Latest / Salish Wolf / #59 Per Friden on Project Quiver

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#59 Per Friden on Project Quiver · Salish Wolf

0:06
Welcome to Project Quiver, a father daughter journey across
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the globe to capture the artistry and spirit of the
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world's finest traditional bow carvers.
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I'm Todd, the father. Ella is my daughter.
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Together we're on a mission to create a stunning coffee table
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book that profiles more than a dozen master bow years and their
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unparalleled skill. For each chapter, we travel to
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the Bow Years workshop. Carve a bow under his guidance,
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photograph his woodcraft in detail and share his story here
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on the Salish Wolf podcast. The book is called Quiver, the
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Art of Life Through Bowcraft and this journey.
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Our living story is Project Quiver and we are live para nice
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to meet you. Thank you for coming on the
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show. Thank you.
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Honored to be here. You are in Sweden, right?
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Yeah, correct. Where Whereabouts in Sweden?
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I'm on the West Coast of Sweden, close to the city of Gothenburg.
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OK. And are you from Sweden?
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Yeah. Wanda Rist.
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Yeah. And from that town where you
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live or from the area where you live?
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I'm born in Gothenburg, but I live a couple of miles east of
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it. OK.
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All right. Did you grow up with archery as
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part of your childhood? No, not at all.
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Came into archery late in life or I came into bow building late
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in life. Archer we came after that.
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So you started bow building before doing archery?
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Yeah. How'd that come about?
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That seems a little bit backwards.
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It is guess I always been a crafty and curious person,
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always loved working with my hands.
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So I asked to randomly decided to make a bow one day really.
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And yeah, and my eye stuck on a PVC bow, but going to find the
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right stuff, so I made one out of wood and went from there.
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Did it work? Yeah.
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It took shit load of stuff like 25 lbs but I thought it was
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awesome. What kind of wood was it?
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Hazel. OK.
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And what type of bow was it? Yeah, I still found a Longbow.
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Still found a Longbow, do you still have it?
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No, I don't. But it was enough to spark the
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fire. Sure was, Sure was.
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And had you shot a bow at all before that?
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No, I actually never shot a bow that I didn't make myself.
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Really. OK.
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And So what was it from that experience that got you hooked
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on making bows? Oh, bow building covers so many
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aspects of things I love from starting from the outdoors just
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to find the right material and all the process of the thinking
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of the layout, what type of bow is it's going to be all the
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effort it takes not knowing what the end result would be to
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finally shooting it. So just everything about it I
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guess. Yeah, and you said you worked
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with your hands a lot. What other type of work do you
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do? I like carpentry, try to make my
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own auto gear, dealt with a lot with fly fishing and flying
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flies for a lot of years but bow building is like the only craft
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that I thought I did it master so it keeps me curious.
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You still feel you haven't mastered it.
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I'm sure I never will. Yeah, it's probably a good, good
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perspective to take. I see some of your bows in the
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background. They look beautiful.
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Thanks. So when did you start getting
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serious about bow building? How long ago was that?
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Well, I made my first bow about I think it was 2016, and then I
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just made that bow and didn't think much of it.
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But a couple of years later we had our kid.
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First kids got the twins and it was a tough pregnancy and the
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boys came very much mature the premature.
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So it was a tough start and dealing with all that and the
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anxiety built up, I needed an outlet.
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So I needed to do something that I can do outside and with my
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hands and I decided to make another boat and that's when I
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got really, really hooked. So I started out making bows
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kind of like an outlet, and from there it's been kind of my yoga,
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I guess. Yeah, that's such a familiar
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story for me too, and from others who I've talked to.
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I don't anyone who hasn't done it, I don't know that they would
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realize how therapeutic it is to, I think carving bows in
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particular, but just working with our hands, yeah, doing any
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sort of woodwork or any other hand work with her hands, It
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takes a lot of focus and concentration.
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But bow building is so therapeutic.
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And so many of the bowyers who I know, it's is their outlet.
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It's it's part of their meditation, Yeah.
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And it really is. Yeah.
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And I find it, it's not really an escape it brings.
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It's a it's different because it's it refocuses things and it
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allows us to channel our energy in a different way and be more
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present because we have to be completely present with that
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piece of wood when we're working on it.
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Otherwise one mistake and that's the end of it or it becomes
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something very different than what we had originally intended.
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Yeah. It blows up or ends up being a
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kids post. So yeah, you do the focus there.
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So were you self-taught or have you been in the beginning?
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Were you self-taught? Yeah I used to watch tutorials
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on YouTube and made all the mistakes you can make.
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I still make mistakes of course but read everything I could find
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about bow building and watch every tutorial on YouTube.
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Just overwhelmed with all the information there is.
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Yeah. Any particular people who you
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watched a lot? Down Santana and yeah, beautiful
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videos, yeah. Well, did you say another one?
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Sorry, Waylon from Swiss. Yeah, they both have great
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material for learning how to bow carve, so that's great.
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I was just with Waylon a couple months ago.
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What an experience. He's such a master of the craft.
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And my daughter was taking some photos of, of his bows and at
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one point he noticed the tiniest tool mark in one of his bows.
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And that was that was unacceptable.
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And it was something that I can barely see.
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He really had to point it out. But he's, he's so meticulous.
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His bows, the finished products are absolutely gorgeous.
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Next level I'm going to let that to most pause.
