In a couple weeks we will come to the first anniversary of the passing of Dean Torges. I find myself re-reading his works, and think about his wisdom and writings when I have time on stand. In 1994 Dean Torges wrote and article in a popular publication where he stated "A well made wooden bow was not a handicap to the hunting archer". When I read that I thought Dean was truly an idealist, a wonderful genius, but perhaps wearing some rose colored glasses or smoking something funny. By that time I had been hard core into making selfbows for a few years, having had some success, taking a few deer each year with them, but just knew when it came to the moment of truth, nothing beats a performance lam hybrid and aluminum arrows (later carbon). In 2004 he revisited the issue by adding to it something to the effect "I don't believe a better close quarter bow exists regardless of the construction, than a simple selfbow" By this time I had met Dean, talked with him for hours at shoots and over the phone, bought one of everything he had for sale, and was chasing the cute and flashy BBO bow craze. Still, during the peak of the rut, when Mr Big was roaming near, the Heavy Draw Hybrid and carbon arrows climbed the tree with me. In the end I still believed the wood bow and arrows was indeed a handicap, I did not believe as much as Dean believed. Making wooden bows is highly addictive, so onward I trudged making yellow dust, but in when the lights came on for the big game, the high dollar big name custom came off the rack. Each wood bow was a little better than the one before, more reading, more study, more shavings. Finally, the "light" came on with an article by Marc St Louis in TBB IV on heat tempering bellies on white woods. I tried it on osage, and viola, my last major concern was addressed: Moisture stability in a climate with very hot/wet summers and very dry electric heated houses in winter. The heat tempered wood stabilizes the wood and it never changes. What created the handicap was my lack of wisdom and skill as a bowyers, not the the potential of the simple wooden bow. The last few years have proven to me that Dean was in fact correct, under field conditions and at the moment of truth, the bow that best meets the hunters requirements for a close quarter weapon IS the all wooden selfbow. No question about it. "If I was shooting my osage selfbow instead of this high strung noisy contraption I would of killed that big buck" really happened. The years and failures initially only served to teach and improve me, finally having reached Deans (Well made) standard has been a priceless experience. I guess Dean intended it to be so when he wrote those words to me and so many others so long ago. Dean is the one who took classic wood bow making from the 101 Freshman college level to the PHD level for so many of us, I am here to say thank you . Deans writings are still available in books form and on his still operational website. I hope some of take time to read, or re-read them.

Well said! I agree 100%.

Dean, the Man, and his Writings and Musings are certainly missed.

if youve not read his blog you should the story about his high school reunion is some his best.

he tricked me once with a rubber rattlesnake,he told me not to despair when my son died,he told me once a bow I made was a damn fine piece of work.Hell I miss him, miss his phone calls and believe it not his texts (when he learned how).He was much man.

I believe Dean was talking about within a certain range. Nothing is quicker to use,quieter,or deadlier with in its range as a well made self bow. My longest kill ever was 25 yards. Most average inside 15. A few were within feet. There would have been no time to bring sights,levels,releases or any thing else in to play. Forget any thing noise making,hollow aluminium arrows over a metal rest,much less a clicker. Silent but deadly. I once lost an opportunity at a coyote because my old elbow popped. He didn't hesitate. It has been fun. >>>----> Ken

Just read Hunting The Osage Bow this fall. I wish I'd had the opportunity to have met Dean. I've not made too many bows but I'm hunting this year with one of my own that has had many hundreds of arrows put thru it. I have only taken one buck with a selfbow,one that Marc St Louis made for me but this year I hope to take a deer with one made from my own hand. They truly are magical to me:)

I have a beautiful osage bow built by Jeff Durnell that is stained in the Torges style. Had a few email conversations with Dean and thought of him when I saw the bow for the first time.

The Osage Bow is a cool book...been out of the loop...didnt know Dean passed.

I own the bow he and Lew made while writing HOB.Its called "the streak" and it's a beast.Too heavy for me now.

Wow Mike, that's a treasure for sure. I thought I'd like to own one of Dean's bows myself but he built them a bit too stout for me! I have had 3 selfbows built by bowyers that I consider some of the best in the business and they don't give up a thing to glass bows in my opinion.

Steve I have a BBO he made that has a baleen belly it is amazing he said it took 3x as long to make.

