(upbeat music) - Hey there, I wanna talk to you about our show partners, Polite Badanger's Tools. I own a handful of the beautifully handcrafted knives from Polite Badangers. I've used both the Nesmuck and the little Delta Skinner to put your big game this season and use a large tracker knife for chopping roughing out bows. Perhaps what I love most about these knives is that each one is unique and handcrafted in Alaska by my buddy Sam Curtis. Sam is an army veteran, a family man, and all around good human being. Supporting folks like Sam makes me happy so I do it, and you should too. Use the discount code BOYER in all caps to save 10% on all your orders from Polite Badanger's Tools. If you wanna learn more about Sam and his creative processes, check out episode eight of the podcast. Vuni Gear, I've used Vuni Gear all season this year from Chasing Pigs in Florida's July heat to sick of black-tailed deer on Kodiak Island. My two favorite pieces of gear are probably the altitude pan, the Helios hoodie, what you use on nearly every single hunt. When the weather sucks, I'm grateful to have the Nimbus jacket and pants to keep me dry, which I use daily during the windy and rainy days while hunting on Kodiak Island earlier this year. Use the discount code BOYER15 and check out to save 15% on all Vuni Gear. Check them out at vunigear.com. That's V-U-N-I-G-E-A-R.com. Organic Archery, my good friend and bow-making mentor, owns and runs the organic archery bow-making school, which will be releasing their 2025 course dates this December via email newsletter. If you're not signed up for the newsletter, you should do so right now. You'll never get spammed, I promise. I personally attended the organic archery's beginning bow-building course and I'm confident that the experience took years of trial and error off of the art and my personal skill of learning to make self-bose. I'm excited to hone my skills in 2025 during one of organic archery's advanced bow-making courses and filling my belly with all the wholesome food prepared by Corey's bride. Organic Archery has hosted well over 100 students over the past four years and every student has left with a formidable self-made bow. That's pretty daggone, amazing folks. You go in there, you spend three days going through the grind and learning basic wood skills, tools, hand tools, just a little bit of history and context and how to select bows and how to prepare your stave and you come out with a bow that is ready to harvest, gain, if so you choose. It's a life-changing experience in my mind. Go check them out. Check out organicarchery.com for more details where you'll learn about all the ins and outs of what you need to do in a much more clear and concise manner than what I can deliver on this here intro. Thanks. (upbeat music) - Welcome to the Bow Yours podcast where we explore the ancient R of bow making, traditional archery and the age-old pursuit of wild game. Together we'll chat with masters of their craft to uncover the deeper why behind reviving the old ways in a modern world. Today I get to welcome my first international guest, Pear Freedom. Now he's gonna correct me on how to say that properly because words is hard. But Pear is a bow you're from southwest Sweden. He's also an avid outdoorsman, a husband and father of three, soon to be four little humans. He leverages bow making as a bit of a refuge in the day-to-day grind, which I can very much relate to, Pear, how are you? - I'm doing really good, a little bit sore. Just got home from a few rounds of sparring. But other than that, I'm really excited to be here. Thanks for having me. - Yeah, are you a practitioner of martial arts? - Well, I stepped out of the cage 15 years ago. So now on it's just me and a couple of other real-age guys getting together once a week just fooling around. - Just some middle-age dads beating each other up. - Yeah, exactly like that. - That's like bonding. - Yeah, who's this? - Oh, wow, well, that sounds pretty cool. That's how you say so fit and trim, then yeah? - Yeah, I'll bet them bow making. - Yeah, do you find that the other guys are intimidated by your super manly mustache? - I hope so. (both laughing) - Oh, man, I couldn't grow a mustache that good if I used a prosthetic mustache. - Yeah, I'm glad I have it. That's the only piano I can grow. So. (both laughing) - Oh, man, well, tell everybody how the proper way to say your name because I'm a Luddite and a bit of a caveman. So I just mess up everybody's pronunciation. - Yeah, my name is Pat Fridian. - Fridian. - Okay, and you live in Southwest, Sweden. And have you, were you born and raised in Sweden? - Yeah, born and raised on the west coast of Sweden. Close to the city of Gothenburg. - Right, yeah. - Yeah, we were talking before we hit record that I spent a lot of time in Europe living out there when I was working for Uncle Sam. And then later my current grownup job is globally based out of Helsinki, Finland and everything else, but I haven't not had the pleasure to spend much time in Sweden. So I need to add that to the list next time I fly over the pond. - Yeah, you should. - Yeah, we'll eat some herring and drink a cold beer and chop some wood or something like that that makes us feel like a little man. - Sounds perfect, man. Good deal. - Well, brother, man, we've talked for, I don't know, over a year on the old Instagram and I feel like we constantly support each other and we're each other's loudest cheerleaders which I genuinely appreciate. And I would just like to know a little bit more about your origin story, kind of how you grew up. And I know that you were pretty busy fishermen and things of that nature. When you had more time before you had a bunch of kiddos and everything else and kind of talked about how bow making has almost been therapeutic for you. It can, pretty much for