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MOUNT VERNON — Steve Meyer is a toxophilite.

So is Myron Olson.

And they are just fine with that moniker.

What’s a toxophilite you ask? It’s a devotee of archery.

Meyer and Olson are members of the Traditional Bowhunters of Washington.

On Saturday, Meyer ventured from his home in Everett and Olson from Marysville to take part in the Silver Arrow Bowmen’s annual open house in Mount Vernon.

The pair set up an impressive display of completed bows along with numerous arrows and arrowheads.

Interested archers watched as Meyer demonstrated the art of building a traditional long bow from a chunk of osage wood.

Meyer has been building bows since 1992, while Olson has been involved since 1998. It’s an endeavor that’s been around thousands of years.

Of course, Meyer’s reasons for becoming a bow builder are a bit different than those of his ancient predecessors.

“They did it as a means of survival,” Meyer said. “Me, I didn’t have the money to buy a new bow so I decided to build my own. I hunt and teach with the bows I’ve made. It’s just real neat to be able to do things like that with a bow you’ve taken from start to finish.”

When Meyer began building bows, he could have turned out a modern compound bow. Instead, he stuck with a simpler style.

It was a slow process because at the time there wasn’t much information on bow building. Basically, the only books on the topic were from the 1920s and 1930s.

As he researched, he found American Indian-style bows made of vine maple.

“My first bow, well, it didn’t break,” Meyer said with a laugh. “That really spurred me on. So I stuck with it and now I am a member of TBW and I travel to many events and teach people how to make bows.”

On Saturday, Meyer sat down at his bow vise and worked on his latest bow. With the bow secured, Meyer got down to business. Chips of osage wood flew through the air.

His tools certainly looked from another era. As he unwrapped them from a cloth envelope, years of use were easily visible on the tools.

“These tools,” Meyer said, “are better than anything that Stanley has on the market now.”

While Meyer has moved on to specialize in long bows, Olson, who on Saturday was clad in American Indian attire, concentrates on the American Indian-style bow, which tends to be wide and flat as opposed to long and thin.

“I started out building bows when I was just a kid,” Olson said. “As I got older, I went through the compound bow stage. Then I reverted back. I was always drawn to the more primitive style. I use them to hunt with. That’s the whole reason.

“To take an animal with something you’ve built, the bow, the arrow, it takes you back 100 years. I build them mainly for myself and I donate a lot of them. I have never sold a bow I’ve built.”

The first step in building bows is deciding what kind of wood to use. Meyer said Northwest bow builders are lucky because there is plenty of wood ideal for bow making.

Yew wood is known for its strength and flexibility.

“Yew wood is the main wood used for making bows,” Meyer said. “All old-English long bows were made from the yew tree. Some of the best yew wood in the world is found right in Washington and Oregon. But it’s hard to get. You have to get permits to cut it.

“Most loggers just throw it on the burn pile. So sometimes, if you can get to a logging operation before that happens, they’ll sometimes let you have it.”

Yew is an interesting arbor. It’s genus, taxus, is derived from the Celtic word toxus, which means bow. There are yew trees upwards of 5,000 years old.

“They are a weird tree,” Meyer explained. “They grow between about 2,000 and 3,500 feet in elevation and can have 60 to 100 growth rings to an inch. A small diameter yew tree can be very old.

“So you have to know what you want and what you are looking for. I’d say maybe one out of 60 yew trees will make for a good bow.”

Osage and vine maple are also popular among bow makers.

“Vine maple is easy to get and there is a lot of it,” he said. “Plus, it’s much more forgiving. To work with yew, you have to have years and years of experience.”

And you need to have time.

Once a desirable yew tree has been found and harvested, it needs years to dry.

“I usually dry my yew from 11⁄2 to three years,” Meyer said. “The old-timers say it takes at least seven years to dry the wood properly to make a bow. I’ve got lucky. I was able to get my hands on some yew posts that were cut in 1930s and 1940s. Stuff like that is extremely hard to come by.”

Once the wood is dry, a stave — or long, slender piece of wood — is fashioned. A full-length stave in about six feet. If the original piece of wood is short, builders must use billets, which are lengths of wood joined together.

“Billets are over 36 inches and must be joined together,” Meyer said. “You splice the wood together usually at the handle (mid-bow). Or you can decide to make a take-down bow. Those pull apart at the handle.”

The wood must be free of knots, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be straight. Meyer said bows are sometimes crooked.

“It’s essential to follow the grain of the wood,” he said. “If the grain twists, the bow twists. But you can find a bow in there.”

Every piece of wood is different. Thus, every bow is different.

“Each and every bow I build is unique,” Meyer said. “It’s a unique piece of wood and the bow is unique to the individual I am building it for.”

Once the design is chosen, the wood is cut. Meyer and Olson use band saws. Meyer also has used a hatchet.

“Then you remove wood from what is going to be the belly side and, in the case of osage, start looking for a growth ring,” Meyer said. “You continue to remove wood from the belly side in order to get that perfect bend. That’s called tillering. If one part bends too much, you aren’t going to get an even draw and that’s a problem.

“You want it to bend to your draw length. Everyone’s preferred draw length is different. Draw length and the amount of pounds it takes to draw the bow back is all dependent upon the amount of wood removed. The bow has to bend evenly. There are times where you build a bow and they don’t turn out with the weight you want.”

Meyer builds bows specifically for an individual. If the person lets someone else draw back the bow and that person has a longer draw length, then the bow may never shoot the same.

“It’s said that when a bow is at full-draw, it’s nine-10ths broken,” Meyer explained. “You are right on the edge. If it’s built well — it’s not going to break.

“The wood fibers in the back (the part that faces the target) of the bow stretch apart, while the wood fibers on the belly side (part of the bow closest to the archer) crush together. The wood must be good at stretching and compressing.”

The bow builder shapes the handle and covers it with anything from rawhide to squirrel skin.

To further strengthen the bow, sinew (leg tendon from deer or elk) is glued to the bow’s back.

“Sinew acts like fiberglass,” Meyer said. “The Mongols put sinew on the back of their bows and then horn on the belly and in between was a wood core. They shot arrows 800 to 900 yards. That distance hasn’t been achieved with modern compound bows.”

Meyer’s bowstrings start as a length of Dacron B-50. However, the finished product is made the old fashioned way — via the Flemish twist. For this process, Meyer uses a jig, which looks somewhat like an oversized cribbage board. It’s a series of pegs upon which the Dacron is twisted around. Eventually, the process leads to a braided strand, complete with loops at each end.

Once completed, Meyer loops one end of the bowstring around the bottom of the bow, inserting it in a notch called a knock. He then places the bow against the instep of his boot, and begins to push.

“I push the bow down with my left hand until the string fits in the top knock,” he said.

Meyer can complete a bow in six hours.

“That’s a shootable bow,” he cautioned. “It may not be pretty.”

Most folks take about 16 hours.

“It may be shootable. However, it still needs to be finished,” Meyer added. “Then it depends on how fancy you want to make the bow. Do you want snake or sturgeon skin? Or maybe cherry bark and horn tips. An ivory strike plate. I’ve done all those things. It just takes time. It’s a custom touch.”

Building bows can be addictive.

“You build one and you’re hooked,” Olson admitted. “I have taught others to build them. But I’m not sure I’m that good of a teacher because I am very impatient. I want to get out and shoot it as soon as possible.”

There is a long history to building bows in the Northwest. Meyer had to the opportunity to learn from many of the best.

“Here in the Northwest,” he said, “we are lucky to have had an abundance of very good bow builders and very good wood. We’ve also had great tradition when it comes to archery and building bows.”

And thanks to Meyer and Olson, that tradition continues.

Vince Richardson can be reached at 360-416-2181 or by e-mail at