Custom Recurve feedback?

[Foggy Mountain]

On a side note. It appears custom bows don't seem to hold there value very well. I was looking to sell a couple that I can't pull anymore, looking at what was selling on line I was surprised.

I believe either you have not the trad bows guys want or are about say 45lbs. When I was sick 7 years ago, I had to relearn walking, taking, etc. As a young man I shot 75lb recurves, 90lb compounds. They don’t make em for years now but I was still shooting at least 70.
Back to being sick. I couldn’t draw a bow. I got a 42lb widow. Made it 1/2 way back. Once I was able to draw/use bow it woulda been expensive to buy a 45 pounder. Couldn’t find one I could afford. So I traded up. About 47 lbs the bows started to get cheap and I began buying. Over 50 you can get a super deal. No market for em. Heavy bow buyers dream. I’ve got bows I’d bought a month old, too much for seller at 1/2 price. I couldn’t afford more at the time, he could t use it but this happened a few times and I still see that today

 

[jejack26]

I believe either you have not the trad bows guys want or are about say 45lbs. When I was sick 7 years ago, I had to relearn walking, taking, etc. As a young man I shot 75lb recurves, 90lb compounds. They don’t make em for years now but I was still shooting at least 70.
Back to being sick. I couldn’t draw a bow. I got a 42lb widow. Made it 1/2 way back. Once I was able to draw/use bow it woulda been expensive to buy a 45 pounder. Couldn’t find one I could afford. So I traded up. About 47 lbs the bows started to get cheap and I began buying. Over 50 you can get a super deal. No market for em. Heavy bow buyers dream. I’ve got bows I’d bought a month old, too much for seller at 1/2 price. I couldn’t afford more at the time, he could t use it but this happened a few times and I still see that today

That must be it. Both are about 70 at my draw. I had to go to 50 lbs . I can't believe I used to shoot 70.

 

[Foggy Mountain]

That must be it. Both are about 70 at my draw. I had to go to 50 lbs . I can't believe I used to shoot 70.

That’s def it bud.Good luck w selling it

 

[Foggy Mountain]

My daughter is 24" long draw and 30# on her compound. She struggles to get 30# drawn on her longbow.

Back tension, bud and bone on bone when she’s T’d up should help her

 

[Firedude]

Brother here’s some considerations, I’ve got lots of custom bows, some recurve, mostly longbow, some hybrids. When I buy a bow it’s typically from I maker I trust, and like the bow, way it shoots, customer service, etc.
If I advise someone they might consider my recommendations. That’s the way I bet many new guys get their start towards custom bows. I’ll be honest, I never heard of you right? You advertise in some magizine or at a bow shoot I’ll prob not pay lots of attn. I’d walk right past you towards where I’m going to look.
How to get a foot in the door than? You can go to bow shoots. Offer guys a practice butt, let them actually shoot it. That only will let them see speed, shootability, stacking, looks. Still doesn’t prove longevity.
Looking in your eye could probably of the guy is a decent reader tell if you’re honest or not so the customer service thing until proven wrong I’d give you benefit of doubt if I saw what I liked.
You can also offer pass around bows. Ship them out to one guy a month with his promise to pass it along in a month to the next guy who wants it.
You’re price prob can’t be too low if it’s honestly good quality. It’ll never seem like it is and too high guys would at least initially shy away without knowing bow.
You could also offer bows to St Jude’s auction on trad gang, fundraiser bows for dif organizations, etc
Just figuring guys will embrace you with out knowing you simply because you jumped in is I don’t believe a high odds option.
Now constructive criticism. I don’t personally favor the way the bow looks. So you would need to offer other options as well.
I believe a booth with shooters able to try bow at trad bow shoots might be your best start.

Thank you for the honest input. I'm glad you mentioned different designs because that's what I've put my effort into all winter. Glad you confirmed it's time well spent. So far most of my bows have been 3 piece recurves. That was my biggest request so that's what I went with. That particular design isn't really pretty or new, but it's a gentle design. I designed it for ease of shooting and low handshock. Heavy riser, gentle limb curve, high-ish brace height. New to traditional people LOVED it. With the reinforcement I put in my bows it will last a long long time. Which is what I was going for. I've built some try before you buy bows, but they all sold! I tried to say no but they insisted, so I sold them.