me, you know, I am a hobbyist bowier and it's a little bit like therapy. So I would just love to get your background organically and let everybody get to know you. - Yeah, sure. Yeah, so I'm born and raised on the west coast of Sweden. Love spending time outdoors as a kid. Fishing, got hooked on that really early. Spent as much time as I could on the lake or on the shore. Always been fascinated with craft in general. Woodworking, obviously. But I love working with fabric, knitting, things like that. So spending time outdoors and working with my hands has been like the two paths I've been working. I was in childhood. Yeah, I grew up. I spent a lot of time outdoors. After high school, I went into the army, as an army ranger. A lot of things fell into place for me there. I had my mindset on continuing on in the offices program. But back then, there were budget cuts and training was constant that year. So I didn't want to wait. Had my mindset on higher education. So ended up moving to the far north of Sweden, studying forestry for five and a half years. And that's been my profession ever since. - Well, I see you working forestry too. - Yeah, I work for a small, how do you say it? Is it township or municipality? - Yeah. - Yeah, I have the responsibility for 2,500 hectares. I think it translates to about six and a half thousand acres. - That's a good piece of land. - Yeah, it is. So I get to manage the forest and a couple of nation preservation. Fishing and hunting, stuff like that. So I'm in the right place. - Are you? - A lot of time afterwards. - Do you work more in the realm of like law enforcement or biology or just management? What is really your role? - Yeah, it's more like forestry and biology. Logging things to restore nature, things like that. - That's awesome, man. I live in the southeast here in the United States and logging is very prevalent out here. It's mostly in the form of Pines where I live in North Carolina. But there are forestry managers that work both for the state but also for the big companies that are logging companies so that they make sure that they are well aligned with what is legal in mandated by the state or an area or if we're near a swamp or a waterway and all those things and the certain precautions they have to take place. But also to help manage them for future growth of their natural resource, right? For replanting and growing and when to harvest here and when to harvest there and all that stuff. My undergrad was actually an environmental study. So, but I honestly, man, I wasn't as good at it as you to where I was able to stay in the field. I reverted back to my government work after the military. - Yeah. - And I probably should have stuck with something that was more outdoors 'cause now I have a laptop. So. - Yeah, I fortunately, I'm probably the only one in the office working around with the knife and boots on. But I get to spend a few days each week just wandering around in the forest. So it's really great. - Wow, that's beautiful. - Yeah. - It's really great. And your wife and kiddos do you guys, do they get to spend a lot of time outside too? - Yeah. We're trying to do like, yeah, small things. They're not that old. My boys are six years old and our daughter is just three. So the boys got their first knives and federal rods one of the four. And we can spend like a day just making hot dogs and debarking a stick. - Yeah. - It's really great. - So your boys are twins and yeah? - Yeah, they are. - Wow, man, you really have your hands full and you've got another one on the way, yeah? - Yeah, but starting off with twins, this is like every four kids from stock. - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything's gonna be easy from there, right? - Like, yeah, I think so. - So I think just finding time at the wall is probably my biggest achievement in bow making. - Yeah, I kid that. - So what brought you, I guess how long ago did you start testing your craft at making bows? - I think it was about 2016, 2017, like something like that. I don't have any background whatsoever into archery or bow hunting. I think I just watched a tutorial on YouTube, somebody making bows out of PVC pipe. And I thought, yeah, that sounds like a cool weekend project. (laughs) But it turns out that scheduled 40 PVC ain't available here. So I went to the woods, got me a piece of hisel and I spent the whole summer working that bow turned out like 25 pounds, four inches of permanent set, but I went straight down the rabbit hole from there. - Wow, that's awesome. What types of bowwoods you have there in Sweden that you're able to use on a regular basis and what are some of those harder woods that you still get to get access to, but it might be a rarity. - Yeah, we don't have Osage. But I worked a lot with Maple, Norway, Maple, Elem, Ash, Shokshari, Hazel, Whitebeam, Oak, yeah, I think. - Pretty much like a great selection of white woods up there though. - Yeah, we have, but finding, I just recently started building some board bows and finding a board bow, finding a board here in Sweden that ain't made out of pine or spruce is harder than getting a bow save. - Really, yeah, I can see that. I mean, I know some guys get like hickory bows or hickory boards, where I'm at, I can't find a hickory board, but there's a lot of oak that I can find that's a board. Early on, I found a couple of ashboards, which are really nice, but is that like a lumber yard, like some rough sawn stuff? I find myself that I prefer to work with stays but are than I do boards, and it's not just because it's sexier, it looks cooler. It's just like, I feel like, because a lot of the boards that I've worked with were oak and it just splinters and it gets brittle, it's hard on your draw knife and all that. I think if I had some other boards that were available, I'd be more inclined to do that, but