About Ancient Archery7 Home Bows Arrows Strings Leather Accessories Prices Ordering Information Archery is an Ancient calling. The Bow and Arrow have been an intimate part of being human for thousands of years. We are no different from our ancient ancestor who strung a cord between the ends of a pliant staff, plucked at the taut fiber with a stick and watched astonished as the first arrow sped off, its flight the arc of the bow. And the soaring arrow enraptures us still .
Ancient Archery LLC is located in the beautiful Driftless Area of Southwestern Wisconsin. The last glacier somehow bypassed this small area, leaving unplaned the extremely old and rugged landscape. Since no glacial deposits (drift) buried them, there are numerous rock outcroppings, rock shelters, steep-sided valleys and creeks, together with a unique soil, vegetation and climate. Here, on an Oak-Savannah hillside, overlooking the lovely little Canyon Park Creek, in a community called Rock Ridge, is the workshop where I make my bows and arrows. With the spirit of love for this area that Makataimeshekiakiak (Chief Blackhawk) so impassionately expressed in his works and words still to be clearly perceived by anyone who cares to listen, it is truly an awesome and inspiring place.
My History This is
the Coat of Arms of the Boehm Family, dated 1543, exactly 400 years before I was born. That the old Bohemian tribe of Boehms would include an archer in their Arms is significant to me, as I have been an archer most of my life. I began making bows at age 15 and though I didn't make a career of it then, I continued to make bows and arrows in the old tradition ever since. During the 25 years I was a professional musician, playing the Baroque Flute and Recorder in the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, teaching and making reproductions of these instruments, I continued to nurture my love of archery. And when the time was right, I left that field and devoted myself full time to the Bow, the prototype of all stringed instruments. Archery is my music now!
Ancient Archery LLC is a family business. I make all the bows and my wife Sue helps me with the arrows and leather work. Our older son Henry Boehm, is a fine bassist and diesel mechanic, and has contributed many ideas and solutions as we consult on matters ranging from materials to morals. And Raphael Boehm, our younger son, an artist, musician, and semi-truck driver, is a source of unending inspiration, good humor and support.
The Archer's Craft The essence of the Bowyer's work consists of knowing wood and how to make it cooperate in bending. Tillering is the heart of bowmaking, and I have perfected this art through many years of study and application. The bowyer's task is to patiently coax each bow from the stave. And the staves themselves are the bowyer's treasure, each nurtured from living tree to living bow.
My bows are not reproductions or copies of specific historical artifacts, nor do I intend them to reflect any nationality or time period. There is an intriguing universality to this ancient implement and the three bow designs that I work with have served archers successfully for tens of thousands of years, everywhere on Earth wood is found. These three designs might even be called 'Arche-types'! There is no real need for innovation in Archery; rediscovery yes, but most likely, anything worthwhile has been done before. In the words of one Master actor in the Noh theater to his son: "Above all: no originality!" I offer nothing but skillfully made, practical, durable bows in time honored, traditional designs, using the best proven bow woods.
The arrows that I make are also truly traditional. I use no plastic nocks or vanes, no metal or plastic shafting, no gaudy synthetic paint jobs to mask an inferior shaft. I make my Specialty Arrows with shafts that I plane by hand from a variety of well-seasoned, straight-grained woods, and I use selected premium Port Orford Cedar manufactured shafts for my Utility Arrows. All of my arrows have inlay-reinforced self nocks, glued and wrapped turkey feather fletching, and steel points.
Wood looks and feels better when finished in natural finishes. Natural finishing materials are also the most suitable and durable for bow and arrow, and have been proven through centuries of use. Plastic finishes may appear impressive at first, but like an old plastic bag, they deteriorate and begin to look ugly very quickly. The natural shellac, linseed oil and beeswax finishing materials I use have been a standard in fine woodworking for centuries, are safe and enjoyable to work with and only become more beautiful with age.
