Who ever said custom bows were expensive???

[Tom Anderson]

Originally posted by L82HUNT:
What about a company like Widow?  If a bow can be made in a few days why does it takes a couple months to get one of there bows.  
I realize they sell quite a few bows but they have a larger staff then most.

Simply because there are other customers ahead of you when you place an order.

[Tom Anderson]

Most of the bowyers that I have met...and I've met a couple of the top-shelf ones...are just good-ol' folks making enough money to cover their love and passion for archery.

Some bowyers come out with something new, it gets publicity on the internet, and folks go wild over it and start placing orders creating a year-long or more backlog for the bowyer.  Then another bowyer comes up with something else new and everyone rushes over to their camp scrambling to place orders..creating a backlog there also.
Meanwhile, there's just some solid bowyers sitting in the background making a good product day after day and making a decent living (Bob Lee Archery comes to mind).  Nothing groundbreaking, nothing extremely fancy....just a good product with good customer service along with good business sense.

[suttoman]

Well said Tom - a good summary of how I think it must work.

There was one bow in particular that was the flavour of the month on here about a year ago - now one never hears of them anymore.  

However - like you say with Lee - the solid ones are here to stay.  They grind the orders out year after year with bows that are downright keepers.  They may never be flavour of the month but they will be here for the long-haul.

Sutto

[chrisg]

It has all been covered here, definitely not $/hr alone, if you put capital into equipment and systems etc your production will increase but you will need to recoup that cost over time. Once done if you are careful and provide quality service along with a decent product off you go. I would imagine though, that many folks get into it for the love of it and find themselves making more and more bows and working longer hours. They will eventually face the choice of whether they wish to compete with machines and factories. Reputation and 'fashion' influence the short term but consistency and quality wins out in the long term.
Chrisg