yeah, a lot of the white wood boards that are out here are pine or some sort of conifer tree, which is not ideal. I plan on taking some time to make a bunch of kids bows, at least like half of those for Christmas time. A couple of gifts, a couple of people, like it's a head, like to purchase a bow for my kid, yada, yada. So there might be some bore bows mixed in there, but I'm probably gonna harvest some saplings too that are, you know, we got some maple out here where I hunt and some even some eastern red steeders, so I might harvest some saplings and kind of speed dry them to make some kids bows, but I feel like it's been a year or so since I've tried making anything and I'm a board, but I see people doing all the time, "Man, why not to stress out about a nice stave sometimes?" And I can spend my $3 on a board and just experiment with it, right? - Yeah. - Just if you wanna look on your design or something like that. - Yeah, I prefer staves every day, but the boards is a good source waiting for the wood to dry. Yes. (laughs) It's like a bandaid that you, banded you put on while you're waiting for something else. - Yeah, exactly. So I dig it. And what style of bows have you mostly been making? Have you dabbled in a lot of different styles? Have you kind of picked two or three or one that you really like to stick with? What is your preference? - Oh, I think most of my bows has been like American style long bows that and pyramid bows. Made a few more gibbets. It's a really cool design. - Right, an ancient design, right? - Yeah, but it's a really high-performance design. But yeah, flat bows, basically. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, a lot of white wood flat bows. Like, man, I've been following on the old Instagram for quite a while. I think you make some really beautiful bows. And like, it's also unique. Like, you don't really have like close by, like geographically friends or anybody that's close by that's also building bows, all right? You're kind of like in your own little vacuum. - Yeah, for sure. If it wasn't for Instagram, I think it was alone in the world. I think they're like, three or four are the guys here in Sweden making bows. So it's not a big deal here. But one thing is not legal and also in general, it's not focused on self-pose. But I don't care about that. - I make you pose makes me feel good and that's why I do it. - Yeah, I think that's beautiful. 'Cause like, I'm very much like a, I'm a hunter first and a bow hunter second to be clear. I mean, like if I go the next two months and I don't have a deer on the ground, I'll never get out my rifle and I'm gonna put some meat in the freezer. Like, there are a lot of purists that are like, oh, I'll just stick with it. I'm like, man, I don't like buying meat from the grocery store. So if I can't get the deal in a couple of months because I'm in my own, if I'm doing something wrong, whatever it is, right? Like, there will be a point where I wanna put meat in the freezer, but I don't think I would have ever taken up, particularly traditional archery without the hunting first. And even still, like right now, it's like, okay, well hunting, archery season just started here. And I'm like, oh, I should probably build a couple bows. I'm like, yeah, but the weather's starting to look pretty good for getting into the woods and chasing deer. So yeah, but so I find it very inspiring that you were compelled by having almost like a mental escape and then it became a craft. And like, so you are an archer and a bowyer without, you know, all with the absence of hunting. - Yeah, I would say I'm a bowyer and then archer. I think I made like 10 bows before I actually took time to shoot them properly. So the archery part has grown on me. It's really fun, but it's the craft that I'm in love with. - That's awesome. And are you still, are you mostly using hand tools or are you using any power tools nowadays? - Oh, it's hand tools. I use a circular saw to splice woods. I make a few bullet bows and figure out a way to use the circular saw, making like finger joints. But other than that, it's hand tools all the way. - Did you, how have you liked that the product or the turnout of the splice, the two pieces that you've made so far? - It's solid, it's really solid. Yeah, I'm working on the bow right now with like close to 50 pounds and it's rock solid. It's just like a two inch splice, but it's, the gloomage surface is probably double a sea spice. So it's solid. - That's awesome, man. I find it spot, I don't, like I, when it comes to something that takes extreme finesse, like putting together the billets and splicing and all that stuff, that's probably not my jam. I'm just, it's like being a Fletcher, making arrows. Like I would love it if I just knew how to do it, but I'm also like, I just want to wake up and know how to do it because the finesse involved in that is not my strong suit. So when somebody's taking on this new venture and an already difficult craft, I always find it very admirable. - Thanks, to be honest, it's the way I do it. I use quite a lot of brute force. (laughing) I tried the bad stuff, but I couldn't figure that out. So I make the joints and I clamp it to death. (laughing) - You take out your frustration. - Yeah. - What, can you walk me through that process a little bit, you know, through audio of, you know, you've got a couple from the point where you've got a piece of wood to where you're splicing and you make this into a stick that shoots other sticks. - Yeah, so finding staves is not that easy. I got a friend who's an over wrist. It's my supplier. But finding billets, it's much, much easier. So yeah, the whole process, I get a clock load full of staves every year, spend a couple of hours in the backyard scaring all the neighbors, spitting them, gluing them up, waiting a year. But