PaleoPlanet Fund Raiser

For the past three or four years the PaleoPlanet forum has raised money to send a North American member to Bulgaria for a primitive skills gathering held there. The event is organized by Iliana, a PP member who lives in Bulgaria. It's a truly wonderful event held in a beautiful part of the world and everyone who has attended has really enjoyed themselves.
Fundraising this year didn't seem to be up to its usual excitement, probably due to the depressed economy so many of use are experiencing. There was a danger that insufficient funds would be available to purchase airfare.
Then Iliana had an idea. She got in touch with a couple people to see if they were interested in her idea. After receiving assurances of participation she put her idea out to the forum to see if there was sufficient commitment there to make it work.
Iliana wanted to offer a set of archery gear: bow, leather goods, and arrows. Tickets would be available for a fixed price and the winner would be drawn out of a hat.
The tickets went like the proverbial hotcakes and enough money was raised to put us over the top and achieve our goal.

The bow was made by Steve Gardner, one of the premier amateur wood bowyers in the U.S. today. Steve makes a number of designs but particularly enjoys making flight bows. These bows live on the ragged edge of absolute top performance and making them has given Steve a considerable education in making wood bows.
Iliana herself made the leather archery accessories. She made a bowcase, quiver, bracer, tab, string keeper, and accessory pouch; all of which have beautiful tooling and designs on them.
I put in some arrows that would be built to the winner's specifications to properly match the bow and archer combination. Of course, the art on the arrows would also be to the winner's wishes.

The drawing was held while a number of us were at the Chamberlin Ranch shoot in April so we didn't find out who it was until we got home. Salvador, a good friend and archery mentor was to be the lucky recepient of this armful of goodies.

At last Sunday's Pasadena gathering we finally got Salvador nailed down so Steve could give him the bow, I could give him the arrows, and we could get a picture of him with his winnings (Iliana had already sent the leather goods to him from Bulgaria).

Here are the arrows I made once Sal told me what he wanted.

The Bulgarian gathering is taking place as I write this. From all reports they're having a great time.


If you'd like to see what past gatherings were like this thread on PaleoPlanet has links to a number of pictures taken by various attendees. Be warned, once you see the pictures you'll want to go, too.

Happy archery!

Something Special, New Arrows for a Warrior

Allrighty...

Let's see if I can write this so it makes sense.

About three months ago Matt contacted me to make some red arrows for him. As we discussed the red arrows I learned that Matt's wife has been battling breast cancer for about the past eight years and was finally coming out on top of the battle.

It is obvious that Matt dearly loves Pamela and is very proud of her strength and determination. Matt mentioned that there isn't a "pink" event in their area that they don't attend to support other survivors and women going through their own battles with this horrible disease. When I learned that someone was making a pink bow for Pamela I decided to surprise her and Matt with a few pink arrows to go with that new pink bow.

Jump forward a couple months and Matt made a post on TradGang that showed, in part, the pink arrows that I and three other fletchers had given to Pamela. He also mentioned that while attending a 3D shoot in Vanderpool, TX they met Melanie, a woman who has been having her own battle with cancer for 20 years. After the shoot Pamela sent Melanie some of her pink arrows and they arrived just before another round of chemotherapy. It sounds like they cheered her up a bit.

I couldn't bear the thought of Melanie not having some special arrows of her own so I got in touch with Matt and got a bit of information. I'll put Melanie's new arrows in the mail tomorrow and she will have them in a few days. I hope she likes the way they turned out as much as I do.

Health and Good Archery, thanks for reading

Update - Melanie called me Monday to let me know she got the arrows.  I won't go into details on the conversation lest I embarrass  myself. Let's just say she was surprised, and she does like them.
Thanks, Melanie. You really made my day.

The Bow Bench Lives!

I took the new bow bench to the SCA tournament this past Saturday and got to give it a good workout.
I have to say, it worked great and I'm quite pleased with it.
The bench occasionally seems a little rickety if you sit on it and wiggle your butt but in use it is reasonably steady and holds the stave just fine. While I had no issues with the stave slipping as I reefed on it with a draw knife I am on the lookout for some heavy rubber-like material to put on the clamping surfaces.
Putting it together and breaking it down at the end of the day was a breeze. I kept a wrench handy and used it to remove the foot pedal support arm. That allowed the clamping head to come out; remove the legs and it was ready to go into the truck.

