Latest News on Custom Arrows

Well, folks… I’ve put this off as long as I could, but I’m afraid I have to do it…

I need to raise my prices.

Every time I’ve ordered arrow shafts in the last year the price has been higher than the previous order. I try to keep the cost under control by ordering in bulk but it still adds up.
My main feather supplier raised prices last January and I’ve been absorbing the difference for the past 11 months.
It’s just gotten to the point where I can no longer afford to keep the prices where they are.

I’ll hold off for another month, but effective January 1st prices for a dozen arrows will go up $10.
So a dozen arrows of the basic design that have been selling for $70 will now be $80. The crowned and crested arrows that have been $90 for the dozen will now be $100. Other designs will see a similar increase.

No matter how I justify the increase, this is still a lot of money and I recognize that. However, if you peruse other custom arrow makers I think my work will still stand as a good value for what you receive.

I use only hand spined shafts that have been weight matched to +/- 10 grains (usually much closer in weight). Unless otherwise requested, all arrows come cut to the specified length, tapered for a tip, and field points firmly glued on. Arrows I make are ready to shoot when you receive them and this is included in the price rather than added to it as many arrow makers do.

And… all the arrows I make are true custom arrows. While I have some basic guidelines to assist folks with decisions, there is no catalog where you choose Combo A or Option 4. You and I will be working together to get true custom arrows that you can be proud of in the field or on the range.

I’ll tell you a secret… do you know the most common email I get when someone has just received their new arrows?
“These are too pretty to shoot!”
I’m just as proud of the arrows I make as their new owners are.

As I mentioned, I’ll stay with the old prices through the month of December. If you order and pay for arrows in December we’ll use the lower price. If you make your order on the first of the year I’m going to look at you with sad eyes and charge you a bit more than the day before.

Thank you for your support.

Medieval Marketplace this Saturday

Rather late notice for me to be saying anything, but Greenman Archery will be at the SCA event, Medieval Marketplace this coming Saturday, November 26.
The event will be held at Kuns Park, 1600 Bonita Ave, La Verne, CA 91750. The site opens for shoppers at 10:00am and you don't even have to camp out Friday night to get the good deals.

Medieval Marketplace is essentially a shopping event for SCA-type vendors and products. There should be about sixteen different merchants there carrying a wide variety of goods, many of which are handcrafted and quite unique.
While Thanksgiving day looks like it may have some rain and dreary weather, Saturday is forecast for beautiful California weather: clear skys and a 79 degree high.
We attended Medieval Marketplace last year and had a very good time. It was wonderful to have a chance to see everyone. The site is fairly small so it's easy to visit with friends, new and old.

I hope to see everyone there!

Update!

We had a great time yesterday at Medieval Marketplace!

There seemed to me to be a slight shortage of customers but I don't think it affected our day much. Quite a few mundane folks came through the event looking at what everyone had to sell so we had a few interesting conversations trying ot explain what they saw. Most were somewhat fascinated with the whole event. There was some heavy fighting going on in a "Bear Pit" scenario and that noise and excitement is always popular for folks to watch.

I thank everyone who placed arrow orders with me. Your patronage is so very greatly appreciated as I try to make this little business work and keep me out of an office.

I also thank Master Hroar for making his late wife's books, fabric, and other items available for new homes. It's never easy to lose someone but he can rest assured that at least her things have gone on to new and loving homes that will care for and value them as she did. I purchased a book on fruit and vegetable preserving and a book on bread making - something I need quite a bit of help with. Fayme got some beautiful fabric as well as some sewing, gardening, and cooking books. Some people believe that a person is never truly gone so long as their memory is held in someone's heart. If that is the case, Mistress Huette's memory is in for a very long run as folks use and love her items.

A high point of the day for me was a surprise visit from Gary and Michael. They were very heavily involved with the SCA for a number of years but have not been participating of late as other activities take their time. Gary is a leather worker of no small talent and I've been nudging him to get out his tools to make some items for me to carry. He's currently busy with learning a new job as he prepares to retire from his first job, but I have a feeling that he's weakening and I'll eventually have some wonderful leather quivers and other parts available for sale.

Happy Archery!

Postcript...
I have been asked if there are any pictures from the day. I don't normally get a chance to take pictures due to being too busy. But Fayme frequently takes more than a couple and posts them on her Flickr:
SCA Medieval Marketplace with neovictorian

Thanks!

