Reply To: Classified Section

[David Petersen]

#11109

Thanks for the plug, Patrick. I’ve often wondered why other trad sites have well-established and oft-posting “Shrew cults,” while here I seem to be alone. Of course we remain young. We definitely have a Black Widow cult among us (of which I was once an enthusiastic part, for sure). But no others. Too bad as cults are fun! 🙂 Shrew is odd insofar as they have made the wise decision to stay small with just one bowyer, the world’s best bowyer in my opinionated opinion, among many excellent bowyers, Gregg Coffey, aka Java Man, who does all the building work. Gregg won’t even farm out the “low-tech prep” work like lam grinding to anyone else and builds just a few dozen bows a year in his home shop, refusing to rush the pleasure of building a few into the stress of building too many. And Shrew’s owner and founder, Ron LeClair, shares that “quality over quantity” approach and never urges Gregg to take on a helper. With a waiting list now at 14 months, they don’t need to advertise and they don’t need Shrew nerds like me raving about their artful products. So no wonder it’s such a well-kept secret. I mean, it took me decades to discover Shrew myself (though I’m only interested in Gregg-built models). Trad archers today are blessed with a wealth of superb custom bowyers and bows. So the idea of “best” is absolutely inappropriate and I’m not saying that at all. What it is, is “best for me and best for you, personal choice.”

But oops, back to Patrick’s original theme — indeed, there must be hundreds if not thousands of folks wanting to sell excellent bows at a bargain at any given time. And an equal number looking to buy on a deal. A bow ain’t a car and if I can get what I want cheap used rather than expensive new, I’ll go that route every time. So, as Mr. P advises, let’s take more advantage of these free class ads. Not necessarily mine at the moment as I’m just as happy to keep as to sell (but don’t tell my wife I said that, as I have three Shrews and it’s hard enough to respond cleverly when she points out that “But you can only shoot one at a time!” I’m working on it. :oops::wink: