who mentored the great bowyers?

[damascusdave]

We should not forget a number of bowyers who mentored their children and spouses to do all or some of the work...Dick Robertson comes quickly to mind although I am sure there are others

DDave

[hardbern]

Originally posted by kerry hardy:
George Birnie, the Scottish bowyer who worked here for Eddings, Tex-Tox, Adirondack, and Ben Pearson, was an apprentice to Richard Galloway in Scotland-- who was himself the last royal bowyer to the king of England. So if you have a Birnie bow, there's about eight centuries of handed-down bowmaking knowledge represented there.

Kerry

Well actually he (Richard "Dick" Galloway)was bowyer to the Royal Company of Archers the monarch's (ceremonial) bodyguard when in Scotland, but so were the later inheritors of Dick & George's legacy: Border Archery (under Robin Robeson).
Returning to the thread of who mentored/influenced who - there was much cross fertilisation taking place. Dick & Howard Hill met & Dick made him a bow (both being on the movie circuit). Crescenzo Forte who worked with Dick - emigrated to US & worked at American Archery (Amarco). Dick & his main UK rival/comtemporary Frank Bilson with his Yeoman (also  known as Jack the Yeoman) company were the first in the UK to produce glass-backed bows ('52)
Russell Willcox was I believe a vistor to the UK &  another UK bowyer was making bows from his duo-flex design.
Who did George meet/know in the US? Look at his limb designs: "coordinator" section later to be called "hyper-kinetic" at Ben Pearson & earlier concave-convex designs at TexTox....now accredited to Bill Stewart and/or patented by O.L.ADcock.
Who shared with who? You don't have to have served an apprenticeship to learn from them - open & receptive minds is all it takes.
Robert Elmer was back & forward across the pond facilitating sharing, so were various flight bow designer, makers, shooters. Most of the UK names: Dick, Frank from the early days were into flight bows. Roy King one of foremost longbowyers the same.

[V I Archer]

Byron Schurg of Monarch and later Aspen longbows mentored the late Monty Moravec.  I could be mistaken but I think Neil Jacobson of Bear's Paw fell under the tutelage of Mr. Schurg as well.

[kerry hardy]

Hardbern,
Am I right in thinking that the guy who makes those incredibly thin longbows in the UK--is his name Boyton?-- also worked with/learned from Galloway?

[cahaba]

Interesting and great info. I was talking to James Berry and he said he learned from trial and error on his own. A great accomplishment given the quality bows he builds.

[Mike Mecredy]

* Due to the adjective in the thread title I wasn't going to enter this discussion, but I see there's a few that want more input*

To start, I have to recognize the God given talent of being about to "make it if I don't want to buy it", "Fix it if I don't want to replace it". God made me a mechanic.  

I have been influenced by so many, A few times I had O.L. Adcock call me up and correct me on my theories on bow length and arrow speed, he also advised me a few times on customer service; "some" of it I to heart, the rest I reserve for "difficult customers" and I've had next to none of those.  As for bow construction, bow builders on the forums.  I started making bows in 2001, and did it as a hobby for 5 years, all the while reading posts on the various archery forums, and took lots of good advice from lots of talented craftsmen.  I read "Traditonal Bowyers of America" By Dan Bertalan, and took all of their methods and procedures to heart, but one in particular was M.R. Hamilton and what he had to say about fadeouts. I still visit the bowyer's bench and I may not post all that much there I still search it for tricks and tips.  And most importantly I get feed back from my customers.  While most couldn't advise me on the proper taper rate of my lams, they advise me on the most important parts; How they feel, how they shoot, how they sound, and how they look.  Knowing I've never done perfect work, knowing there's always room for improvement, during phone conversations, I'll take a subtle approach to get it out of them how I can make it better.  Honestly, that's the best mentoring I can get.

[hardbern]

Originally posted by kerry hardy:
Hardbern,
Am I right in thinking that the guy who makes those incredibly thin longbows in the UK--is his name Boyton?-- also worked with/learned from Galloway?

Only took me 2 years to reply, just spotted how to get email notifications when threads updated ;-)
....anyway, yes i think you're talking about Chris Boyton, but he himself will tell you he was just a friend of Dick's - albeit all part of the group of people making & shooting bows together back in the day.

[LC]

For me it was Bingham's. They got me inspired to be able to make roll my own. Then I started designing making my own by copying bows I liked with features I wanted. Been building my own for about 15 years now. I've never sold a bow and kinda done with it now. I've got enough bows to last me till the end. My favorite design is to copy a 62 Kodiak with  tweeks! Man I love that bow.
After rereading the thread title I don't consider myself a great bowyer so I guess my fall back is Fred Bear!

[fling]

I believe Jim Rempp mentored Dan Toelke.

[wingnut]

Jason and I had a number of mentors.
Beginning with Rusty Craine, then Dean Torges, J.D. Jones and Mark Horne.

Along the way we worked with OL Adcock and John Havard.

Brent Rudolph helped us with the curves.

The aggregate is really the base we built on.

Mike

[schlaggerman]

Mike Steliga of Bruin Bows was mentored and taught by Bill Pyle of Staghorn Bows. In fact I believe Mike introduced a Bill Pyle commemorative bow a few years back.

[John Kelly]

Harold Groves and a bunch of the guys he mentored.

[Roadkill]

Mike, spoken from the heart.  Thanks

I was interested in any patents on bows or processes.  Seems like they would help Light the path. Many of the things are techniques, and in ancient days probably not as easily granted patents