billets, since I thought I probably prefer billets, they're much easier to get like this perfect stave. And I tried making take down those to your end of billets, that's all. I get frustrated. But I've been working a lot in the forestry and lumber sector and they use finger joints in construction wood. So I figured that would work on a bow as well. So I asked to cut the circular saw, made a super simple jig and just cut a two inch cut on each fillet. And yeah, with a little bit of force, and you can make it work. Right on. So you've got your jig, you make your cuts and you, I assume, then you're going to glue up those joints and kind of to make sure they're nice and tight, you're using another piece of wood or a rubber mallet or something like that to kind of force them together. Yeah, I use a tight bond and just clamp them in the vice. Gotcha. And how long, how long do you keep them under pressure in the clamp? Two days, something like updates. So I have to fully cure and everything else that way. Yeah, it depends. I have my workshop outside. So it depends on the temperature around the humidity. Mine's outside too. I don't have a proper shop, which is why most of August I didn't make a single bow because it was so gosh darn hot here. I was just like, I can't do it right now. Oh man. And then so you, I assume, then you're, you know, you're sanding, you're smoothing out and finishing that splice. And then you go into a killer process after that. Yeah, I use a hatchet to run out of bow. I like to use a hand plane. It's not the most common tool, but I never really got the hang of a drawn knife. So I rough out the bow with a hand plane or a spoke shape. From that, I use a rasp till I get it to about the bracelet. OK, trying to get everything perfectly balanced and from various scraper only. I hate sanding, so I like to keep my basket this sharp. I, I don't mind the sandy because sometimes I'm just sitting out of my porch and I'll open a beer and stare at the water and sand away without thinking. But I think it's also because I super suck it still at sharpening my my scrapers a lot of times. I go through iterations and it everybody that does, you know, I've had like cubby Hooper's like FaceTimed me like a couple of videos. And I'm like, it's still not as sharp as it was. Like I suck at this and I get very frustrated. I think I was talking to Caleb Flies, you know, he's and he's got a great, you know, primitive archery podcast. And he was like, he has fortunately card scrapers was so cheap because I think the first couple of years I was doing this, I just would buy more scrapers because they're like five bucks a piece. And I was like, yeah, I can't do that. I probably got a collection that are like of 20 that are sitting in a plastic tote someplace that need to be sharpened because I was like, oh, no, I'm just, I'm just going to buy a couple. But I need to, I need to be better for sure. It's not, it's really not that hard. I think a lot of people overcomplicated. Probably I took the furniture from the kitchen and was so just fine. Yeah, yeah. I actually made a couple of scrapers from an old ham saw real good quality steel. And yeah, they work out just good and so forth. Right on. Well done. And so I've seen it. You're one of the only ones I've seen use like a hand planer for this. And I also like when I think about like the the metrics of a board bow, I'm like, oh man, you actually like as far as taking it down. Even even scrapes, a hand planer on a flat surface, like a making a board bow is actually seems way more ideal than using a draw knife. Yeah, I get the much better control with the hand plane for sure. But I use the hand plane on staves as well. Well, I'm going to try to get it. I've never done it. I get it close to the ideal dimensions and stop before I use the rasp. OK, right on. How about how long is it taking you to make a bow from from scratch? Oh, making both is the perfect cross. I can spend like 10 hours if I have the time, but I don't have the time. So it's 50 minutes here and I was there. So I can work on it both weeks, but in total, I guess, like them to 40 hours, something like that. Yeah, that's that's probably about what I do. And I can't just do it in one or two blocks. Like I know, guys, it'll sit and work on something for six hours straight. I think my focus would wane or I'd get tired or I'd get in a hurry and take too much off with the draw knife or something like that. And then mistakes are made, right? So I usually like an hour here, 10 minutes there, 15 minutes there. I walk out to take out the trash and I run the rasp over the the wood for a few minutes before I come back upstairs, things like that. Yeah, that's the way to go, yeah. And it keeps you from, I think, it's still it's like, oh, this is a little bit of like a reset or like it's therapeutic rather than. Yeah, I've got to get this thing done, right? And you put a lot of pressure on yourself, which makes it much less enjoyable. Yeah, for sure. It's therapeutic. It's the word for sure. It's my refuge. Get us better a little bit of time in my workshop. Just focusing on this piece of wood that nobody cares about at them be. But it works out. It's like my yoga. Yeah, it's beautiful, right? Are you are you finding yourself? Are you giving away a bunch of bows? Are you or do you have like 20 bows just stacked up in your house? Oh, no, I give away both when I can. Rather see them being used and you're smiling up here. Yeah, I typically a lot of times I've like I've got a buddy that like I know is interested and I'm like, here's a new bow, man. Let's go get a beer. Yeah, you owe me a beer because I just hid your bow type of situation. But it's it's or, you know, things like that. Or by no, so a friend that's got a teenager that really likes the outdoors, but hasn't necessarily expressed interest, but