When do you start calling yourself a bowyer?

[Pretzelcoatl]

Iv'e always heard people calling themselves that but it wasn't until now that i was wondering.
At what point of your bow making career do you stop being a regular person, and become one
who has mastered this ancient art.

[HickoryBill]

A bowyer is someone how is still learning the ways of bending wood..One never masters this..the wood is always the master. ;)I've built a lot of bows and have yet to call myself a bowyer..although I suppose I am

[missilemaster]

I dont believe You can truly be a master of anything. The word master implies that you know all there is to know about a given subject and to the best of my knowledge, there has never been anyone who knew everything about something, except of course, for God. I would say there are two catagories of bowyers, beginners and experienced beginners. 

[JW_Halverson]

I kinda think if it in the old European Guild system.  At first you are apprenticed and all your work is under someone else's watchful eye.  Then you do a few on your own but still ask others for their help until you start turning them out pretty easily,  journeyman in the craft.  But then comes the day you do a bow start to finish without assistance or having to ask questions.  You look at the bow when you are done and you feel some honest degree of satisfaction.  At that point you are a Bowyer, you can look at different bow designs and you can figure out how to reproduce them.  As a Master you still make plenty of mistakes, but by now you have a whole library of ideas of how to fix those problems before it ruins the bow. 

[gstoneberg]

Y'all are makin too much of this.  I agree with Webster:

bow·yer   [boh-yer]
noun
a maker or seller of archers' bows.

Once you've made a bow, by definition you are a bowyer.  Doesn't make you a master, but it does make you a bowyer.

George

[Gordon]

I agree with George. Once you can fashion a bow from beginning to end you are, by definition, a bowyer.

[randman]

I agree with JW. I was taught a long time ago by a Journeyman sign painter (and it applies to this I believe) that the difference between an apprentice and a journeyman (or an amateur and a professional) is the journeyman knows how to fix his f%&*-ups.

[mikekeswick]

I kinda think if it in the old European Guild system.  At first you are apprenticed and all your work is under someone else's watchful eye.  Then you do a few on your own but still ask others for their help until you start turning them out pretty easily,  journeyman in the craft.  But then comes the day you do a bow start to finish without assistance or having to ask questions.  You look at the bow when you are done and you feel some honest degree of satisfaction.  At that point you are a Bowyer, you can look at different bow designs and you can figure out how to reproduce them.  As a Master you still make plenty of mistakes, but by now you have a whole library of ideas of how to fix those problems before it ruins the bow.

Agreed.
To make a bow all you have to do is cut a branch off a tree and tie a string to both ends then move your hand up and down until you have a balanced asymmetrical bow. No real skill in that. I've taught a 6 year old - so by definition is he a bowyer....? Maybe but....can he make any bow?

[bubby]

I don't really like labels, but i figure your a bowyer when somebody calls you one, Bub

[Buckeye Guy]

All I know is I have been building bows for over 40 years and I ain't one !!
So some one please let me know the right answer !!
Guy

[PEARL DRUMS]

Im pretty sure we ALL know the obvious answer to this question. We have plenty of grading scales to use if thats your flavor.

[straightarrow]

I agree with George..... after you make your first successful bow. A good bowyer learns how to fix his mistakes....a master doesn't make any mistakes to fix. Every bow I've made has some sort of issue that was due to my error. Successful, but not flawless

Jon

[Bryce]

When an arrow passes through a bow you made with your own 2 hands. Then your a bowyers. Don't matter the skill level. Bad tiller? Doesn't matter. If its wood/horn and it bends and shoots a stick with some feathers on it. It's a bow   

[jtbluefeather]

My dad told me I was getting to be a pretty good bowyer the other day. I told him that I didn't feel like a bowyer yet, and he said that anyone who can take sticks and strings and make a functional weapon from it is a bowyer.  I even asked him about kids making branch bows, and he said " not toys. Real, functional, beautiful weapons." he also reminded me that compared to the other 99% of the people on the planet, bowyers make bows.

[Pat B]

I began calling myself a bowyer after I became confident in my bows. That was right about the time I also learned making bows was not a race to see how fast I could get one built.  At that point I'd been building bows fro probably almost 20 years. I've seen folks here on PA that were bowyers with their first attempt.