Beyond Gunsmithing: Become a Bowyer to Expand Your Services
Last month I spoke about making holsters. Making custom holsters is a service very few businesses offer. This month let’s continue to how to expand your business and talk about becoming a Bowyer and how it can increase your business offerings.
If you have never heard the term, it is a person that works on bows and crossbows. Bowyers started out manufacturing bows from wood for hunting, sport shooting and historical reenactments. The traditional Bowyer would manufacture recurve bows from special wood or fiberglass. Today being a Bowyer has transitioned into working on high power compound bows and crossbows. Bowyers are like gunsmiths. There are very few of us out there, and it is turning into a lost art. Let’s take aim and see what you need to get started offering bow services.
The Essentials
Getting started in the archery trade depends on how deep you want to dive in. To make it simple, I’ll talk about what your basic needs are. Once you are in the business you can expand your offerings to meet the demands of your customers.
To start you need a bow press. The press allows you to replace worn strings, adjust the cam timing or replacing other items without risking damage to the bow and provides safety for the person doing the modifications. I recommend purchasing a bow vise as well. The vise is another set of hands and will save you time. Make sure you get an adjustable bow vise so the bow can be adjusted at any angle.
Bow presses and vises come with other accessories that you may want to purchase. I’m a big fan of starting out slowly. I get the main tool first and if I need to add accessories later I can. If you buy all the accessories up front and never use them you’ve wasted a lot of money.
Hand Tools
Just like gunsmithing, working on bows requires some special hand tools. Tools like nock pliers, D-loop pliers, and Hex tool sets are a must.
These tools are used to secure bow strings, tighten bow accessories, and adjusting pull weights in most bows. Do your reseach to see what will suit your needs. Check reviews to see what tools are the most durable. In addition to the hand tools above, you will need a good pull weight scale. This pull weight scale measures exactly what it is named. You will see a lot of pull weight adjustments in your shop. You will use it to make small weight changes, but will also use it when you replace strings and other bow components.
Another simple tool but one of the most important is a bow square. It is needed to tune the bow accurately. It helps line up where the arrow nocks into the string and squares up the arrow rest on the main bow. If these to points are not perpendicular to each other the arrow will not fly accurately. Lastly you will need to find special leveling and alignment tools. These tools are used to accurately mount, sights, steady rests, and other accessories and attachments. Making a bow accurate and balanced is your end goal.
To check check your accuracy and also the balance of the bow that you are tuning you will need paper tuners. This tool is very simple, but necessary. It will tell you how the arrow travels after it leaves the bow.
The paper sheets explain what needs to be adjusted to make the arrow fly straighter and more accurate. Over time you may not even need these sheets, but they are cheap and can save you a lot of time trying to accurize a bow.
Crossbows
In the past ten-plus years crossbows have grown in popularity. For many years states were not allowing them to be used to hunt game, now just about every state allows them. Just like compound bow tools like I mentioned above, crossbows do have some specialized tools to enable you to work on them easier. Some crossbows have brand specific tools, so look into items before you purchase.
As your business grows you can continue to add different tools as well as services. Fletching arrows and custom work may be something you branch out to. Good luck in your adventure.
Semper Fi!
Written by: David Johnson, Leatherneck Gunsmithing
