Bow building classes

[Pat B]

I've been helping under the bow building shed at Twin Oaks for years. Most of the women I've helped were really into the building part. Some needed instructions with the tools and techniques but once they were  shown how they got into it and succeeded. Generally if someone pays for classes they get into it. I've only had a few "slugs" and they were always teenage boys.

[Badger]

I've been helping under the bow building shed at Twin Oaks for years. Most of the women I've helped were really into the building part. Some needed instructions with the tools and techniques but once they were  shown how they got into it and succeeded. Generally if someone pays for classes they get into it. I've only had a few "slugs" and they were always teenage boys.

  You probably charmed them Pat and they wanted to impress the teacher

[bassman211]

Wood bow builders seem to be an elite group who have the passion to stick with it.  I have 2 friends I shoot indoor with that think they want to learn how to make self bows. I have invited them to my house to use my tools, and staves, but they can never seem to find the time, and both are retired, so in my view they really don't have the passion to learn. I learned hard knocks. No one in my area to show me the proper way. In the first year of building bow I broke more than not, and the one's I did make were way sub par. This sight helped me along a lot plus utube, and reading books,and learning from my mistakes.

[Eric Garza]

    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?

To Steve's original post, I would definitely not open a class to the under-16 crowd. I see no reason why anyone should exclude women though. I have mentored a dozen people through the process of making their first bows, and most of those people have been women. They generally take longer than a man because of not being quite as strong and because they are generally not as comfortable with tools, but if you allow for that they can get the job done. In the last 5 years I have definitely seen an uptick in the number of women who want to learn bow making and hunting. That's not a bad thing, in my opinion.

[bjrogg]

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.

Glad you two got along Eric. I wonder if she thought the same thing when the door opened and some old fella with a funny look on his face was standing there.

One thing you can say for sure. Us bowyers are a very diverse group.

I agree with everyone else.

It takes that passion to really get where you need to be.

And the right amount of determination to stick with it

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

No funny looking face or sour expression, I greet everyone with a warm and friendly smile, I am a never met never met a stranger kind of guy. She was an electrician and worked with another electrician longtime friend of mine, the best traditional hunter I have ever known who thinks I am an OK guy so she already had heard everything about me and my abilities, just not met me.

My guy friend's hunting abilities, all with a traditional bow, are beyond amazing, he killed 4 longbeards with his bow in one year, consistently kills a number of deer a year and can kill more hogs on the local Mgt area than all the gun hunters.

Why did you feel it was necessary to make such a comment bjrogg?

[organic_archer]

I’ve got nothing but great things to say about the women who’ve attended our bow building workshops.
Some of our most proficient, eager to learn and hardworking attendants have been women.

A pre interview goes a long way. Make sure people understand how labor intensive bowmaking is. I’d say one of the number one comments we get after roughing out bow blanks on the first day is “wow, I knew it would be work, but I had no idea it was that much work”. We don’t allow anyone under the age of 15 for this reason, and anyone under 19 needs adult supervision in Nebraska.

I’d say most of the guys who are running classes for free are finding their issues in that factor alone. Free bows have no value, nor are free instructors typically valued by the masses. There’s nothing at stake for a dilly-dallier to walk away from something that wasn’t paid for, and that’s soon discovered to be difficult.

You should be charging at least a few hundred dollars a person for your time, wear on tools, and materials. That’s being very generous, and wouldn’t even cover the overhead of our 3-day classes (we do go a bit crazy with the meals, let everyone use quality/expensive hand tools, etc).

I bet the majority of everyone’s aforementioned problems would’ve stopped at “free”. There’s no shame in asking what you feel is appropriate for decades of study and expertise, multiple days of instructing, your workspace, tools, countless hours of stave splitting, careful storage/preparation of the bow wood, meals (if you feed everyone), a fun and immersive experience... on, and on… and a nice shooting bow at the end of it all.

Edited for grammar errors.

[Eric Krewson]

You are right about "free". Back when I was completely smitten by archery and ran an indoor range in my spare time for the city, I realized that John Q Public had limited to no knowledge about matching arrows to bows or tuning. I loved helping people so I set up a table in the range on Tuesday night to tune bows, compounds and traditional, help match arrows (I had bucket full of various sizes) serve in peeps and set knocking points. I did this all for free, soon the line of people wanting bow work stretched out the door night after night, I was overwhelmed.

I decided to charge $2 for basic bow work, I never had to work on another bow after I listed a price list for work, the line of people evaporated.   

[bjrogg]

Eric I’m sorry if I was misunderstood. I certainly meant it as a compliment to both of you.

I think it’s fantastic that we can share our passion with such a wide variety of people.

I didn’t mean that your were making a nasty face.

I was thinking more surprised. Like I imagined in your description when you opened the door.

Sometimes opening doors can bring some new friends

Certainly hope we are good.

I have a lot of respect for you

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

We are good, thanks for the explanation, sometime typed messages don't come out as planned, I am guilty of the same sometimes.

[bradsmith2010]

I re read the original post,, I think just try it, and if not working out,,just say your not going to be able to continue at this time,, and if things change for you you will let them know, and thank  them  for their participation,,  if you want to continure with some of the students,, contact them at a later time,, 

[Eric Garza]

You are right about "free"... I decided to charge $2 for basic bow work, I never had to work on another bow after I listed a price list for work, the line of people evaporated.   

I am still struggling with this lesson. But ultimately yes. If I do not value my own time, no one else has an incentive to do that either. I have never charged money for any of my in-person mentoring before, either regarding bow making or hunting. I decided that will change from here on. I Zoomed with a woman last week who wants to make her first bow. I made it clear I expected monetary compensation, though if she can get me access to trees I can cut for staves I would accept that as partial payment depending on how many staves I end up with.

[Selfbowman]

Sounds like a way to meet like minded women Steve!!! 🤠🤠🤠🤠women are easier to teach. Arvin

[Badger]

Sounds like a way to meet like minded women Steve!!! 🤠🤠🤠🤠women are easier to teach. Arvin

  I have a few stories of teaching women in the past, one of them kept asking me to sit behind her on my shaving horse and guide her hands with the draw knife like I did the first time. I noticed this time she had put on perfume LOL.

[George Tsoukalas]

I have no desire to turn a hobby into  paying gig.
I did that with magic. I turned pro. and got burned out.
I don't want that to happen to archery.
Jawge