Robin Hood and the White Arrow

So last Friday night we did something that I haven’t done in quite a long time…
We went to a play!

Let me back up a little.
A few days earlier I had emailed a friend of mine a happy 236th birthday for the USMC. Erik is a Marine who’s given his country some pretty good service over the years. Like many of today’s service men and women, he has a number of Middle East tours under his belt. These deployments have taken him away from his wife and two young children but he’s done the job with honor and courage and I’m proud to call him friend.
Anyway, Erik emailed me back to thank me for the birthday wishes and told me that he was in a play at the Rose Center Theater in Westminster, CA. The play was a musical called Robin Hood and the White Arrow. That sounded pretty good so Fayme and I started looking at our schedule and the show dates. Suddenly, Erik emailed me and asked me to call him, immediately. I did, we chatted for a bit, he asked me to do something, I agreed, and we decided to go see the play this past Friday evening.

Wow, talk about a good time!
Robin Hood and the White Arrow is a musical and we just enjoyed the hell out of it. The story follows much of the Robin Hood legend as we usually know it but goes into a unique direction that made for a very good story of the legendary hero and his followers.
There are some seriously good talents in this play and I was blown away at the strength of their voices.
Best of all, I got to see my White Arrow used in the play, and a noble part it had.
That’s what Erik had asked of me, can I make them a good white arrow? They opened the play with one of his personal arrows simply spray painted white. Then he suddenly thought of where he could get a white arrow made specifically for their purposes. I was happy and honored to do it.

Sorry, no pictures from the play itself. You'll just have to go see it for yourself. Trust me, you won't be sorry.

Thanks, Erik!

She Made a Bow!

If you saw the last post you read about how Amanda met me at Pasadena and got a good start on her bow.
At this past Sunday’s SCA event she and I got back together so she could get it finished.

The bow was bending pretty good but one limb was consistently stiffer than the other. Amanda kept working on it with the cabinet scraper without a whole lot of change.

When Amanda asked me for the Shinto rasp I asked her why she wanted that tool since it removes wood a lot faster than the cabinet scraper. She showed me how she had compared limb thickness from one limb to the other and saw that she had quite a bit of wood to remove before they matched thickness. That was just about the best reasoning I’ve ever seen and it just pleased me to see her take that jump in understanding. I gave her the Shinto.

It wasn’t too much longer before she was back with the cabinet scraper. A little bit after that and we decided tillering was done: the limbs were bending well and evenly and the bow’s weight was in the range she was looking for. After thinning the limb tips Amanda re-cut the nock grooves and we were ready for a string.

By this time the event had ended and we had to leave the field. Changing location to the benches at the nearby short range I made up the new string, served it, and she put the first arrows across the bow.

Success!

At this shoot I also met a gentleman who had what is probably the most beautiful bow I have ever seen. Heath had an #85 longbow of Italian yew made by English bowyer Steve Stratton. Mr. Stratton is a Master Bowyer in The Craft Guild of Traditional Bowyers and Fletchers and if Heath's bow is a representative sample of Mr. Stratton's work, he well deserves the title.
I had the pleasure of holding the bow for a few minutes while I put a new serving on the string and I did not want to give it back. A yew bow of that weight has something it in that awakens the soul of a traditional archer.
Also impressive was Heath's clothing and kit, all period appropriate for an English longbowman. To top it all off, he was a hell of a nice fellow to chat with. Heath mentioned that he wants to learn bowmaking so I told him he really needs to come to our Pasadena gatherings where he can meet others of a like mind and we can get him started on his bowmaking path.

Watching those big arrows fly in the clout was a real treat.


Happy archery, everyone!

She's Making a Bow!

It looks like I’m on a roll for posting lately!

Yesterday we had our monthly gathering of primitive enthusiasts at the Pasadena Roving Archers range in Pasadena, CA.
This is a loosely knit group with widely varied interests. For the most part we focus on doing things by hand. Some of the folks are skilled in things like flint knapping, primitive fire making, forging, bow making, making arrows from natural materials like shoots, branches, etc., and other “older” skills.

The monthly gatherings are a chance for us to show off our most recent successes, and failures, and get advice from others who may be more familiar with certain skills. Plus, we get to spend time with some truly great friends.

