Who was your inspiration?

[Zuma]

Who are and  were your teachers, mentors?
Why are you here on PA?
It occurred to me today as I joyfully knapped  another point on my deck and
contemplated my collection, that I was blessed.
In my awakening I mused about having more than one meaningful relationship with others that led the way for me.
Not just collecting, researching, knapping or other ancient skills
Well, then my mind wandered to the beginning.
Who, how , when and where did I get hooked?
One day my fishing buddie's brother was there as we pulled into the dock. He asked,
 " Have you ever found any of these?"
In his hand, he had a awesome group of local (arrow and spear points).
Please acknowledge the relationship of folks that guided you.
Real names are not to important, but if you know they don't mind, please give them Kudos.
It's about those that have inspired us. No matter if they are still here with us or not.
If you have a story or a photo of a mentor-- please post it.
This thread is about them.
Thanks, Zuma

[Pat B]

I'd have to say that Jay Massey was my mentor. I never met Jay but I have two of his books he signed to me. That got me started in wood bow building.
 I came on PA as soon as I got a computer. Many years ago I was reading a Traditional Bowhunter Magazine and saw an ad for a new magazine called Primitive Archer and immediately sent in a check for a subscription. Seems like that was about 6 months before the first issue of PA came out. Before I got my first computer I checked out PA on my work computer and when I finally got a computer I signed up on PA as a member and have been on ever since.

[Bryce]

hands down these fellas right here. Saxton pope and Arthur young. i read "hunting with the bow and arrow" when i was in middle school and was enthralled by the stories. later i read it again in my late teens. and here we are today. i think alot of ppl have these men to thank for modern archer as we know it today.







 

[bowtarist]

My step-brother, Eric Luse, got me into archery when I was in about 3rd grade. I thank him the most. He passes away in 2003 and I had a resurgence in the interest and went primitive at that point. Got a subcrip. to PA in 2008 and started knapping after getting on the forum in 2011, I think.  Art Young and Saxon Pope are extreme heros, but I thank Eric the most for sparking the interest at a young age.  There have been several on this site that I have mused from, but I don't want to swell anyones head so I'll leave the names out. 

Positively, dpgratz 

[lostarrow]

  My Uncles. Lee and Jim in particular. They taught me most of what I know about tracking ,hunting , fishing , field dressing. etc, etc. I ran the bush  for moose and deer with Jim from a very young age (great experiences, and some interesting stories) Lee was always the one to be a little more traditional. We'd  be walking through the bush and he'd be foraging as we went, eating any number of things from trees and shrub, collecting leaves for tea . He made his first muzzle loader from the steering column from a model "T" .

 As for the Archery? I think I got the bug when my brothers friend came over with a bow like object that he fashioned from a sapling. I was 3 or four at the time. Fascinated ever since.

 While we are talking about it,  I would be remiss if I didn't mention the mountains of inspiration gleaned from the members of this site.  Thanks everyone! Newbie or "Old Hand", the  bows posted here are all a source of info .

[Zuma]

Thanks for the great contributions. I have enjoyed reading them and
checking out the clothing vintages. I need to find my pics.
Please post more if your memory is jogged.
I somehow remember having a bow with suction cup points. A present for a birthday I think.
Later on it was an inexpensive fiberglass bow shot in the back yard.
Our neighbor Frank Montgomery introduced me to the 1956 NJ state archery champ. Ed Chevernak..
They worked together. Ed had hunted with Howard Hill. I bought a Bear Grizzly and a dozen 4 fletch arrows made by Ed. We shot targets with the Musconetcong Bowman and I hunted with Frank until I joined the USAF at seventeen.
Great memories.
Zuma

[bowtarist]

In fifth grade I got my first pellet gun. I went crazy on chipmunks in the woods north of my house. This is how I learned to skin. Once again taught to me by Eric Luse. I still have many of the skins. Several years later when I started trapping, Ed, the guy I sold hides to started buying whole animals and told me he skinned them himself cuz most folks cut holes in them. I started skinning for him for trade items, arrows, traps etc. and this went on through my high school years. I was using training wheels at this time though.   

[Dalton Knapper]

My real teachers and mentors were my parents who took me, my sister and my two brothers to scores of historic and prehistoric sites in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma (and beyond) during my childhood. We probably stopped the station wagon at every historical marker we ever saw. That sparked my interest in all things dealing with American Indians and the Old West.

Fast forward to college where I took an archeological methods & techniques class and learned about flint knapping for the first time. I suppose beyond that my first real introduction to knapping was Waldorf's book on the subject. The first good knapper I ever met was Bob Thomas of Arkansas. His knapping was (and still is) inspiring, but I wouldn't really call him a teacher. He did teach me a few things however, mostly to try and get good! After that I knapped with a particular buddy for years, honing my skills. I haven't met many knappers in person and I haven't been but to two knap ins, but there are way too many inspiring knappers who are willing to tell everything they know to count. Good folks.

The first time I ever knapped was in 1980 and I used a flake I found and a nail padded with masking tape. I'm still knapping today and I probably have a hundred points laying around, sold only a few and gave away lots.