I think could. I think they can get in a lot less trouble with a bow in their hands than then being bored in town. Yeah, for sure. But I started selling bows like a year ago. Right on. Yeah, I got shit. They carefully cost for new states, but I did a couple of commissions. But no, I didn't really like that. I want to be the boss that I want to make. And if somebody else want to buy it, it's fine. But working on commissions, it's it's so much stress. It rocks. Yes, man, I've talked to a couple of people about this now. I think like Dan Santana, Corey Hock and others. And we talked about how like commit getting doing a bow, like commissioning a bow is super stressful because you've got this piece of wood and there's a bow in there, but you have no idea what kind of bow is in there. Instead, you want to force a certain bow to happen at your will. And that's not a beautiful process. But when you just make a bow and we got to say what way or draw weight it is or what design or aesthetic it has, you can just post it. And you're like, hey, I made this bow is for sale. And that's that's way more enjoyable, right? I've got a couple of commission boats to get done before the end of the year. And it's for really great people. So I'm very content with it. But I think mostly in 25, it's just going to be more of a. Post it on the old social media and say, all right, here's a bow. You know, tell a little story about it. And and I don't know, it's a lot more organic process. Yeah, for sure. I think making kids posts will be really rewarding. Oh, yeah. And I mean, so far, I've made it quite a handful or there's other times where, like, I just made a stay a bow that was underweight. So ended up being a kid's bow. This time, it's going to be very intentional where. I think I'll get a lot of joy just putting those in hands of, you know, kids that are typically like 12 and under. Yeah, but it's also like if look, if I want to put some paint on them or draw a dinosaur on one or something like that, I can sure as hell do it because it's going to be cool for them. So I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, the boy's got the new boats for Christmas. All dressed up with fish skins and people lace. That's awesome. Like a pound post, but it's mostly oil. That's super cool and super cool. We kind of know what's going on here. What are your next builds looking like, you think? Throughout the fall, do you have any like unique aspirations? For example, like, oh, I've been really, I've really wanted to make this style or I'd like to make a really heavy bow or I'd like to add a new design. I'm boring where a lot of times I stick to like one or two designs, but I feel like while you stick to a flat bow more often than not, you've got a lot of variety. So I guess what sparks your curiosity and compels you to do that. Or is it something that like, hey, the wood guides me to do this thing? It's pretty much the wood that guides me. But I want to get back to decorating the boats with fish skins. Yeah, I'm really inspired by Peter Woodland. Yes. Yeah. Heritage boats, they are super beautiful. He's a Canadian bow year, but his bows and finishing he does on his bows is really exceptional. Yeah, for sure. There's, there's not a, you couldn't find a tool mark on those bows with a magnifying glass, you know, that they are, they are really, really 100% beautiful. Yeah. So I'm going to go to the fish market. So I'm on a quest. Yeah. And I'm hopefully with the bounce level fish. Dry some fish skins and that's a good idea. I am, I thought about that my neighbor. He's a he fish, he goes fishing like every day. And I thought about some, some certain fish there in season and stuff like that. That might look really pretty, but I haven't, I haven't dabbled that far yet. Maybe over the winter, I'll, I'll, I'll dive into something like that. Cause it would be a cool, cool backing. Um, yeah, I know, like a wail and olive from Swiftwood, but Swiftwood bows, he uses sturgeon skin quite a bit and it looks really cool. Um, but I mean, I feel like in the States too, we just don't leverage like fish, skin and fish leather as much as some places, but it's such a, like, it's an ancient type of leather and school and, and, you know, folks headed corporate into linens and things, that nature in the past. So yeah, why not? Yeah, it's funny how one craft leads to another. Uh, I would love to use snakes against, but, uh, we don't have snakes here, basically, I don't know, it might be a little cold often. Yeah, but we do have fish. Uh, so that, and, uh, my main focus right now is, uh, the next bowwheel across. I held one, uh, a few weeks ago, uh, and, uh, teaching bowmaking man, that's a whole lot of another level. So, um, I'm trying to prepare as much as I can for that. So, so tell me about this. So, so are you doing this all solo or how many, how many students or future bow years are attending? Uh, do you have folks that are helping you along with this process? What, what, tell me about your venture into teaching some bowmaking classes. Yeah, it's, it's just me. Uh, it's set up like, yeah, one day, uh, introduction to bowmaking toss. Mm-hmm. Uh, the goal is to live with, uh, knowledge about the whole process. And if you end up with, uh, ready bow, that's a bonus. But with, uh, it's a full day, uh, really hectic, uh, like to work outside. Uh, but I think, uh, three students is, uh, quite enough. Mm-hmm. And we work with, uh, board bows, uh, it's much, uh, easier, uh, not this, uh, time consuming. But, uh, yeah, we have, I had one toss and, uh, everybody left with the bow. That's like, uh, 90% finished. That's amazing. Wow. And one day that's really incredible. Yeah. We broke one during the tillering process. Uh, anybody cry? Yeah, I almost did. Yeah. I can see that I want to cry a little bit every time I mess up a