If it looks as if we were set up away from everyone else, we were. That's the hazard of putting up the overhead before you see where the others are going up and of forgetting that in the SCA everything revolves around the fighting eric. On the other hand, just about everyone walking to the bathroom had to go right by us and many people stopped to chat and ask questions about what I was doing.

Happy shaving!

Arrows for King Arthur and Arrows for Kate

Remember I mentioned that I would be making some arrows to donate to the San Diego Archer's King Arthur's Tournament to be held on June 20th?
Well, they're done and in their hands.

The arrows are Sitka spruce, #45/49 spine, weight matched. I left them full length so whoever wins them can cut them to the appropriate size, 125gr field points are in the box with the arrows. I trust that they'll go to a loving home.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the shoot myself as that's the same day as the monthly Pasadena gathering. I hope you guys have a great time!

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Kate wanted arrows that would be easy to see.

All I can say is, "be careful what you ask for!"

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Tomorrow, June 12, we'll be at an SCA event in Fountain Valley, CA.
This is the Gyldenholt Anniversary event and will be held at the archery range in Mile Square Park.
There will be archery, heavy weapons, and rapier competitions. For those of a more gentile nature, an Arts and Sciences Champion will also be chosen.
I can't sell things at this event so I'll be taking the new Bowyer's Bench to play with in the shade of our overhead. If you come to the event, please drop by and visit for a bit, I'd love to meet you.

Happy archery!

Bow Bench Project

Back when I started learning how to make wood bows I put together a simple bench using 2" x 12" Douglas Fir and an inexpensive bench vice I had laying around. It didn't work out too bad but it doesn't break down and is pretty heavy to throw in the back of the truck.
I've been looking for something a little better. Essentially, I wanted a shaving horse that I could disassemble to take to events or gatherings. Now that I'm doing SCA events again, I really wanted something that would work well there, too. For a variety of reasons I can't sell my wares at all events so I figured if I took a bow bench and made a spectacle of myself shaving wood I could hand out business cards if someone had an interest.
Lo and behold, I found what I needed. While reading back issues of various magazines I ran across the Fall 2005 issue of The Bowyer's Journal (since changed to Trad Archer's World). In the magazine were plans for building a Bowyer's Bench, just what I needed.
The plans didn't look too difficult and they used lumber and hardware I could get at my local home improvement store. The only exception was the leg brackets. I couldn't find them in a local store and ended up ordering the Grizzly G3312 Saw Horse Brackets from Amazon.com.

For your reading pleasure, here is a pictorial journey for the construction of my Bowyer's Bench:

Gotta start somewhere. Tools are gathered, the plans are handy, the first cut is for the bench itself.

Ok, the legs are done.

Here's one of the Grizzly saw horse brackets. Pretty cool design, actually. The wingnut forces the wedge down to hold the 2 x 4 legs tightly in place yet the whole thing may be removed easily. Just what I need.

So far so good. This is going to be an easy project. I'll have it done in a day.

A couple holes need to be cut in the top of the bench for different members to fit through.

Um, yeah... I discovered that my jig saw doesn't saw straight up and down. I don't know if it's the saw or me, I suspect the latter. So some clean up is necessary when I use the jig saw.

I'm supposed to cut what and put it where!!??

The bench top also gets a hole.

I dearly dislike circular saws. To tell the truth, they scare the crap out of me.

This hinge block goes under the bench top and over the bolt for the saw horse bracket on one end. Since I wanted to be able to remove that bolt for transportation I elected to purchase a longer one at the hardware store so it could go all the way through this hinge block for removal when necessary.

I may end up re-making this piece at a later date. The bench top pedestal gets holes drilled through it so it can be moved up and down to raise and lower the bench top. A piece of steel rod goes through the holes to hold the adjustment. When I drilled the holes (not shown here) I managed to drill them in a decidely un-straight manner. Just for my peace of mind I may re-make this later and try to drill straighter.

Figuring the angles on this was interesting. I had to email a recent college graduate to ensure I was doing it right. He asked his wife. Thanks, Paige!

Cleaning up after the jig saw.

It's starting to look like it may work.

After carefully measuring and cutting the slot for the foot pedal I had to remove a little wood for a perfect fit.

It's too small... too small... too small... crap, now it's too big.

I needed four of these pieces for the clamp head.