As to some recent developments in archery: the 'compound' with its mechanical intervention, patented in 1974, is really not a bow at all; it is rather a machine which uses some principles borrowed from archery. And I have no interest at all in using fiberglass, a most boring and unpleasant material to work with. To me, bows made with artificial materials and mechanical aids have a very impersonal, mass produced feel, and are incapable of becoming an intimate part of the archer. Introduced into bowyery about 50 years ago, fiberglass bows are now commonly included in the 'traditional' category. But when compared to wooden bows and arrows which have a history of perhaps 50,000 years or more, I think it is rather impertinent to call fiberglass bows and metal arrows 'traditional'! It is most gratifying to me to see the great revival in the use of wooden tackle, which is for many a discovery of, for others a return to, the spirit and challenge of true Archery.
For those not aware of the labor and skill involved in the making of Arrows, Bows and accessories entirely by hand, my prices may seem rather high, although they are very competitive with other craftsman bowyers. I have had people say to me, "I could buy a good fiberglass recurve or even a compound for the price you are charging!" Indeed one could. But consider what you would be getting: a thing made mostly of cheap plastic, mass produced by disinterested laborers. Once a formula for the laminations is looked up and a mold is made, these bows can be glued up and ground out by the hundreds per day. This is true even with the "custom made" recurves where the skill involved is quite minimal, most of the work being done with power sanders and shapers. This is not true craftsmanship in any traditional sense. Artificial materials are unvarying, homogeneous and always the same. This allows them to be designed and made with finely tuned machinery, entirely different from the way a natural material like wood must be worked.
Compare this with my work: First I must carefully and skillfully locate, select and fell the Osage Orange, Hickory or other trees, and then split or saw them out into staves. I watch over these staves for years, tending and seasoning them, preparing them for the task ahead. Taking up a ripe stave, I ponder it, evaluating and reading the grain, seaching for the bow within. Then with my hand tools I begin to shape the wood into a bow, ever vigilant for special requirements, always adjusting to and accommodating the individuality of that particular stave. Teaching the wood to bend is an art, and a mistake in judgment or technique means a ruined stave or a broken bow. It is very intense but highly rewarding work. Each bow I make is unlike any other, and right up to the final finish its unique character is respected and cultivated. Though honoring the past is critical to the spirit of archery, the reason I use the axe, drawknives, planes, rasps and scrapers is not only out of this respect for our ancient tradition. In fact, this work admits of no shortcuts, no mechanization, and there are simply no better tools than these for the job. A machine cannot be made that is capable of doing this kind of work. Even a fairly respectable violin can be made using sophisticated machinery, but never an Osage bow! And it is satisfying to think that bows and arrows like mine can never be mass produced. It is this that sets true traditional hand craftsmanship apart from substitutes, and it is this that must be considered in the cost.
In making Arrows, I also begin with carefully selected raw materials: shafts or planks of Fir or Spruce, turkey pinions, silk thread and hide glue. Then I work through each process by hand down to the last waxing of the finished arrow. It takes me about 40 hours of highly skilled work to make each bow and 20 hours for a dozen arrows.
By cutting, stitching and lacing manually, I create leather work that can only be crudely imitated using machines. There is patience and sturdy calm infused into each piece.
Every bow, every arrow and every leather article from my shop is a unique creation that could only be made by skilled human hands.
If the price of professionally made hand-crafted tackle is out of your budget but you are determined to start shooting with a real bow and arrows, I would encourage you to try making your own. Following the directions given in numerous easily available books and articles, you can provide yourself with serviceable weapons very inexpensively. You will have tackle better than if you bought a cheap wooden bow and shoddy arrows. Along with some experience in making archer's tackle you will come to appreciate the time and skill required, and you will know better what to look for in good equipment.Please look over these pages for more details and descriptions. You will find that in every respect my bows and arrows are traditional in something more than name: this is truly Ancient Archery.
And lastly, a bit of human interest: Here is a photo of a very intense 14 year old concentrating on the mark.
Though that old (badly tillered) Lemonwood flatbow is gone,
the love of Archery it kindled in me lives on !a l u [Back to Top]
