A four day class where students start with a stave and end with a beautiful and functional wooden long bow. During the class students will learn stave selection, bow design and performance, drawing and rough shaping, profiling, floor tillering, tillering, string making, and finishing. We also take a quick look at instinctive archery. Expect long days of hand tool use and a totally new understanding of wood.

Traditional hunters often spent more time perfecting their arrows than their bows. In the act of hunting it is the arrow that delivers the killing blow, and its quality and precision are of the utmost importance. Thus, the process of building primitive arrows is an intricate art that is often overlooked. In this course we will cover shaft harvesting, preparation and straightening, pitch preparation, fletching and hafting.

The White Tailed Deer is the most commonly hunted ungulate in North America. Like all the mammals we eat, it has many fantastic materials sources beyond the meat and tanned hide. In this course we will dive into those most useful resources that can be taken from deer and other mammals. We will process bones and antler, working on projects such as knives, awls, fish hooks, and more. We will get into raw hide projects, learning how simple it is to turn a fresh skin into raw hide, as well as how to shape containers with this mold-able yet durable material. We will look at sinew processing and use, as well as produce some hide glue. This is an awesome class for anyone who is looking to learn how to get the most from and animals they have raised, hunted, or scavenged.

There are many ways to utilize an animals skin. One of the most easily accessible and useful techniques is crafting with rawhide. In this short one day course we will go over processing rawhide from a fresh skin and how to source materials. Then we will get into several approaches to using rawhide, from straps, to bags, to sheaths, to boxes and other containers. All materials are included.

If you have taken knapping before and want to grow your skills, this class is for you. I will work with everyone individually at their skill level, and my job is to help you take your knapping to the next level! This class will focus on a slew of advanced topics such as: refining accuracy for percussion and alternate supporting methods, adding power for pressure flaking, learning indirect percussion and several different punching types, fluting, and blade cores. We will also heavily our attention on bi facial reduction techniques and strategies to help student  control over the center contours and thinning process.