bow. Yeah, but it's a big part of bow making. I, uh, felt like I was sitting my own house with broken bows at one point. Yes. I, um, I've talked about this before, but some folks, you know, kind of have all this stack of broken bows as, as like a badge of honor. Like, oh, it's part of the learning process. It's beautiful. And I'll be honest, man. Like I'm not, I'm not like, I'm not, um, I'm just not as, as cool as that to where like when I break one, I pretty much throw it in the, in the campfire. No, I'm not, um, I'm not as stoic about it. It's like having it be this, this mantle on the side and, you know, it's, oh, yeah. You know, they, I break some from time to time, but that's the learning process. I get it that it's part of the learning process and I accept it. But I also get mad when I spend 10 hours on something and it breaks. So it goes for sure. Um, I like to work with, uh, rebose, um, simultaneously. Yeah. In different stages of the process. I, I, I can tell you that I'm about the same way. I like to have them at different stages because when you start getting tired or you encounter an obstacle, whether it's a knot or a bend or something like that on one, you're like, okay, I can take a deep breath. I'm going to move on to this other one and start getting down to a ring or removing the bark or work on shaping this handle or something like that. Right. So it gives you. Some escapes to allow that therapy to keep maintain momentum, but without having to rush or get aggravated at like once, one specific bow. And sometimes that brings you enough clarity to go back to the one that was giving you problems and overcome that, you know, with, with peace. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I dig it. I dig it. Um, so you did the kit that you've mentioned that you made your children bows for Christmas last year. And were those are bows that you made? Yeah, I'd have a shot of both that I didn't make myself. That is awesome too. That is super wild. I am my, my, my wife and kids have bows used the bows they shoot are the ones I made. But I think you've posted about that on social media is like, oh, the only bows I've ever shot were the bows that I made myself. And so you really are in kind of this vacuum when it comes to like inspiration where you, you've done this so much yourself. I think that takes so much grit and perseverance because I tell you, I mean, I love like being inspired through a YouTube or Instagram or something like that. But if I haven't had the opportunity to talk to or at least bump into some folks at a convention or something like that, I think my, my inspiration would lull. Um, and the fact that you're just like, Hey, I'm, I'm me. I'm doing this thing. I'm doing this thing for me and not for anybody else's approval or what have you. Um, it's awesome. I'm super impressed. Thank you. And your kids are going to see that and they're going to see that in you and be better for it. Thanks. Yeah, I think bow making sparks by curiosity. Um, I bought a couple of arrow shafts, but I figured, Hey, I can probably do this as well. Mm hmm. But, uh, arrows is, it's much, much harder than those. Yeah, I know my, my buddy Corey, he, um, he talks about how and he makes really amazing, beautiful arrows, but he's like, this is, this is like the bane of my existence. It's like I hate it, you know, and, um, and his bows are beautiful and, but he loves that. He gets so much joy out of that, but arrows, he does not. And that's, I think my difficulty. I'm like, I want to do it, but like why, like, and is it going to be worth a headache? I don't know. Maybe someday, but right now I can tell you, I don't have enough peace in my brain to dabble into also being a Fletcher. Um, but I don't know. Sometimes there is something to say about, you know, harvesting an animal from a bow that you made yourself, but also arrows that you made yourself. That's, that's bad. Yeah. So to speak, I can relate. Yeah, but I also, it's good when you live in Sweden because it gets really, really cold, uh, in the winter time. And if it's not cold, it's raining. So it's either too cold or too humid to make a bow. So, um, yeah, I have to make arrows just to keep going. That makes sense. Yeah. And it keeps your, keeps your craft sharp. Yeah. And my mind at ease, right. Yeah, which is more important, right. Yeah. Are you, um, how many more courses do you have coming up this year? Uh, yes, one, one more. Yeah, one more. Uh, and after that, we'll see how it goes. But, uh, it's been really, really rewarding and fun. So hopefully there would be, uh, another one in the spring. Right on. Are you building a good relationship with the students? And, and I, I can only imagine they're still pinging you and asking you questions and things of that nature as they've taken on a new trade. Yeah, a little bit or they got, uh, scared away. Uh, I guess it was way more than I thought I don't want to do it. Yeah, perhaps I can get, I can see that. Um, I went to, when I went to a course, a similar course, um, I was the only one that kept making bows afterwards. And, uh, from what I gather, that's, that's probably the norm. It's like, Oh, I made my one bow. It's all I need to do. Um, for me, it just, I don't know, it, it was a spark that has, that has now been. You know, a full on fire at times. Uh, so I get a lot of joy out of it. I mean, I think that's why I like talking to you on, on the old Instagram, because it's, this is, this is a hobby. It's not an aspiration really for a career. Um, but it's pure and it's organic. And, uh, I think we do it for the same reason, which is sometimes to find peace. Yeah, the world is busy enough. This is, this is, this is that, that time to kind of escape that a little bit. Right. Yeah, it's almost like a rebellion, uh, to work with, uh, wood and, uh, hand tools. I don't know