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building wood bows for a living

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Kidder:
I’d be interested to know the man hours that most, including those who make them for a living and those who don’t, have into a bow. I’m a hobbyist and I would say I put in between 20-40 hours per bow. Probably closer to 40 on most of them. But I also spend a lot of time staring at them waiting for them to come to life and inspire my imagination.

Hamish:
I know some guys that can rough out and tiller a good bow in one day(I can't, or at least it wouldn't be a good bow). They don't normally sand it, and finish it until later. All that sort of stuff, plus putting on a nice grip, arrow pass, flemish string etc can take up a lot of time too. Straightening, heat treating and recurving can add a lot of time to making a good bow.
I'm more of a 40hr guy. I prefer not to rush it. I like to leave a bow for a while, and come back to it with fresh eyes. I believe it makes a better quality bow, less mistakes, but its probably too slow for a business.

Del the cat:
It's very easy to suck the joy out of a hobby by trying to turn it into a business.
I sell the occasional bow, which pays for tools and the like.
But even then it's for people who will come to visit, or make contact from recommendations.
I just make what interests me... it would be no fun churning out endless 40# ELBs. Not to mention dealing with breakages, shipping, accounting taxes etc.
Be careful what you wish for.
Del

stuckinthemud:
A few years ago I was made redundant and looked carefully at wood working for a living.  It’s a complex undertaking but many spend only one third of their time actually making stuff. Things like admin, meetings, travel, social media, phone calls, maintenance of tools, premises and vehicles, all soak up a huge amount of time.  A 40 hour bow might take 100 hours.  Will you be able to make and sell 3 bows a month at enough to pay you a living?

Eric Krewson:
I agree with Dell; I loved carving duck decoys, I took art classes to learn how to give them a realistic paint job, after a few years my ducks looked like they could get up and fly away.

At first it was gratifying that someone would want to buy my work, I sold them too cheap but I was in it for the craft, not the money.

Word spread; orders piled in from coast to coast, I was carving ducks after my regular job, on weekends and even had to spend my vacation time carving ducks.

My fun hobby had become drudgery, I grew to hate it. In 86 I thought "that's it" and put down my tools, canceled my huge backlog of orders and never carved another duck.

I keep these shop-worn examples of my unfinished work on a shelf in my shop to remind me to never turn a hobby into a business again.



When I started making bows, I made 40 bows before I thought I was good enough to sell one.  I made them when I wanted to, if someone ordered one, I told them it would be 6 months even if I could make the bow in a couple of weeks because I didn't want any deadlines to meet.

I had a good following of people wanting my bows, I turned down a dozen orders a month when I was at my peak, I made bows one at a time and didn't want any backlog orders.

I didn't make any serious money, I just liked making bows. The down side was replacing broken bows no questions asked, I even replaced bows that didn't belong to the original owner.

I gave away far more bows than I sold and quit selling them about 10 years ago, I only do charity donations now.

When I started building flintlock rifles, I remembered my lessons learned and decided to never sell one, or custom make one for someone. Life is simpler that way.

 

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