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Yeah. Have you since learned under any
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particular teachers or mentors? No, I keep going on my own.
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There's a couple of other guys here in Sweden and yeah, we chat
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with each other around there, trying to teach each other, I
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guess, sharing ideas. Do you ever meet up in person or
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is it all online? No, we meet up.
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OK. It's just started out, so it's
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really only. But we got to try to get
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together. Yeah, it's a really small thing
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here in Sweden. Small thing, Yeah.
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Yeah. I don't know.
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I'm not involved in Orchard World but I don't think self
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pose is a big deal and bow hunting is not legal.
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OK. Yeah.
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So it's more of a pursuit of passion.
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Yes, 100%. Yeah.
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And do you do this full time Beau carving?
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No, I will start. No, no, no, don't do that.
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No, I'm a passionate obvious. OK, Yeah.
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And so you you have other work that keeps you busy most of the
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time. Yes, I'm, I work as a forest
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manager. OK yeah.
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And I'm a father of four so wow. Finding time for boat building
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is an achievement by SO. Yeah, well, I would imagine that
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being a forest manager allows you some opportunity to find
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some good bow woods. I could.
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I can't take advantage of that for my work, but with the
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knowledge I have I can scout out good material.
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Elsewhere. And what type of bow woods do
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you have growing around you? Different white woods.
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A lot of Maple. It's Norway.
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Maple L Norway. Maple.
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Ash grow one when I can find it. Shock Cherry Hazel.
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Yeah, I think that's pretty much it.
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I don't have access to Osage or you.
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No. Do you have a favorite wood to
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work with? No, not really.
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I like the variety. Right now I have a lot of Maple
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piling up. So yeah, right now it's Maple.
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You said it's Norwegian Maple. Norwegian Maple.
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Yes, is. That primarily the only Maple
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that that you have available to work with.
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Yeah, OK. And you have a particular style
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of bows that you're most interested in, at least right
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now. Yeah, with the white woods, it's
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a different kind of flat bows, everything from American long
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bows, pyramid bows, mulga bats just recently started out trying
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to make down behind the bows. So yeah, I don't have any
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particular style. I like to, yeah, try around the
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silver suits, this particular state.
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And what about your carving? Is it hand tools only or do you
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use some machine tools too? Hand tools.
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Only time tools. OK, labor of love takes some
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time. It does save.
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You probably saves you from ruining many staves though.
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Oh, I ruin plant. Yeah, anyway.
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So do you sell your bows? Yeah.
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I do OK. How do you reach your customers?
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I advertise them on some sites and some people reach out.
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Mostly I sell locally or here in Sweden.
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And is that most of what you're carving for now is for customers
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or you continue to carve for yourself?
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No, I only carve for myself. I don't take commissions.
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I don't sell every bow, but sell bows cover the cost of new
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staves. Do you do custom orders or is it
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you finish a bow and then you put it up for sale?
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I don't do custom orders. Yeah, I want to make the bows
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that I want to make, not putting in stress.
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Yeah, absolutely. And then is it a, is it a family
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affair? Are your kids into either bow
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building or archery? You know?
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The oldest one or six years old. So in the future maybe.
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It's old enough for some archery.
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Is he shot any? Yeah, of course.
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Yeah, They have their own bows. Nice.
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We do such a thing. That's great.
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No, it's it's my hobby and my outlet.
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If it grows into something in the future, we'll see.
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But I'm doing this because it makes me feel good.
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Yeah, that's enough reason for me.
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And what about the archery? Now that you have built so many
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bows, is that something that is important to you?
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Do you enjoy doing it? Absolutely, starting out it was
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not as important as building bows.
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Started out like 95% the poke harbour and 5% Archer.
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Nowadays I like to shoot as often as I can.
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I don't do long sessions but a couple of minutes a year often
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over there. Yeah, And what do you, what does
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your community think? Your friends, I'm sure most of
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them know you carve bows now. Were many of them Archers before
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you started carving bows? Have you introduced a lot of
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your friends into archery? They probably think I'm odd.
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But do they shoot with you? No, never, no.
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So sometimes just try it out, but I'm pretty much alone.
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Really. Yeah.
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Wow. I'm surprised by that.
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Most of the most of my friends who I introduced to Archer just
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fell in love with it immediately and wanted to come over and
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shoot all the time. Some of them wanted to carve but
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still want to carve bows, but almost all of them want to
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shoot. Yeah, but everybody who tries it
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thinks it's fun. There's nobody does.
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I hate this. This is just stupid.
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It connects to everybody in some level I guess.
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Yeah. Where do you get most of your
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materials from your staves, Or are you doing staves?
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Or are you doing board bows? Or a bit of both?
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I do staves OK if I don't have a material I'll I'm making board
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bow but staves are so much more interesting.
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Yeah, where do you get your staves?
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I have a friend who's an arborist.
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I don't know if that's the word in English, but that's where I
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get my surprise. OK.
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And how you do all the sorry, you do all the processing of the
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staves, splitting them and seasoning them.
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Yeah, I'm splitting them in the backyard, piling them up in my
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small shed down there. Yeah, working on them.
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Nice is, do you work on them in your small shed?
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Is that your workshop? It's too small to call a
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workshop. It's like.
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Is that where you make them? That's where I make them.
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I prefer making them outdoors. Yeah.
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But the workshop comes in handy in the winter.