[Buckeye Guy]

The stories of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett most likely started my journeys
I took to the woods and streams soon as I could walk ,spent more time outdoors than in ever since I could walk only came in to eat or watch those type shows in black and white back then!
A man named Bob Post would take me hunting trapping and fishing when he would go which seemed to be most days and nights ! 
A neighbor man named Murry Woods taught me to shoot muzzle loading guns , he was a cousin of Anny Oakley
Ray Stahl really got me launched forward into archery
He owned Stahls archery and roseoak bows we built many bows and put together a lot of arrows
That is just a few of the folks that inspired me  , and that all happened before I was even old enough to drive
It has been a good ride with many folks to numerous to mention along the way !
By the mid 80s I had kinda slumped out of archery do to all the gagetry and gimmics that were dominating the scene but one day I picked up a mag that had a add for a new Mag called Primitive Archery and was off and running again , the third issue of that Mag had a add about a new shoot called the Marshall Primitive Archery Rendezvous  !
That shoot brought me full circle restored me to what I had longed for and was missing I owe much gratitude to it and the folks there , it would be hard to separate me from it and I will work to keep it going for as long as I have breath Passing it on is what it is all about
Thank you to all who have helped pass on the traditions
You are considered my family
Guy

[paoliguy]

My mentor in most things was my Dad. He was a Chaplain in the National Guard and he spent a lot of time training in Grayling, MI. Being a Chaplain he worked with a lot of the locals through churches and events. He got to know a lot of the Bear Archery employees through this. When I was about 10 he took me to the Fred Bear Museum in Grayling. Oh wow, was I impressed! I signed up in the Fred Bear Sportsman's Club while there and few a weeks later on my birthday I had a brand new recurve in my hand.
He and I spent so much time together hunting and just shooting those recurves. I had no idea what all I was learning, I was just having fun. Now I have come full circle teaching my kids about all sorts of things. They both learned to shoot with that same recuve BTW. The last conversation I had with my Dad was about my son's (his only grandson) first ever deer season. My Dad passed away on the last day of deer season that year. I wish I could have spent more time in that conversation .....
My Dad was much more of a woodworker than an outdoorsman and through that the bow building bug set in on me. Many thanks go out to a number of folks on this site who helped and continue to help me in that journey!

[Zuma]

Awesome replies folks. Awesome

Dalton I got my first instruction from D C's book "The Art of Flint Knapping"
back in the mid eighties. At the Natches Mound Complex gift shop.
I was lucky enough to meet him a few years ago at Flint Ridge.
He is a real nice man. We talked more about Naval battles than rocks. lol
Zuma

[Zuma]

Daton F. Statts,
My first mentor in the world of archeology. One dedicated, patient man.
Dayton was avocational but the pros always called on him.
Dayton is on the left.
And the pros were always ready to give Dayton a hand.
Below is Herbert Kraft my first professional idol giving Dayton a
 hand with a burial find in NJ.
Zuma
shoo, finally got the photos correct

[Little John]

My Father for the first bows and support, my great grand father for just holding and looking at his hand made ELB, Quiver, and arrows from the early Howard Hill days, Boy scouting and our old local archery club, The old Fred Bear and Ben Pearson hunting videos, books by Howard Hill, Fred Bear, Glen St'Charles, Jay Massey, Fred Asbell, authors of the Traditional Bowyers Bibles and many more, Traditional Bowhunter Magazine, Primitive Archer Magazine, and many members of this forum. The road goes on forever and the party never ends.

[Zuma]

Nice post Little John. Poetic
Scott Silsby is inspirational as a knapper, hardstone master and Naturalist.
Even though he thinks the Fort Ancient giants were a possibility.
Hope we remain friends after this post. lol
Zuma

[JEB]

I will  have to say, two that I knew and one that I didn't.

My mother and father got me started in archery.  I have been shooting a bow for 60 years.

 My mother was disabled and had to use crutches from age 11 years until she died in my arms at 61 as I tried to save her.  Mom had won several state archery championships during her archery career, walking every course using her crutches, all while raising 6 kids in a two bedroom home.

Dad's credentials are too long to list on here.  He was nominated for a local sports Hall of Fame and we had to come up with hard facts to support the nomination.  Dad won or placed in 300 archery tournaments, shot for Root Archery and shot for Bear Archery for 3 years and was on Bear's advisory staff for 3 years.  Dad won the mid-west national championships in 57 and 58 that was held in Chicago.

Mom and dad owned and archery shop back in the 60's called Bear Archery shop.  He closed the doors in 1968 while I was overseas in the Marines.

No-one knew how many deer dad had killed with his recurve.   I have 109 arrows that he killed deer with but that wouldn't be the  accurate count as he didn't find all of his arrows and he never used the same arrow twice to kill with. He did kill two fox and 3 bear.

The third inspiration is unknown to me.  He was the maker of the first flint point I found while roaming the desert.  That got me started in flint knapping and self bow making.

Dad and mom could have written a book about their lives and adventures.