I worry a bit  I've sold a few just as hobby work, but taking on demand from clubs is a little intimidating.

[Joec123able]

I've been makin bows for only three years I've thought about selling a few here an there but I still don't feel I make them good enough yet It will probably be years before I try selling one

[vinemaplebows]

I can tell from your response that you are NOT READY to take on a full time bowyer position. I sincerely suggest you think of what type of bows you want to offer......all stave/billet bows, or lumberized bows. You stated you are not sure where you are going to get your materials (staves) that would be my VERY FIRST concern if you want staved bows. People can order a Vine maple bow, and see a knarly cool looking bow they seen on the net, and expect what they seen......people are very picky, and can expect a unique piece you are unable to produce. I took custom orders at first.........but I will NEVER, EVER do it again....what a fricking pain!   What you picture a person describing can be a world of difference of what they have in their heads.....infact sometimes what they want is just plain UNREALISTIC! If you decide to sell make the bows they way YOU want, then let them pick from your stock.

Although not as glorified.....lumber is a much better choice in my mind when it comes to a bowyer business.....you have cosistentcy, availibility, wood is dry......most importantly you can make a consistent product, that can "look" the same , but vary in draw weight.

Don't forget the robertson pittman tax.....  http://www.ask.com/question/the-pittman-robertson-act-places-a-tax-on

VMB

[PEARL DRUMS]

Maybe try stock piling 6-8 bows and see how fast they go, or don't go. Don't get depressed if they don't sell. Build them for the love of it and not the money. And PLEASE be honest about what your selling, it has all our names on it.

[huisme]

I can tell from your response that you are NOT READY to take on a full time bowyer position. I sincerely suggest you think of what type of bows you want to offer......all stave/billet bows, or lumberized bows. You stated you are not sure where you are going to get your materials (staves) that would be my VERY FIRST concern if you want staved bows. People can order a Vine maple bow, and see a knarly cool looking bow they seen on the net, and expect what they seen......people are very picky, and can expect a unique piece you are unable to produce. I took custom orders at first.........but I will NEVER, EVER do it again....what a fricking pain!   What you picture a person describing can be a world of difference of what they have in their heads.....infact sometimes what they want is just plain UNREALISTIC! If you decide to sell make the bows they way YOU want, then let them pick from your stock.

Although not as glorified.....lumber is a much better choice in my mind when it comes to a bowyer business.....you have cosistentcy, availibility, wood is dry......most importantly you can make a consistent product, that can "look" the same , but vary in draw weight.

Don't forget the robertson pittman tax.....  http://www.ask.com/question/the-pittman-robertson-act-places-a-tax-on

VMB

I once had a guy ask for a seven foot, 125# mollegabet after seeing the bad-but-pretty ash thing I posted a while ago. I managed to get him to settle for a recurve I had to reduce to fifty pounds for him to control, but the guy swore I would have been better off getting the experience and giving him the bigger bow. I'm not even sure I could pull a bow like that off 

I'm actually not taking custom orders. I'll reduce weight on a bow, but I'm working on organizing my bows on my site for easy browsing and ordering online, while I'll just have four or so bows in the shops. I have about forty BL staves reduced and drying from a single tree, eight trees where that came from. Fifteen VM staves, obviously need a couple more hauls. I deny Grays Harbor's ability to exhaust my stockpile in one year; it's if I'm still getting orders after that that I'll have to start buying wood.

I used to do board bows and I'm going to pick it up again. I knocked my last board out in three hours and had the finish drying, and decided I was bored of boards. Maybe if I hadn't stuck to maple pyramids I'd still be interested? You are right though, being able to pull out a consistent bow is going to be very important. I'm going to have to buy some more rawhide and sinew.

I didn't know about that tax. Should have guessed

Maybe try stock piling 6-8 bows and see how fast they go, or don't go. Don't get depressed if they don't sell. Build them for the love of it and not the money. And PLEASE be honest about what your selling, it has all our names on it.

That's basically what I plan on doing with the help of the local shops before I go to the clubs. I put at least two hundred arrows through each bow to be sure it's safe and smooth-- should I do more? Maybe when I have a working camera I can rely on you guys to pick the bows from my stock?

And yeah, I half expect there to be maybe a dozen people interested and that's it

To be clear, I didn't think about making this a business until I had seven people asking for bows at once. I can't afford to do this for free and making that kind of money is illegal without a business license, so I've been looking into it as a business for several months-- but I'm still just getting ready, lots to learn besides consistent building, lots of mistakes to iron out, lots of time to get there.

Edit: And you know, I don't think I'll take it on before I can post enough bows of high quality to gain your guys' confidence. You all haven't steered me wrong thus far 

[burn em up chuck]

 id listen to pearl,it has merit, your on the right track for the supply side. keep building bows as a hobby

                                                                                           chuck

[dmenzies1950]

Do black locust trees grow in Western Washington? I live in west central Washington State and have built bows from yew, vine maple, cascara, ocean spray, nine bark, mountain maple, plum and apple, but all I've ever seen of black locust is pictures. I'd love to try BL. I've heard good things about it!

Dale