Here are some photos of the meet. This thing turned out to be
so successful and so much fun for everyone. I hope they do it every
year!
Here are my thoughts that I posted on the Leather Wall.
WOW! What a great time. I was on a high the whole 7 hour trip home thinking
of all that I learned and all who I met...and all the bows I'm gonna make
out of that crooked osage after I get my heat gun! Gary Davis is the most
amazing man. He was teaching people things from 7 in the morning to the
wee hours the next day. I was like a lost puppy begging scraps from him
the whole time and he just kept on feeding me. I want him to adopt me :-)
Shaun, ferret, Randy, JKMO, Ray, Buz, Will-MO, Keith, Dale, Jeff, Butch,
and a hundred others, what a pleasure it was to meet you all. Marshall
Bowhunters and company, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You will
do this again if we have to pay you handsomely to do it!
Tim, Gary, Jim...ya' all are the champs. To do what you have done without
renumeration is a testament to your dedication and
generosity.
Shaun (Stikman in Oz) and I walked into the meet and saw all the wood,
all the shavehorses and tillering benches, all the bows, and the kids,
the targets and the tools, all the shavings and we were blown away. I can't
repeat what he said (anybody that knows Shaun knows why) but he was duly
impressed. And I couldn't believe it.
I have been in a variety of groups of people, from academicians to blue
collar workers, from millionaires to paupers, from drug
addicts to priests, and none of those groups compare to this one. The
generosity, the knowledge, the ability to TEACH and the
genuine caring about others is unparallelled.
I learned how to bend wood, how to splice billets, twist linen, do character
bows, snakeskin a bow back, split out a center stave on osage and so many
other things that will make me a better bowyer. I was reading grain of
wood all the way home from the plowed fields to the mown grass on the side
of a highway. I also have some nice ash wood to make some bows from courtesy
of the ferret.
Thank you all! Keep the faith,
John