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Time gets pretty cold here. Sure, but it's like 5 square
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meters so it's not that big. It must be gorgeous right now
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weather wise. It is, I'm not sure, much of A
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summer guy I prefer. You like the snow?
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Yeah. And your your daylight until how
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late at night right now? It's like 10:00 the night.
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OK, yeah, that's crazy. I I'm really looking forward to
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coming there. I've been to Sweden a couple
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times, but just a small meal. OK.
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Yeah, I, I had a friend who lived in Copenhagen and I
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visited her two or three times and every time I would, I would
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head over to mom, who would just to check it out.
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But I've never been anywhere else in Sweden.
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So. OK, I'm excited to come to your
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five square meter shed and carve a bow with you.
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Yeah. What are we going to be carving
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when I'm there? I don't have that in front of
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me. Do you remember?
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What have we agreed that type? Maybe a sapling bow or if I can
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find the right stay we would be fun to make a mogabat.
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And what can you explain a bit more about that?
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A Mogabat. Yeah, it's kind of odd looking
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bow. Broad inner limbs, A stiff thin
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outer limbs. I don't I make them the way I
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want to make them with a stiff Sandow.
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I don't know that if that's historically correct, but it's
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an efficient design. Makes a fast bow.
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Where does the? Where's the design come from?
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Originally it was from a bog in Denmark.
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I'm not going to try to pronounce it in Danish, but
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that's where the name's from. OK.
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How long ago is that dated? Oh, thousand of years ago.
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Really. Yeah.
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Like kind of as old as the Home Guard bell.
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Or not quite. Yeah, I think it's not that far
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from there. So it's like, I don't know, 9000
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years old. Yeah, ancient designs.
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Yeah, very old. Wow, that's incredible.
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Yeah, that'll be fun. Never made one of those.
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I don't even know if I've seen one of those, so that'll be
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really cool to do. Yeah.
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For your your selling, your bow sales, do you remember what the
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first bow was that you sold? The first bow was sold, I think
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it was. Oh, Longbow.
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Yeah. And was that anticipated or did
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someone just ask to buy it off of you?
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No, I made an ad under somebody said this is going to be a
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great, great birthday gift. So yeah.
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Yeah. How long did it take you before
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you had the confidence to sell a bow?
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How many years in were you? Couple of years, I gifted a lot
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of bows before that. Yeah, I'm in that gifting
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process right now, gifting a lot of well, I'm starting to gift
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them. I'm I'm only at the stage where
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I'm comfortable gifting them. Yeah, that's what.
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Prior to that, I've made all my bills that I've made, I've used
18:30
for teaching and if they, if they fail, they fail.
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But actually none of them have ever failed while teaching.
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So that's good. But where I teach in Costa Rica,
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it's so humid that it's really challenging on bows.
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So that's been a a hard lesson to learn for me to.
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I took a lot of bows from Canada down there, bows that I had shot
18:55
for years and years. And then I started to have, I
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think I had four or five bows fail in my first year.
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I was just, I was like devastated.
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I didn't have enough bows to have that many failures.
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But yeah, so that was a hard lesson learned.
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I and I started making. After that I started making
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laminate bows out of tropical hardwoods.
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OK, Yeah. And for the most part that's
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done well. I've had a few glue separations
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which learning lessons but for the most part the the tropical
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woods have held up well and have to keep them in the air
19:27
conditioned environment most of the time.
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Yeah, what kind of wood? For the laminates, well, I, I
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go, we have a couple specialty wood stores.
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All my bows so far I've made in Canada and British Columbia on
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my farm. And I have a couple wood stores
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here that I like to go to. So I just go in and I see what
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sort of boards they have available.
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And I've worked with Osage Wengay, Ash, Yellow Heart,
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Purple Heart. You of course.
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I haven't done a laminate with you though, only done.
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Stays with with you E pay. Yeah, those are some of the main
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ones. So the the yellow heart, which
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is the POW Amarillo and the Purple Heart and the E pay.
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I believe we're all kind of Brazilian and Amazon type of
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hardwoods, the wing gays and African hardwood I believe and
20:27
so that they're all from tropical regions.
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So I kind of thought that that might work well and it it
20:32
actually has so but I just play around with different different
20:37
layers and different ordering of the layers.
20:40
I almost always have Hickory as the back.
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I used bamboo for a while, but I didn't have a good source here
20:46
in Canada of bamboo. Yeah.
20:49
So mostly it's been Hickory. But my early ones, I didn't know
20:52
about the the grains needed to be linear along the back of the
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bow parallel. So I would violate grains left
20:58
and right and build a beautiful bow only to have it fail because
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of course I violated the backing.
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So, but I've I've learned, I'm learning.
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Yeah, that's great. Like you said, it's a, it's a
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lifelong thing. I never expect to be a master of
21:14
it and I don't think I'll be a master of anything.
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It's it's always a learning, so it's what keeps it exciting and
21:20
interesting. Right now I'm building my first
21:23
ash ash bow. All right, Yeah.
21:26
So and I completely messed up the flay out on it.
21:30
So now I'm trying to work with. All right, let's create
21:32
something other than what I was expecting.
21:35
OK, what kind of design? Well, I don't even know what
21:39
it's going to be now. It was going to be, let's see,
21:42
Originally it was a 70 inch flat bow.
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I'm building it for a friend who's pretty tall.
