Your bows, where do they travel to?

[Eric Krewson]

Every now and then someone will contact me to find out about a bow I made that they have acquired, I keep a log book on the bows I made, when they read me the inscription on the bow I can tell them all about it.

It always amazes me when I find out where a bow has traveled to between owners.

The first one I found out about was one I sold to a guy in Connecticut, when the latest owner contacted me that he had found the same bow in an archery shop in Chattanooga.

A couple of days ago another guy contacted me about a bow I made that he traded for. When he read the inscription I could tell I made it in 2003, it was the 47th bow I made and I sold to a guy named Dennis Reed in MS, It was made from closely matched spliced billets. Unfortunately I heard years ago that Dennis had died. Some how Dennis's bow ended up in New Mexico and the guy who traded for it was in NY, he said the bow was still in great shape and a good shooter. 19 years and counting, not to bad.

What happened was I made Dennis a bow from a stave and somehow the bow broke in the handle, I always replaced broken bows no questions asked so I made him another bow, I did overbuild the second bow just to be on the safe side, Dennis had a 29" draw.

[bjrogg]

That’s pretty cool Eric.

I haven’t sold very many. Only four I can think of and I know where they are.

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

I gave away more than I sold but there are about 150 out there somewhere, I may have sold between 50 and 75. I never added them up but did pay for all my shop equipment by selling  bows.

I have never seen one for sale in an archery classified section, I am sure they have been but I missed them. It has been my experience that the people who have them hold on to them, several I know of developed fatal cracks after many years of use and over 150k arrows through them, the owners kept them as wall hangers.

[YosemiteBen]

I started a Yew bow with Keenan Howard, never finished it for fear of ruining a beautiful stave. I have a Mulberry stave, juniper stave and osage stave I have never started for fear of ruining them too. Oh, to live closer to a bow maker or at least over come my fear of ruining a stave.

[Eric Krewson]

I have run a number of bow students through my shop, fear of failure has stopped 9 out of ten of them in their tracks even with me looking over their shoulder. Failure is part of the process, I goof up things from time to time and I have been at it for 26 years. I have found that people who actually enjoy drawknifing, filing and scraping wood are few and far between, I love it, watching those golden curls come up is exhilarating to me.

Perhaps you should start with a $6 oak board bow from Lowe's, not much of a loss if you goof up plus you will learn a lot in the process.

Make yourself a tillering gizmo and things will go much easier for you when you try your first bow. 

[BowEd]

I've always mostly given mine to an archery business to sale.They do show up occasionally while going to bow shoots around.I can immediately recognize them.
I use minimal amount of power equipment compared to most established bow makers and my overhead has been paid for long ago.

[Hawkdancer]

Ben,
Pick a stave, and make an overbuilt design per Paul Comstock!  Post pictures as you progress, plenty of help on this site as you know!  Almost has to be somebody in your area making bows!  Good luck!
Hawkdancer