I have a pretty aggressive design that I built for myself but if you don't know what you're doing it can bite you... lots of tip curve with a lot of string contact when fired, pretty low brace height, carbon under the back wood, uni-directional on the belly core, curly maple outsides and .040 clear ULS glass... Que Tim Allen grunting "oh roh roh ho ho!". But that makes it pretty close to the maximum stresses on those materiels. It's expensive and will probably break one day. It's like a race car. It's fun but you know it's got a limited life span. So I don't really offer that one for sale. I don't sell it if I don't trust that your kids will shoot it someday.

I'm working on a couple of other patterns right now. A 2 piece longbow and a 2 piece recurve. Those seam to be the next most popular designs requested. The 2 piece longbow might end up as 2 different designs. It's a split between a perfectly straight bow for the backcountry guys wanting to put arrows and bow into a tube that turns into a quiver and reflex deflex for others. So I may should offer both. It just takes time.

I have blueprints I purchased years ago but those don't feel like "my design" so I am designing my own and using a CAD program to help. It's about $700 per finished attempt and about a month to 2 months to design, build the presses, layout, build and test. Then it's building 2 or 3 of that design to figure out dimensions to get the poundage spot on for the next builds. At about $300 a pop development costs start stacking up. Which is fine but as with most people I'm on a budget. This is also my side business, not full time. I like taking it slower on each one vs crank them out to maximize profits. I could do it cheaper but won't. Everything is overbuilt and word of mouth seams to be all the advertisement I'm needing right now. I'm never without an order or 2.

This is getting long winded but again thanks for your input. I'm glad I put some feelers out. I had to readjust my thinking. Some from hunters and target guys. The crazy thing is most of my longbow requests are L.A.R.P guys. I never would have thought of that. But who am I to judge? If that's what you want and makes you happy I'll see what I can build for you.

 

[Foggy Mountain]

I’m glad I was able to offer something that might help you. Hope you do well bud and remember the trad shoot thing. Not sure where you’re out of but trad bow gatherings are a great place to get noticed. The biggest one around here is ETAR but there’s a bunch all over the country. If you don’t have one even a regular bow shoot wouldn’t hurt. Lots of stykbow guys will prob show up. Good luck

 

[Firedude]

I’m glad I was able to offer something that might help you. Hope you do well bud and remember the trad shoot thing. Not sure where you’re out of but trad bow gatherings are a great place to get noticed. The biggest one around here is ETAR but there’s a bunch all over the country. If you don’t have one even a regular bow shoot wouldn’t hurt. Lots of stykbow guys will prob show up. Good luck

That's definitely on the list to do. I just want 2 or 3 of a few models before I go. So I actually have something to show and demo. I don't want to show up and say, "Well I build bows bit just trust me they are nice....". If I can hold onto a few demo bows I'll head that way.

Maybe I'll get to meet one of my favorite bowyers at one. Big Jim. I could care less to own a lot of big time bows. But I REALLY want one of his. I just love his detail oriented personality mixed with his artistic eye.... Don't know why but I really want one of his.

Or South Cox at Stalker. His ADHD just flat out can't be ignored. I can visualize him twitching because somethings not right. He has that, "its a 1/10 of a millimeter off and it bugs me" personality that I'd just love to have one of his.

I'm sure there are others but those are the only 2 high end bows I've shot that I didn't think I could build better. Those are the only 2 that people want to share... I kind of want to be in that bracket. If one of my demo bows cost me $1500 bucks but every kid at scout camp and girls camp got to shoot it and loved archery, it's money well lost.

 

[Foggy Mountain]

You’re def thinking along the right lines I believe. I’ve never shot one of Big Jim’s bows. Not sure why. I’ve actually visited his stand at ETAR. He may have the biggest presentations.