Stacked up, screwed together, and ready to be bolted.

Cleaning up after the jig saw again. This is the piece that holds down the stave being worked on so I wanted it to be right.

I may not be able to saw, but apparently I can rasp.

Not too bad. It actually does hold a stave pretty well. I still need to stain it and put on a protective finish of some kind as well as figure out if I'll decorate it in any way.
All in all, it was a little more difficult than I expected it to be but it really wasn't very hard. The foot pedal support seems a little long and after using it I may decide to shorten that piece and re-install the foot pedal.
And, uh... yeah... it did take longer than a single day. 
Other than that, not bad!

I was way too busy and preoccupied to take pictures of the process so I can't thank Fayme enough for taking over that task and for doing such a great job.

Happy bow building!

Yes, We Have Bamboo Shafts!

Bamboo shafts are back in hand.
My first batch of bamboo shafts kind of sat around for a while. People looked at them, asked a couple questions, and then kept on walking. But when I took them to the Chamberlin Ranch shoot there was a sudden interest in them and every single bamboo shaft I had on hand was sold.
I've got them back on hand now, they're weighed and ready to go.
Suitable for Western archery or Kyuodo, these are Tonkin cane, the shafts are straightened, heat treated, and the nodes are knocked down. These bamboo shafts are almost arrows, needing only your skills as an arrow maker to turn them into accurate, tough, and hard hitting arrows.

As before, the shafts are available in 84cm/33" and 100cm/39" lengths.  They are $3.00 each, plus actual shipping; US orders only. I'm sorry but international shipping is just too expensive and too much of a trial to deal with.
These shafts are unspined but they are weighed. If you have a particular weight you are looking for I'll get as good a group as possible in that weight. If you don't have something particular you're looking for, give me your bow specifics and I'll do my best to get you something applicable.
Included with my shipment was a very limited quantity of 100cm shafts that have been spined by the manufacturer. While spining is not usually necessary for bamboo, he does have them spined for the American market, where we are accustomed to dealing with spined arrow shafts. I only have these spined shafts in 55/60 and they will be available until I run out of them. Each one is stamped just as you see. Price is the same as un-spined bamboo shafts. He didn't charge me extra, I'm not going to charge you extra.

If you've never used bamboo arrows you are in for a treat. Called by some "Nature's carbon arrow shaft" bamboo is tough, fast, and shoots great. Just as with carbon shafts, they shoot well from a wide range of bow weights. Tuning may be accomplished by playing with shaft weight, tip weight, and overall length.

Let me know if you have any questions about what nocks or tips to use, how to make bamboo arrows, or anything else you're not sure about. I'll be glad to help.


Grass, it's the new/old arrow!

Has it really been that long since I last posted?

So, it's been some time since I last posted to the blog.
At least it's been because I've been busy!
Here are a few things I've been working on...

Julian loves archery but lately he's been more involved with photography. I have a feeling that he'll be picking up his bow again when he gets his new arrows this Sunday.

Julian asked for his last name to be written in Chinese character in the cresting. I doubt I'll get any awards for my Chinese penmanship but I think this turned out pretty cool.

He also wanted brass points on these arrows. This is the first time I've used these and they really give a special look to the finished arrow.

Speaking of different points... what do you think of these? They were supplied by a gentleman in Texas for the heavy arrows for his new 80# longbow.

Last year I raffled off a set of arrows on PaleoPlanet to help send a North American member to Bulgaria for a bow and primitive skills gathering over there. Lloyd out in the San Fernando Valley won the arrows and had me make them up for a lady he shoots with at the Woodley Park archery range.
Christine loves her arrows but in the past year Lloyd has seen her borrowing his flu-flus pretty frequently. So he ordered another set in the same design as last year but this set was all flu-flus just for her.

Of the dozen arrows, nine were regular six fletch flu-flu arrows with field points. The other three were six fletch banana fletching and these special whistling heads.This was a fun set to make and I have reports that Christine loves her new arrows.
Edit on 6-12-10, in response to more than one question about the whistling heads, here is a link that will take you to their page in the 3Rivers catalog.

Next up is a set of arrows I'm making for donation to the San Diego Archer's 43rd annual King Arthur's Tournament in Balboa Park. I haven't yet decided what design to make the arrows. The shoot isn't until June 20th so I have a little bit of time for them. Do you have any input on what they should look like?  

Happy archery!