I met Amanda at Great Western War, the SCA event I recently attended. She was interested in making a bow but didn’t have the time available during the event. We arranged to meet at this month’s Pasadena gathering to get her going down the dark path of bowery.

Amanda was certainly working harder than those characters sitting in the background.

That's my new red wagon back there... thanks Mom! It's become invaluable to cart stuff from the truck to where we gather. Plus, Jack, who is hiding under Barbara's shirt in the background, loves riding around in it.

A number of tools are suitable for making these board bows. Personally, I prefer the block plane but Amanda got good use out of the spokeshave.

She didn’t quite get the bow finished before I had to leave, taking the bow horse and tools with me. But Amanda did get to the point where we put a tillering string on the bow and she began to get the limbs bending evenly. We should be able to get it finished at this next weekend’s SCA Agincourt event at the Woodley Park archery range in Van Nuys.

Single day SCA events don’t really have enough time for me to help someone build a bow of their own, I just get too busy working with my customers. But if any local folks would like to do what Amanda is doing then just let me know and we’ll get together at the Pasadena range to get you going.

Happy archery!

Interesting Blog Stats

Here's something that really kind of took me by surprise.

This is a screen shot from the stat counter I have keeping track of various things in this blog. This picture shows visits to the blog by country for about the last two weeks.
I'm not surprised by the preponderance of visits by United States residents; after all, that is where I live. But check out some of those other visitors: Hungary, Finland, Macedonia, Russian Federation, Slovakia. Heck, there are 16 hits from Greece!

How cool is that?
I had no idea when I began this blog that it would ever reach so many people across the world.
Admitedly, I don't know if all these folks meant to visit my blog. I know I've occasionally landed on an unintended page and left as soon as I realized what had happened. I hope that doesn't happen too often here but I'm sure it does once in a while.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
My thanks to everyone who visits and reads this little blog. You guys don't always leave replies to what I post but I still appreciate the time you spend here reading what I write and looking at what I make and what I do with my time.

Happy archery!

Great Western War XIV Review

Great Western War XIV is done and I’m home, having survived the experience.

GWW is a multi-day Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) event currently held at the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area near Taft, CA. I was there from Monday, October 3 when merchant set-up began to Monday, October 10 when the event ended.

I didn’t do as well with sales as I hoped I would but it was better than it could have been. I heard a rumor that attendance was down a bit and that could have affected things.
It’s always a little tricky trying to sell ready-made custom arrows at an event. There are so many dynamics to the arrow that must be properly matched to the archer/bow that it can be difficult to have the right thing sitting on the table. Then there are the artistic elements of the arrow.
It’s not unusual for a customer to find the perfect spine arrow but be allergic to their pink artwork. Or maybe an archer finds the perfect red arrows but they’re spined for about a 50# bow and he’s using a 35# bow. I much prefer to make arrows custom to order but I have to have something on the tables to showcase my work.

At this event I had some prime red oak boards that Salvador had picked out for making into bows. These boards are great for beginning bowmakers and I took along the bowhorse and my tools in the chance that someone would want to get a board and make it into a bow at the event.
As luck would have it, I sold one board to a young woman and she dove right into making it into a bow. Lexi didn’t have much experience with hand tools but where there is a will there is a way. I helped a little bit when she began running out of time but it’s safe to say that she did the bulk of the work. She finished the bow Sunday evening and I made a string for it just before I left Monday morning.

There were other people who were very interested in bow making but who didn't have the time to do it at the war. For many of those individuals I gave them information about the monthly Pasadena gatherings where we can get them started on bowmaking.
 
I spoke with some wonderful people over the course of the seven days I was at the war. Some I've dealt with via email and never had a chance to meet in person, others I met for the first time. I even got to meet one reader of this blog (who's name I unfortunately can't remember). I thank all of you for the time you spent with me.
I didn't get any pictures of him or his booth but my neighbour to the right was Aelred, master potter of A's Round Pottery. It was a real treat to hear him joke with his customers and those just walking by:
"These are the pots you're looking for." (said in the best Obi Wan Kenobi voice)
"Come, fondle my pots!"
"The mugs are microwave safe, dishwasher safe, and drunk resistant."
 
Thanks, everyone!