if it's that way up there. Um, but like in the States, I feel like there's some, sometimes a little bit of an underground movement to rebel or revolt in the, in the sense of revolution. And it's not like we're not going to the streets and protesting and turning, you know, starting riots. And I mean, people are doing the wrong shit like that happens in the States all the time and it's done, but like it's more of like causing a ruckus and breaking glass and setting cars on fires and all that. But I think it's a stronger revolution when you can show the government or the, the narrative or the authority that you don't need them, like planting your own garden and, and taking, you know, using natural resources and finding natural medicinals and, um, canning your food, shooting a bow and arrow, fabricating things. Some people are very skilled carpenters and they can make their own home, um, living off the land or through a, is we talk about it in the intro, right? We're, we're, we're reinvigorating age old practices in a modern world. And I think that's one of the most ultimate forms of, of revolution or a dissent to keep this, and then I have to be public. In fact, it's probably more revolutionary to keep it to yourself. Yeah, probably, um, and it's, it's rewarding like nothing else. That's, uh, yeah, shooting a self-made bow. It's, uh, it's a real sense of accomplishment. It really is. Do you find yourself, how often are you shooting? Uh, so often as I can, I, I could take like 10 hours, 10 minutes after work each day. That's about one, yeah. If I can shoot a couple of, a couple of rounds shooting three to five at a time each day, like I feel responsible enough that way, at least. Yeah. But you do it for a whole lot of reason. I mean, well, yeah, I mean, not, not, I mean, it's the same reason. Like I want to be proficient at, at shooting because I want to harvest game. And you want to be proficient at shooting because you want to continue to grow and be better, um, which some day could also still translate to harvesting game. Um, but yeah, it's, um, it, you know, you're, you're making this, this beautiful tool that's also a work of art and, but you also, it's functional. And you want to see it function and perform and turn an extension of you that has a function and perform. Yeah. I'm taking a Swedish now trying to translate. Yeah, you said the best, uh, making posts is like a function lot. Uh, you have to put your touch into it. And there's so much knowledge going into it, uh, making a log, uh, turn into something that you can, uh, use as a tool. Right. Yeah. Like most people are going to think, look at that log and think, oh, that makes paper or I can put that in my fireplace and make heat. Yeah, necessarily I can make a weapon or a tool. Um, and I, yeah, I, I can relate. Are you, um, are you, so like I only know what literature is around that's that comes from the States, right? What literature are you, are you finding your guides and your templates or. Inspiration through just through virtual means or are there, have you been able to get your hands on some literature and books or something of that nature that you can reference? Yeah, I read that. Oh, yeah, spine done. Okay. Yeah, but, uh, I get most ideas and, uh, inspiration from uh, yeah, like down Santana, um, uh, Waylon, let's switch the bows. Uh, Corey, I work for sure. Uh, I have a clay haze all, all their tutorials. Yeah, prolific, prolific tutorials on YouTube, which I think are all very helpful. Um, I haven't, I guess. So I just recorded earlier this week with Dan, um, Dan Santana. So we, and I guess, so his podcast will come out right before this one. So this will be not necessarily news to everybody, but we started, we're starting a, a series called bow year in the making. And basically once a month, we're going to release kind of an audio, um, tutorial on making boats at home and it's, it's one, it can supplement the tutorials that he does at home through video, right? On his YouTube, but for also, like a lot of people are dry, listen to podcasts while they're in the gym or mowing their lawn or driving to work. And we're basically going from like history and context. Through like choosing a tree and what makes a good bow wood to the tailoring process or design, tailoring process, um, all of that stuff, right? So it's probably going to be a six part series that we're doing. And, and, I mean, Dan is just like his voice was made for this too. He's like, he's just very calm. He talks to you, um, but he needs a wealth of knowledge. And he, like he dies into everything for long. Like he, he makes tools sometimes. He's, he's doing blacksmithing. He, he makes beautiful wood dies out of like flowers and roots and all of these things. So he's, he's just an exceptional resource to have. Um, but yeah, we're going to, um, for those that are listening that haven't looked to the, at the previous episode, um, bow year in the making volume one will be out and we're going to, it's probably going to be a six part, a series, a six volume series that's going to highlight that. So, um, that's why I'm doing this. Man, that's why I'm doing this whole dog gone podcast is to tell the stories of bow years, not to tell my stories. Cause there are people who are way cooler than me out there, like yourself. And I think these are stories worth telling. And if folks can get a little bit of inspiration or refine a current skill out of that, I, it's mission success. Yeah, I have to tell you that this is the podcast I was waiting for. Amen. Thanks. I'm trying not to screw it up too bad. You're doing a great job. I couldn't imagine sitting here six years later into go working and, uh, just, uh, noting out about this craft with someone across the seas. It's so far. