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Bow building classes

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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:

--- Quote from: Pat B on October 27, 2022, 11:30:29 am ---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.

--- End quote ---
  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:

--- Quote from: Badger on October 26, 2022, 10:10:30 am ---    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?

--- End quote ---

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:

--- Quote from: Eric Krewson on October 27, 2022, 09:12:09 am ---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.

--- End quote ---


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

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