Third party veneers

[Pat Ct]

In light of a recent thread regarding third party veneers I thought I would post a silly little hypothetical situation to see what all of us think, bowyers or not.

One might want a very specific type of wood and after going through their stock, the bowyers do not have anything that comes close.

One finds said "special veneers" and is able to supply them.  The bowyer is willing to work with them but will keep same price as if he had been using his own.

Is this due to extra work that has to be done on the veneers, insurance if something should go wrong, etc?  What ya think? I would think it implies a cost reduction for him but I might be wrong...

Let's see where this leads... real experiences very welcome  

[A.S.]

My only experience with it was a few years ago.  I sent Dave Windauer a board to cut lams out of.  He and Beth are always great to work with.  He still had the labor of cutting the lams, but he reduced my bow price by the value of a set of lams.

[McDave]

I think it's up to the bowyer to examine the veneers, and let you know what he thinks.  Frankly, if he had ordered the veneers himself, he would be in the same place, and he would have to decide whether they were worth working with or should be sent back.  If he decided to work with them, he should still have a clause in his agreement that states that he is not responsible for any damage caused by use of customer provided wood.  I would imagine that many bowyers will not think to have this clause until they are stung.  In the absence of an agreement in advance, the bowyer and the customer would have to negotiate if there were problems with the wood, never a pleasant situation.

I have never provided my own wood, but I have had several bowyers tell me that they needed more time because their own wood didn't work out for some reason or another and they had to remake part or all of the bow as a result.  So it's not that unusual of a thing to happen, but of course, if it's their wood, it's their dime, although it's your time.  (Probably better stop before I start trying to rhyme all the time!).

[Matabele]

I had a bow on order with Ken Rolhof of Whippenstick, I sent him the riser wood and veneers and he discounted both off the cost of the bow. He unfortunately missed weight badly on the bow (not his fault, new bow design and I was wanting something much heavier than he had yet made on that form), but he refunded me my deposit and cost of the wood. If he was back making bows I'd order one in a heart beat and would recommend him to anyone.

[pdk25]

I sent veneers to a bowyer who charges, I think, $125 for exotics, and they still charged either 50 or 75 dollars for an exotic upcharge on a set of limbs.  Same bowyer I had riser blocks sent to and they were going to charge a $75 woodworking fee on top of $350 fee already in place for the flare.  I had them ship the blocks to Talltines instead and he built the riser without an upcharge.  I think they are all different regarding their policies for upcharging..

[pdk25]

Gregg Coffey didn't have an upcharge for the veneers or riser block that I sent him, either.