21:48
And then it was because it was a board bow, it was too thin to
21:52
have a handle section. So I glued on an Osage riser.
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I'm not a big, big fan of big handles on my bows.
21:59
I always, I make them very, very streamlined.
22:03
But I needed to put some material in there.
22:05
So I had something in the handle and I, I don't even know why the
22:10
bow is going to be about two inches wide at the widest.
22:13
And I didn't, I didn't set the handle up right to actually
22:18
blend in with that. So I've just got this really
22:21
awkward handle section now that instead of being like 10 to 12
22:24
inches long, it's like 16 inches long.
22:26
So I'm just trying to figure it out.
22:28
But the way I look at it with every bow I do, this is, this is
22:32
a learning experience. So there's always something to
22:35
be gained from it. And if it fails, it fails.
22:38
But so, but that's what we do, right?
22:42
It's put in the hours and and get to learn different materials
22:47
and different techniques. Yeah.
22:49
Different historical designs, so it's really incredible.
22:53
Yeah, it's such a variety of reasons to do this.
22:57
Yeah. Do you teach others to carve a?
23:01
Little bit I held two classes last year.
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Oh really? How'd that go?
23:07
Went well, set it up like a one day.
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That's all the time I could find.
23:13
One day bow carving class. One day, yeah.
23:15
Did they? Did everyone carve a bow in one
23:17
day? Yeah, they actually did.
23:20
First, of course, everybody ended up with the boat.
23:22
That's like 90% finished. Second one, I changed the design
23:28
a little bit and everybody we left with shooting on both.
23:34
That's incredible. Yeah, we made them out of
23:36
boards. Well, that's time consuming A
23:40
staves, but set it up like not to what's the word for it?
23:51
Living with ready bow but leaving with enough knowledge to
23:54
proceed on their own. But yeah, went really well.
23:58
That's a testament to your skill as a Carver and AT shirt to be
24:01
able to take people through most of the bow building process in
24:05
one day. They were pretty sore.
24:10
You have them out there for like 18 hours.
24:12
No, 8 hours, but yeah, they weren't left with blisters in
24:19
their hands, A lot of sweat. Yeah, What are some of your
24:23
favorite hand tools? Oh I love them all.
24:29
The capital scraper. That's probably the one I used
24:34
most. Not in the rasp.
24:37
Yeah, what kind of rasp? Just a standard Bakuras,
24:45
something from the water resort. And do you use draw knives or
24:56
hatchets or anything else? I tried to find vintage tools,
25:02
use an owned carpenter's axe. Friend of mine gave it to me,
25:08
it's like 100 years old. Wow.
25:11
Probably even more so. That's what I used to rough them
25:15
out. And a vintage straw knife.
25:20
So it sounds to me like it's not challenging enough to work with
25:26
with the modern tools. So you've you've gone to vintage
25:29
tools for both, I think as well. I don't know.
25:31
I know some of those tools are are more amazing to use than the
25:36
modern ones. Yeah, but they have, they have
25:39
sold. You should feel it.
25:42
Yeah. Yeah.
25:44
Oh, that's great. And what are some of the most?
25:47
Have you worked with any unique woods or exotic staves, anything
25:52
that's beyond the ones that you mentioned that are local to you?
25:56
No. To do that I have to buy abroad.
26:01
I haven't done that yet. Would love to work on Osage and
26:05
U. Just trying out some juniper
26:09
staves right now. That's new to me.
26:12
Yeah, finding board bows here, it's that's harder not finding
26:17
staves. If you live in Sweden, there's
26:20
pine and spruce. That's boards.
26:24
Yeah, finding a board bow. It's I think the ash boards I
26:28
bought from the US. So you don't have any specialty
26:32
stores where you can go in and browse hundreds of different
26:36
types of boards? No.
26:38
Oh man, I feel for you. I think I live in kind of boat,
26:42
boat building area here in, in Canada.
26:45
And so I think some of these specialty stores are often used
26:47
by boat builders too. I don't know.
26:50
But man, I go on and it's like it's, it's, it's incredible.
26:55
There's hundreds of boards of different types from all over
26:59
the world. My son and I go in and we just
27:02
start looking at them all. And some of them are like, some
27:06
of them are like $100 Canadian per board foot.
27:11
So I'm looking, I'm like, well, that's going to be like $1000
27:14
board to, to carve that stave. Yeah, some of the most
27:18
incredible ones from all over the world.
27:20
A lot of them that I've never heard of.
27:21
So I don't, I don't dare buy some of them to try to make a
27:26
bow out of them. They're way too expensive.
27:28
But it's it's pretty incredible to have that option.
27:31
Yeah, I think so. Living in the wrong place.
27:35
Oh, that's too bad. That's it's a bit surprising to
27:38
me. I didn't realize that was a
27:39
unique thing to have access to boards like that.
27:43
Oh, it is. OK, I'm going to appreciate it
27:46
more. Yeah.
27:48
And how has you mentioned that you came into Beau Carving as a
27:54
as an outlet? Like how has Beau Carving and
27:56
archery changed your life? That's a big question.
28:01
That's a big question. Yeah.
28:07
For me, I I always felt at best when I'm working with my house
28:12
and if I can do that outdoors, I complete and bow building lets
28:17
me do that. Start out making pose in a tough
28:24
time in my life and it really helped me.