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. It's still earlier here though. Usually I'm like, I'm BSing with somebody on the podcast and drinking a bourbon, but I still have work to do the rest of the day. So not there yet. Um, I guess in your case, it'd be what, like gin or something, right? Sorry, I guess in your case in Sweden, what would it be? Gin, what would be the, uh, the spirit of choice? Carbon or whiskey, okay. Is there a some, is there a Scandinavian bourbon or whiskey up there? Yeah, but I think they, uh, like that background. Those poor guys. You guys need to work. Yeah, so I was, I was in a Finland and I can't remember the name of it, man. But man, there is a, uh, it's a gin that sits up there. Um, it was beautiful. And you, what are the little berries they put in with a gin and tonic and, uh, it's, uh, yeah. I mean, it was super nice and I'm not even a gin guy, but up there, just. Everything looked really good. I went up there and I stumbled across a reindeer farm. And I got to take a reindeer for a walk in the woods on a leash. I felt like a Disney princess. That's great, man. I was like, I was like, yeah, there's this, uh, former Marine, you know, traveled around the world. Chase bad guys. And here I am walking up fuzzy reindeer on a leash in Finland that I stumbled upon. So I'm getting soft as I get older, I think. Yeah, that's, that's a good thing. Yeah, but I made up for it by ordering reindeer stakes at the restaurant later that night. So. Okay. Oh man. Well, brother, do we have anything else to talk about? I don't know if we, we topped it off. I think we should do this every few months and catch up on, uh, your work over, over, across the pond. And, uh, at some point when I get out there, um, man, I would love to link up. Uh, and, you know, fortunately, a Ryan air flight from any place is usually pretty cheap. You can link up and, uh, you know, go do some fishing or pretend we're making bows or, uh, or something like that. I'd like that very much. It would be really awesome. I would, I would, I know I would genuinely appreciate it. I, uh, I love the fact that we've been able to build, like I, I will be the first one to knock on social media and how much of a pain in the ass and how it's superficial. Yeah. Um, but there have been some really awesome genuine people I've met through this process, you being one of them. And the fact that we're able to, you know, ping each other a couple of times a week and talk about bows and, and all that good stuff or just to cheer each other on, I think it's, it's really awesome and it brings me a lot of joy. And, uh, I guess gives me momentum to keep up this, this year podcast. I hope you do. All right, buddy, well, brother, man, where can people find you on the old, uh, interwebs? I'm on Instagram. Yeah. As no, as self-bose Nordic self-bose and do you post information regarding your courses on there also? Yeah, um, I think, uh, in the background, that's a static community. Uh, that's, uh, uh, managing the course. That's awesome. So what I can do is, is I'll post that information in the show notes here. So as you share it, you know, when it comes out, as you shared across your community, there's probably more European based, um, they can see it. Hopefully it'll help gain some exposure to people in Europe and come attend with your courses and, uh, look it. That's what we're doing a lot of times. We're lowering the barrier to entry to do something new, right? At the tail and the most podcast, I say, you know, remember to get outside, get dirty and learn something new. And I, I think that's important and it's also a scarcity in today's modern world. So I think what you're doing is really, really brave because nobody else is really doing it over there. Um, you're not, you don't have a group, a small group of like-minded folks per se. They're taking up this craft that you can then gain inspiration on. You're, you're, you're being inspired for folks that live across the world, um, or just your own personal growth. And, man, I think that takes grit and fortitude, so I love it and I love watching it. And, uh, I can't wait to see some of the bows that you come up with, especially when you start, um, experimenting with fish skins and things of that nature too. I wish, I wish you could record your conversation at the Fishmark and say, Hey, uh, I need some fish and they say, okay. And you're like, but I don't care about eating it. I need to find out what skin is going to look cool on the back of a bow. And then really, they're, they're probably going to try to check you into a crazy hospital. Yeah, that's, uh, pretty much the conversation I had last time. So, yeah. Oh, man. All right, pair, I appreciate you so much. Um, stay on the line, uh, but I appreciate you. Uh, we'll chat right after this. And we'll post everything in the show notes that you can see it. I appreciate you reaching out from across the pond and, and take a time out of your day, which is the middle of the night, your timeframe. And, uh, I hope we didn't wake up the littles and, um, sending big prayers to you and your family on the, uh, the exit, you know, the delivery of your future human. And, uh, that is much like, all right, bye. [inaudible] [MUSIC PLAYING]
This episode dives deep into the world of traditional bow making as our host interviews Per Frieden, a Swedish bowyer and outdoorsman. Per shares his journey into crafting self-bows, starting from humble beginnings to creating functional works of art. From managing forestry in Sweden to teaching bow making classes, Per’s passion for craftsmanship shines through. The conversation covers everything from the challenges of working with hand tools and splicing billets to experimenting with fish skin bow backings. It’s a blend of inspiration, humor, and actionable insights for anyone curious about this ancient craft.
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