Arrow to the heart – Toelke’s archery shop on target

The man was very clear on the phone. He wanted to buy arrows.

He did not want Dan Toelke trying to sell him a bow.

Written by VINCE DEVLIN

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/09/09/outdoors/od01.txt

"I told him fine, come on out and we’ll set you up with some arrows," Toelke says.

When the fellow got to Toelke’s archery shop, tucked up against the Mission Mountains east of Ronan, he reiterated: No sales pitch for bows.

Arrows only.

Toelke grabbed a couple styles of arrows and invited the man to walk up the hill to his archery range.

On the way out the door, the bowyer also picked up one of his handcrafted traditional bows.

"We got up there, and I needed to try the arrows using his bow," Toelke says. "So I took his, and asked him to hold mine."

Toelke’s bows are virtually works of art, thin layers of combinations of Brazilian walnut, bamboo, cocobolo, black limba, zebra wood and more. They can weigh as little as 11 ounces.

The man left with a quiver full of arrows.

"And he bought a bow," Toelke says. "The next week, he came back and asked me to make another one for his wife."

It’s been like that since last year, when Toelke quit his job as manager of the gun department at Ronan Sports and Western to turn his passion for archery into a career.

He planned to have a nice color brochure printed. Advertise in archery magazines. Build a Web site.

But he hasn’t had time, and he hasn’t needed to.

Word of mouth has kept Dan Toelke employed.

Of course, the man Ronan’s increasingly well-known bowyer trained under, Mike Fedora of Richland, Pa., has been crafting bows for 40 years.

"And he didn’t even get a sign up on his shop for the first 35," Toelke says.

Toelke differs from many bowyers in that he doesn’t have an inventory of bows from which to choose. His are all custom-made.

"I build them to fit each person’s height, arm length and hand size," Toelke says. "If it’s an accomplished archer, I’ll even build it to fit their shooting style."

It’s an industry where 25/1,000th of an inch of thickness in a veneer changes a bow’s performance.

Each bow is a two-week process. The moisture content of the wood must fall between 6 and 7 percent. The correct glues and laminations must be selected.

Each veneer must be tapered, and Toelke applies the maximum number of laminations, nine.

The wood spends 24 hours in a kiln, is glued and put in a preheated press for two to three hours. Once it’s cured, the shaping process begins.

"A perfectly tillered bow is time-consuming," Toelke says. "Smoothness and quietness are what you’re after. You want it totally silent when that arrow comes off the bow."

He shapes the fiberglass, bevels the edges, finishes sanding and applies eight coats of epoxy.

"You can store it in a bathtub if you want," Toelke says. "It’s a lifetime finish."

He produces three bows a week. They range in price from $475 to $1,000, but Toelke says you can get a pretty deluxe bow for $650.

"There are a thousand steps," Toelke says. "And you don’t rush any of them."

Born two hours before his wife – Dan and Amy Toelke first "met" as newborns in the nursery at the hospital in Ronan – Toelke took up archery at age 8.

"I saw a pretty little recurve bow in a shop in Ronan and just had to have it," he says. "I headed home with the bow and a fistful of arrows. The first time I saw three feathers fly across a field, I was hooked."

He spent almost all his adult life working at Ronan Sports and Western, and many of his initial customers knew him from the store.

But two years after setting out on his own, Toelke’s bows can be found throughout the Pacific Northwest and as far away as Florida. Last week, he was getting ready to deliver a takedown bow (one that comes apart and fits into a carrying case) to a hunter bound for Africa.

His business comes when archers gather for shoots, or hunters gather for trips, and compare bows, Toelke says.

"So far everything’s come from word of mouth," he says. "I haven’t advertised, I have no Web site yet, I never did get around to getting that brochure made up. I’ll just get a guy in the shop from out of town, he orders a bow, and the next thing I know I’ve got six calls from Oregon."

Fifteen-year-old Jared Toelke works by his father’s side in the shop, and Seth, who’s 6, is in the wings. Dan and Amy also have two grown daughters, Amber and Holly, two grandchildren and a third on the way.

All but Holly, who lives in Bozeman now, are shooters – even grandson Lincoln Slonaker of Polson, who is 1 1/2.

"Yeah, he’s got a few rounds in already," his grandfather says.

Archery’s closest cousin in the sporting world, Toelke says, is fly fishing.

"It’s a sport that requires skill and concentration, but it’s also fun and relaxing," he says.

Like any sport, the better you are, the more likely you are to enjoy it, and Toelke offers instruction. A three-evening, starting-at-square-one course costs $100, but instruction is free to anyone buying a bow.

And it’s free to anyone 15 and under, customer or not.

"It can be 4-H groups, Cub Scouts, clubs, individuals, whatever," Toelke says. "We’ve got our own shooting range right here. Just give us a call and we’ll set it up."

Many beginning archers simply set up a target in their backyard and start firing away, Toelke says.

"After 5,000 to 10,000 arrows, they’ll be proficient," Toelke says. "I can get them to the same point in about three hours. (Archery without instruction is) like trying to play golf without anyone having told you to keep your head down."

The most common mistake self-training beginners make is to stand too far from the target. Toelke starts beginners 5 yards from the target, and gradually moves them back as they learn.

Along the way students may get a dose of archery history from Toelke. The British Empire, he says, came to be because England started using a more elastic wood in its bows that allowed its soldiers to shoot 25 yards farther than had previously been possible.

"They essentially conquered the world with a new type of stick," he says "The days of Genghis Khan, it was the same thing – a better bow that let them stay outside the enemy’s range. They could inflict lethal damage with no casualties."

Given that he hasn’t gone looking for customers – his customers have come looking for him – Toelke is pretty sure bow hunters and archers like his product.

But he was tickled recently when Jim Rempp of Missoula stopped by, tried a bow and bought it.

"Jim is a fabulous bowyer," Toelke says. "I owned half a dozen of his bows before I got into this business. When another bowyer comes in, shoots your bow and buys it – that makes you feel pretty good about what you’re doing."