Our story…. they say that necessity is the mother of invention. Well that saying certainly is true for the inspiration for the StaveMaster bowbench. Living in Bend, Oregon, Keenan and LuLyn Howard have enjoyed a love of archery together as well as a love of artistic interests, including bow building and creating metal art. Keenan’s love of bows turned into learning to build bows and then over the years becoming a very skilled and well recgonized bowyer. As a bowyer, with his love of working with different woods and materials, he has produced some high quality beautiful self bows over the years. Unfortunately, Keenan has suffered some debilitating and disabling back injuries and as a result has had multiple back surgeries with complications and now is disabled and lives with the effects of chronic back pain, however it has not diminished his love of bow building. As a result, the standing and various positions recquired to work and shape a wood stave into a bow with conventional methods became very difficult and nearly impossible for Keenan.

Thus, the idea of the StaveMaster was birthed, so that Keenan could comfortably work wood with the back support and the flexibilty to turn the wood and not his back. The bow benches on the market, and the old shave horse style’s were functional, but offered no back support at all and several of the vice designs could only be used in a standing position. Keenan has an extensive background as a metal fabricator and engineering background. We have found the comfort and ease of use along with portability of the StaveMaster is a one of a kind bowbench. After many requests to build them from fellow bowyers and friends, we now produce the StaveMaster in our family fab shop.