28:28
I've dealt with anxiety my whole life and bow carving is a
28:33
perfect outlet for that. And I can take like an hour
28:38
here, or even if it's just 10 minutes to go out in the Shard
28:43
and walk in a bow, that's enough to refuel.
28:47
Could be archery as well. But that's a sense of
28:52
connection, working with your hands on a living material like
28:56
wood. And you have to focus, and maybe
28:59
the focus is the key. I don't know.
29:02
Makes me feel good anyways. Yeah, I can resonate with that.
29:08
And you do it in silence. Or do you like to listen to
29:11
music or books or podcasts? No, I have 4 kids so I
29:16
appreciate the silence. I understood.
29:24
Yeah, again, the therapeutic aspect of working with our hands
29:27
is incredible. And you, with your experience as
29:30
a Carpenter, how did you get into carpentry?
29:32
No, I'm not. I'm not working as a Carpenter.
29:35
I work on my own house and and stuff.
29:39
OK. Yeah.
29:40
I thought you said earlier though that you you do some
29:42
carpentry. Yeah, I do.
29:44
Yeah. Only for my, only for myself,
29:46
but not yeah. Yeah, but how did you get into
29:49
that? Oh, like it.
29:51
Takes some level of confidence and skill to build a table or a
29:55
desk or do any sort of construction work around the
29:58
house. A lot of people don't have that
30:01
that confidence to do it. Yeah, I'm curious and I kind of
30:07
stubborn. I think, yeah, I can do this.
30:10
And if I fail, I try again. What?
30:14
Are some of the things that you create with your carpentry.
30:17
Mostly renovated the house, OK or the houses that we have.
30:23
So they for floors, changing boards, Yeah, basic house
30:31
renovations. Yeah, and what about forestry
30:34
management? How did that come into your
30:36
life? I always knew I wanted to do
30:41
something other than a desk job. I was just sat on working in the
30:47
army. But being budget cuts back down
30:53
stopped those plans and I ended up pretty much randomly trying
30:58
out forestry education and spent 5 1/2 years studying forestry.
31:07
And I, I really, really enjoyed the education.
31:11
Got to spend a lot, a lot of time outdoors.
31:14
And nowadays it lets me have a job where I can pretty much lay
31:19
off my own time. I worked outside probably 3 full
31:25
days a week. And yeah, just working with the
31:32
nature and the whole ecosystem is really rewarding.
31:38
I don't know if I answered the question right, but yeah, yeah.
31:42
That's great. And what does a day look like
31:44
for you doing forestry? Oh it could be everything.
31:50
Right now I work for a small municipality outside of
31:52
Gothenburg. It can be everything from laying
31:59
out plans for future nature restorations, beating roads,
32:06
managing game. There's a lot of wine boars
32:10
causing havoc and are. They invasive.
32:15
Some would say that no, there's a they are a natural part of the
32:20
fauna, but when they're in the backyard, yeah, yeah.
32:27
And is hunting allowed of those? Yeah, it is, but not with both.
32:31
Not with both, no. Why is that?
32:35
I don't know, I think it's from the 1930s or something that was
32:39
a law only allowing gunpowder, so it's been a big question ever
32:48
since. I'm not that into it but it gets
32:52
legalized and tried out. Yeah, and what, what are you
32:59
driving around in a truck most of the day?
33:02
No, I don't want to do it some. Yeah, you're, you're walking.
33:05
Yeah, I'm walking. Yeah, I have to leave the the
33:08
trains to to do my job. OK.
33:12
How far away from where you live?
33:13
Or is it something that you're right in your community?
33:16
I was like half an hour drive to work and I managed about 3000
33:21
hectares. It's like 6000 thousand acres or
33:25
something. So with that, that piece of land
33:31
is kind of that's your base, that's what you manage and you
33:35
don't go beyond that. That's right.
33:37
Oh wow, how so? And is that public land?
33:41
It's owned by the municipality, OK.
33:44
Yeah. So it's popular here in Sweden.
33:47
You can go everywhere. Yeah.
33:51
So I mean, that's a pretty big piece of land.
33:55
Do you know it fairly intimately?
33:57
No. Yeah, I pretty much covered all
34:01
of it. Yeah, well, that's really cool.
34:05
And is that on your own or do you work with others?
34:08
No, I'm on my own with this. I mean, what are you looking
34:13
back there? So yeah.
34:15
What are you looking for when you're out there?
34:18
Oh, it could be. Everything could be fixing a
34:23
trail could be finding a piece of land that's suitable for
34:31
housing, and everything in the forest is within a map and
34:39
categorized in different types of woods and what has to be done
34:45
to reach the gold steel setup. So when you say personal
34:50
housing, so this is not all undeveloped land.
34:54
I managed to undeveloped land, but some of it is going to be
35:00
houses. OK.
35:03
And with the trails, are there people on those often?
35:07
Yeah, all the time. Here in Sweden, we've got
35:11
something called Ala Masra, the right to of public access to the
35:16
land. So it's allowed to go everywhere
35:20
upon the property. You can set up a town town for
35:24
one night as well as you don't destroy anything or don't
35:29
disturb. It's allowed to go wherever you
35:31
want. That's really cool.
35:33
So you probably meet a lot of people while you're out there.
35:36
No, they are on the trails. They're on the trails.
35:40
You're not on the trails. Exactly.
35:42
Yeah. And what about wildlife other
35:44
than the boars? Do you see much?
