Why Dell Johnson from Nipawin makes traditional bows and how he does it

Nearly 30 years ago, Dell Johnson and his friend, Scott Edwards, were bowhunting. His friend was using a traditional longbow, with its simplistic wooden design, and it intrigued Johnson.

He wanted one of the same — except he wanted to build it.

"[I wanted] to build the bow and to build the arrows and everything yourself and actually be able to hunt and take game and stuff with something you actually built yourself," said Johnson, 63.

He views archery as part of human history and heritage, whether it be through hunting, war or cultural references like Robin Hood.

Growing up in Nipawin, he and others had grown up using bows. Johnson used them since he was a preteen. But, like others, he moved on from simpler bows to compound bows, with their intricate weaving of string and pulleys.

Then after he built his own stock, he sold his rifles and his other style of bow, in favour of the traditional option.

And he has stuck to the traditional bow. He said it's much more of a challenge.

"You have to be that much closer to the game and, if you're hunting out of a tree stand and a deer is walking down the trail underneath you, to have that closeness, because sometimes you're only less than 10 yards [nine metres] away from the animal when you're hunting it, so it takes a lot more skill as far as getting that much closer," he said.

Dell Johnson examines the pieces that will make a bow, within the press that binds them together in the shape Johnson wants. (Submitted by Dell Johnson)

Since then, Johnson has become a hobby bowyer (the name for someone who makes bows). He estimates he has built more than 100, taking about three weeks to craft each bow. He sells them at a markup that makes a couple hundred dollars in profit per bow — and works as a retail meat manager at a local grocer to pay the bills.

"I just love doing it and the enjoyment of seeing other people shooting something that you've made and, like I say, promoting the sport, the traditional aspect of archery," he said.

The challenge and the nostalgia is also why Dave McTaggart, a traditional bowhunter and an ardent fan of Johnson's "sweet-looking bows," sticks to traditional bow styles.

"There's just something natural about it," McTaggart said.

Already an owner of more than a dozen bows, McTaggart wanted one of Johnson's, so he asked if they could build a bow together. During a weekend in April 2019, they built the stock and McTaggart finished it at home.

"He likes to tell me that I made the bow, but I really know who made the bow," McTaggart said. He said the bow is probably the smoothest shot he's ever had.

As a bowyer, the customizations that Johnson can add include the type of wood, the length, the weight of the draw and the look of the limbs.

Dave McTaggart says that while at a target shoot, several bowhunters realized they were all using bows made by Dell Johnson and photographed them together in a forested area near Whitefox, Sask. (Submitted by Dave McTaggart)

In Johnson's Nipawin workshop — in a garage attached to his home — he cuts strips of wood, thins them to size and glues them together, sandwiching the wood with a veneer layer of fibreglass. Then he presses it in a bow form and bakes it in an oven to cure it. The fibreglass, he said, makes the bows nearly impossible to break from regular use.

Without the fibreglass, the bow wouldn't have the same strength or speed, Johnson said. Those types of bows are referred to as primitive bows, crafting and shaping the bow from a wooden stave.

"Some guys even still hunt with stone tips and all that kind of stuff, but that's a little too far back for me," he joked.

Johnson said the most difficult part is getting the wood thickness just right — working with wood to the 1,000th of an inch to adjust the draw weight to the strength he wants. And then comes finishing the bow, shaping it and sanding it to the final product.

Over the years, he has done research and spoken with bowyers about how to improve his skill to develop the eye appeal, symmetry and designs of the bows.

"As you build more bows, you tweak, you keep kind of tweaking it a little bit. And that's the thing — I'm never satisfied with any bow I've built," he said. "I'm always wanting to improve it."