35:47
Yeah, some Rd. there around the moose.
35:50
OK, Do you ever encounter moose? Like, yeah, Unexpectedly, yeah.
35:57
No, they run away. Yeah.
35:59
Do you have to be worried about that?
36:02
No, not at all. No, no, that's surprising me.
36:07
It's I did when I was in university.
36:10
I did a semester at the University of Alaska in
36:12
Fairbanks and we would have campus closures when there was a
36:15
moose on the campus wandering around.
36:17
They would actually suspend classes for an hour or a few
36:21
hours because they didn't want people out when the moose was
36:23
out. And I always I thought it was
36:26
because it was somewhat dangerous, but I don't know.
36:28
I know if they have young around them, they're a bit more
36:31
dangerous, aren't they? Yeah, then you have to be on the
36:34
lookout. Just stay cool and walk away.
36:39
Yeah, I was running. I used to be a runner and I was
36:42
when I was there, I was running on trails and I was doing a big
36:46
loop and I came around the corner and right in the middle
36:49
of the trail was this giant moose.
36:52
And I just like froze. I didn't know what to do.
36:54
I was like, do I go back? I was really cold.
36:58
It was winter time. I was kind of at the extent of
37:00
how how long I could be out there.
37:02
And I'm like to go back. It's a long way back.
37:05
Do I go around? Do I push on?
37:07
I don't remember what I did. I don't think I went back.
37:09
And I think I kind of beat my own trails through the through
37:12
the Bush to get around the moose, but definitely took me by
37:15
surprise. Yeah, they're probably bigger in
37:18
Canada. Yeah, I don't know.
37:21
I don't have anything to compare them to, but it was big, big
37:25
enough that it startled me. That's really cool.
37:31
It's a beautiful way to spend your time being out in nature,
37:35
and I love that. It's sounds like something that
37:38
you really enjoy doing and kind of nourishes your spirit.
37:45
Yeah, that's great. And then is that full time like
37:48
five days a week? Yeah, full time, Yeah, Yeah.
37:52
And what get the week? Is it the weekends you have off?
37:57
Yeah, the weekends off, I'll mix it up with a little bit of
38:00
parental leave right now. Yeah.
38:04
What do you like to do with your kids?
38:06
Get outdoors? Yeah.
38:08
Yeah, they go camping and stuff with you.
38:10
Yeah, we're going to go camping on Friday.
38:14
This week and you're into fishing.
38:17
Yeah, yeah. And the kids do that, too.
38:22
Yeah, a little bit. They don't really have the
38:25
patience for it, but well did some hobo fishing this summer.
38:31
Yeah. And that's it's rewarding just
38:34
being outdoors with the kids. When you go camping, do you
38:37
bring fishing gear and catch your own food?
38:40
No, that's too much of A gamble with some kids.
38:46
It would be, wouldn't it? No, no, no.
38:50
Make a fire around. Just staying around.
38:53
That's enough. Yeah, yeah, it must be so
38:57
beautiful there and then. You said you like the winter
38:59
best. What do you do in the winter
39:00
time? The same as I do all the time,
39:04
my car boasts and I stroll around the woods.
39:08
You got some good gear and you're out walking around in the
39:10
woods all day. Yeah, you don't need that much.
39:14
It's not that heavy snow down here, really, no.
39:19
So how is that? Is it?
39:20
Is it because you're coastal? Yeah, we are pretty far South.
39:25
We're like 4 hours north of Malma.
39:28
OK. But in the far north, that's
39:32
that's a whole lot of country. Got it.
39:34
Yeah, Yeah. It's probably a lot like what
39:37
people think of Canada. They think everyone's living in
39:39
igloos and yeah, trudgering around in 10 feet deep snow.
39:43
But it really varies. Where our farm is in Victoria,
39:46
we we rarely get snow. Maybe a couple days a year we
39:50
get snow. The rest of the time we're out
39:52
in the garden and outdoors. It's it's that mild there.
39:56
Yeah. Wow.
39:58
OK. I had no idea.
40:01
Yeah, that's cool. I guess.
40:03
Yeah. Depends on how much you like the
40:06
snow. Yeah, I don't like the bikes.
40:09
That's part of the weather. In the summer, is it buggy?
40:13
Yeah, it is mosquito sound, smaller ones, I don't know what
40:18
the English what is for it. One of those moggies or
40:22
something? Yeah.
40:24
So that's that. You're in that season right now.
40:27
Yeah. Interesting.
40:30
All right, I'll be. I guess I'll see how they how I
40:34
do when I'm there. Yeah, hopefully they're gone by
40:37
then. September, they'll be gone.
40:40
Yeah, I hope so. OK, and do you ever get into the
40:44
city Gothenburg? Yeah, awesome.
40:47
Yeah, I'm excited to visit it. Is it a beautiful town?
40:52
Is it OK? Is it a big city or kind of
40:54
medium sized? It's the second largest city in
40:58
Sweden. OK, but Sweden is not that big.
41:03
No. Awesome.
41:05
So it's bigger than Malmo, though.
41:06
All right, big, big enough. Yeah, yeah.
41:11
Cool. Yeah, I think we'll be, I think
41:13
that's the only flight we're doing within Europe, cuz I think
41:17
we're coming from Salzburg and then we'll be flying to you, I
41:24
guess in the Goldenberg. And then, yeah.
41:27
So I don't know how much time we'll get to see it cuz then we
41:29
had to fly straight to Northern Italy or, or Enrico Maraji, who
41:35
we're meeting with in northern Italy.
41:37
So we have a tight schedule with him because he's got a big
41:41
festival or something that he's setting up for us.
41:43
So I think we leave you and go straight to him with very little
41:47
time in between. We've, we've been trying to
41:48
schedule a few days in between each Bowyer so we can see the
41:52
countryside and the city and experience the culture.
41:55
But we're going to be in Sweden literally for I think 3 or 4
41:59
days with you and that's it, unfortunately.
42:01
Make the most out of it. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it'll be
42:05
fantastic and really appreciate you inviting us and.
42:09
And I'm really looking forward to it.
42:11
We're excited for it so far it's been an amazing experience and
42:15
although I've only carved 3 bows.
42:17
Oh and I wanted to mention you mentioned juniper.
42:20
So you're carving A juniper one now?
42:21
Or you're you're about to. I'm about to.
42:24
Yeah. Have you worked with Juniper?
42:26
No, it's the first time. OK.
42:27
Are you going to back it with anything?
42:30
Probably should, but I don't have to see what though.
42:33
My only experiences with Chuck Loffler and Salt Lake City, we
42:37
did a juniper flat bow, which right now I'm I had to it's a
42:41
sinew backed one, so the sinew had to dry the glue.
42:44
So I shipped it to Canada and then I finished it about two
42:47
weeks ago here and right now I'm just putting some oil on it.
42:52
Yeah, he, he was he's pretty adamant about backing the
42:57
juniper bows. He said they will work without
42:59
it, but backing is a good idea. So that was the first time I
43:03
worked with Sinu, which was incredibly easy.
43:05
OK. Have you worked with Sinu?
43:08
No, not yet. Do you have some to?
43:10
Is that what you're going to back it with I'm.
43:12
Going to leave unbacked and cross my fingers.
43:15
Fully unbacked, all right. It's just a sapling so not going
43:19
to push it that far. Yeah, I see some bows in the
43:22
background as one of those backed at least.
43:26
Yeah, it is. Is that snakeskin?
43:30
It's a pair of ears. It's what?
43:32
It's a pair of jeans. It's a pair of.
43:35
Jeans. Yeah.
43:40
Really. Yeah.
43:42
I like the pattern, but you can't find any snakes here.
43:49
But you can find Jeans I. Can find jeans?
43:51
Yeah. That's awesome, but does it work
43:54
well? Yeah, it does.
43:56
Really. And from here it looks really
43:58
cool. I can't so pretty good, but now
44:03
you know. Have you done that before?
44:08
Yeah, it's another one done on the back, but yeah, I think it
44:13
looks cool. I didn't have any fish skins
44:16
ratted so. What are some of the other
44:19
materials? You back those and.
44:21
Fish. Yes, fish.
44:23
Fish skin and jeans. Fish skin and jeans, Yeah.
44:29
Oh that's so cool for your fish skins.
44:31
Is that from fish you've caught? No, Get that from the fish
44:38
market. OK.
44:41
And then you have to clean them and process them and everything
44:44
to get them ready for for use. Yeah, yeah.
44:47
What type of fish is it normally?
44:51
Different kind of caught fish. Yeah, yeah.
44:54
OK, I'm I'm still, I'm just looking at the jeans in the
44:59
background. It doesn't look like jeans.
45:01
It has texture to it and it looks like, I don't know, it
45:07
looks more animal origin. Did you do something to give it
45:10
the texture that it has? I can't put it in a couple of
45:14
layers of the prangoid, yeah. And can can you tell like up
45:20
close, can you tell this is jeans or does it just look like
45:22
a few backing of? Look really closely, yeah.
45:27
Yeah, if you look closely, yeah. Wow.
45:29
I just finished a pyramid shaped Hickory flat bow for a friend
45:34
and there's just a little knot on the back that has a little
45:38
hairline figure and I was like, hmm, I should back that in
45:41
something. But I don't have any material
45:43
here. But I do have jeans, so I have
45:48
to consider that. Wow.
45:53
What do you sell your bows under?
45:55
Do you have a brand? Nordic self post.
45:58
Nordic self post Yeah, OK. And how long have you been
46:01
selling under that? I'm not really selling under the
46:05
brand, no. I just put out an ad as a
46:09
civilian person. Maybe in the future I'll put up
46:13
a website, but I don't have that much time taking up orders and
46:19
filling filling the song. You have Instagram presence.
46:23
Does that help people find you? Mostly?
46:25
Yeah, on Instagram. And how's that is it?
46:30
Do you enjoy having that tool or are you like me where I want
46:34
nothing to do with it, but it's. It's both.
46:41
I'm on introvert even by Swedish startups so putting myself out
46:49
there. I'm not that into it, but with
46:56
all the downs there is with Instagram and social media, it
47:01
helped me reach out to people like yourself and yeah, other
47:05
nerds coming both. So yeah, it's go both ways.
47:10
It does and my daughter were trying to figure out laying out
47:14
this book and who we were going to invite into the project.
47:17
It was predominantly Instagram because that's what we had to go
47:20
by. Even the people who have
47:21
websites, a lot of the websites are really outdated and hard to
47:26
hard to get a good read on their craftsmanship.
47:28
But Instagram, yeah, it was very valuable tool and being able to
47:32
find people like you. And then we're we're kind of
47:37
posting our journey on there as we go along, which fortunately
47:40
my daughter likes doing it. So she's doing it.
47:42
But when she tells me it's time to film a video or something,
47:46
she's like, do I have to do another video?
47:49
Because that's it's, yeah, I'm don't really enjoy doing them,
47:53
but it is something that I'm, I'm excited to share this
47:56
journey with people who want to follow along with it.
47:58
So. It's a fantastic project.
48:02
Yeah, it's it's been a lot of fun and we've completed 3 bows.
48:06
And actually just yesterday, as you mentioned, I think before we
48:10
hit record, you listen to the podcast with Pete Woodland and
48:14
he lives literally down the street from me.
48:18
And so we were just at his house yesterday doing some shooting
48:21
with some of his bows and the three bows that I had made
48:23
previously on the journey. So it was good to catch up with
48:26
Pete. And then we're back with him in
48:28
a few weeks to carve a beautiful U bow with a ridgeline on the
48:36
belly, a belly Ridge. So I was looking at a bunch of
48:39
his, we were shooting his and amazing bow.
48:41
So for me, that was really how a lot of this began.
48:44
I wanted to have a lot of teachers.
48:46
I started working with Jamie McDonald and British Columbia up
48:51
on the coast north of me here years ago, probably about 10
48:54
years ago for my first U long bows.
48:57
And then I met Pete, who lives down the road from me and never
49:01
have actually carved with Pete. But he's taught me a lot and
49:03
he's shown me how to do some backing.
49:05
I bought some staves off of him. He's given me some advice.
49:08
So this would be the first time I actually get to go and work in
49:10
his in his workshop alongside him.
49:14
But it's been incredible to be able to go and people like Corey
49:18
and Chuck and Waylon and just be able to get 3 or 4 days of their
49:23
attention and focus and create these beautiful functional bows
49:28
and pieces of art. It's it's really been amazing.
49:31
Yeah, it's the master bogus of the world and path from Sweden.
49:35
Yeah, yeah. Wow.
49:38
It's we're so excited to be able to come and visit with you.
49:42
Thank you again for fitting us in.
49:44
I know you're busy, so I think originally you weren't didn't
49:47
think you were going to be able to, but I appreciate the few
49:50
days that you carved out for us. I'm really looking forward to
49:53
it. Yeah, What's before work?
49:57
I'm in to see you. I guess that's in about a month
50:00
or so, I don't know, sometime in September.
50:03
What do you got going on? Anything upcoming?
50:06
Anything exciting with the rest of your summer?
50:08
Any plans for Nordic self bows? No, I'm starting work work
50:13
against Sue and and. OK, because you've been on
50:15
parental leave. No, I'm on vacation right now.
50:19
Yeah, OK. That was the auspicious as
50:23
usual. OK.
50:26
And what about carving or the teaching?
50:28
Are you going to be doing any more of the bow teaching?
50:32
I don't have anything planned in maybe when I get a little bit
50:37
more time on my hands. We got got a baby, so that's me
50:43
priority. You read a young 1A baby.
50:46
Wow, how old? Who's one in December?
50:51
Wow. And then you have your twins are
50:53
the oldest. Yeah, at six.
50:55
Yeah, the town is 7. A few weeks and a daughter.
50:59
She's 3. That is a lot.
51:03
It is, yeah. Yeah, good for you though.
51:05
That's amazing. When you did the last two
51:08
workshops, where did your students come from mostly?
51:13
I don't know where they were from.
51:16
Sweden or were they from all over?
51:18
No, they were from Sweden, but they had a couple of hours
51:21
drive, so I was kind of surprised.
51:25
But yeah, I was fully booked and they didn't have any prior
51:32
experience with the archery or bow building.
51:35
Just like me. They picked it out of curiosity.
51:39
Yeah. They are.
51:40
They're left with a smile on the face.
51:42
That's great. I'm always amazed that when
51:45
people have no archery experience and no bill building
51:49
experience and they want to carve a bow.
51:51
I mean, I it happened to me too, but it always just amazes me.
51:55
I just thought I was some unique thing that.
51:58
But the more I do this, the more I realize there's a lot of
52:01
people who just want to carve a bow even though they've maybe
52:03
never even shot one. Yeah.
52:05
It's on our DNA. Yeah.
52:07
And it is. And that that must be part of
52:09
it. It's.
52:10
Really cool. I believe so.
52:12
Yeah, Para, where can people find out more about you?
52:17
Yeah, they have to check out Instagram Nordic self post.
52:21
Nordic self post All right, and keep up the good work.
52:26
Really appreciates what you do and the craftsmanship that
52:30
you're putting out there and looking forward to coming to
52:33
visit with you. My daughter and I are very
52:36
excited to come to Sweden, come to your little town and little
52:39
workshop and make something beautiful.
52:41
That'll be fun. Yeah.
52:44
Well, thanks so much again. Appreciate it.
52:45
Thank you. Thanks for listening to Project
52:56
Quiver on Salish Wolf. Follow our journey on Instagram
52:59
at Project Quiver as we seek out the world's most extraordinary
53:02
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projectquiver.com. Our coffee table book, Quiver,
53:09
The Art of Life through Bow Craft, arrives in 2026.
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We are honored to share with you the beauty, history, and magic
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of traditional archery.