Michael, I think about Dean a lot. As a matter of fact, my wife and I were talking about him over this morning's coffee. Then I went out to the shop where his influences would be unmistakable to those who knew him, and worked at rebuilding my tillering tree yet again, to be more versatile and better reveal balance.

I was seeking information on making selfbows the year Dean's book, Hunting the Osage Bow, came out. I made an osage selfbow from a 5" standing dead osage tree with his book as my only guide. I still have that bow, and it still shoots... whip-ended and ugly, but it shoots. That may not sound like much of a testament to him, lol, but prior to making that bow, I had never even seen a real selfbow in person, and many folks are known to have broken their first several attempts. So, thanks goes to Dean.

I met him at Denton Hill, was amazed at the quality of work he did, and hung around his booth picking his brain. We became friends, and with his help my bows improved. I've trusted selfbows for my hunting weapons ever since. Not only did I quit hunting with glass bows, I can rarely bring myself to hunt with bbo's, and such. I love making them and shooting them, but there's just something about the personal investment and rewards involved in making and hunting with a one-of-a-kind selfbow.

As a mentor, Dean inspired us to make the very best we're capable of, and preferred to instruct without spoon feeding us. I think he knew if he inspired us to improve with each effort and seek truth, the answers to our questions and a lot more would be learned as a matter of course.

"Carve a little wood, pull a few strings, and sometimes magic happens." — Gepetto

Dean was one of a kind. I miss those Leatherwall days of the osage and whitewood wars....and seeing his beautiful bows.

Thinking of Dean also has me think of an old friend from years ago that was a staple here as well. Joe Mattingly... Another artist and bowyer that was taken from us much too early...

God Bless...

Ron Herman

Never met Dean or read his writing. But, I did shoot one of his bows that he gave Darryl Quidort. It is a semi-short, heavy BBO R/D in his signature faded dye look. Nice clean rig. He didn't influence me one bit as a result, but for some reason I feel like I missed out. Maybe or maybe not.

I had a couple of phone conversations with Dean and read his entire blog, I loved his writing. Dean was a true craftsman. His sense of humor and style only added to his great skill as a bowyer. I wished I could have gotten to know him better and met him in person.

That was a great post Michael and thank you for posting that.

For anyone interested, some of his writing can be found on his website...

www.bowyersedge.com

Mike, I remember that baleen bow. The baleen faded out on the belly in the outer limb didn't it?

Shared a campfire with Dean years ago. Great guy to sit and chat with.

Yes it did

He's The Dean and always will be. Eternal be his memory. George

Shot with Gepetto at GORH (the first one in modern times). The good in him radiated. Beautiful wife, fine cook, skilled drinker, wonderful story teller, funny, good with men and dogs, bowyer, excellent shot, didn't suffer fools tho he treated me right, superb classical education.

Yes, Dean was a lot like Joe Mattingly... also remembered here by Shordthair/Ron Herman.

Be happy. Many of today's LW participants share Dean's and Joe's virtues...

I never met Dean but a god friend and neighbor Lew McClain used to tell me about him.

Folks... meat Dean...

From his friend Jan on Dean's website...

A word about Dean

I’ve known him since boyhood. Dean Torges grew up feral in St. Clairsville, a small town tucked into the folds of eastern Ohio. His father died early and he became the respected companion of gray hunters and sly poachers in battered pick-up trucks, more a part of the seasons than of the town.

With the exception of a university education and teaching at Ohio State, he never abandoned that deep-woods parent or the already antiquated life that fit him like a familiar flannel shirt. But he didn't abandon society, either. He took philosophy and literature into the woods, and brought out his own reflections, and an easy, fresh voice of expression.

He stood for a time among the outstanding art woodworkers in American shows. High art and the production business didn't sit comfortably on his shoulders. To an outsider his life seemed to turn away from society, but his friends saw that he was progressing along his own long-laid lines, creating his own doctorate, lengthening his hunts, foraging farther, learning more.

Here is a pivot point: Dean met the wooden bow. He became enthralled by the discipline and beauty of the bow's plainness. It was a tool that demanded skill in its creation and dedication to its use. Once again, returning to old ways wasn't a regression but another step on his personal path. That path has taken him the length and breadth of this country, and to Alaska and Germany, Africa, and Australia, hunting and giving bow-making seminars.

I'm making Dean sound more solemn and respectable than he actually is. He’s charming, yes, but vaguely larcenous and volatile. I would trust him with my life but not my dignity. You’ll meet him yourself through these pages.

Jan Adkins

Well said

Jeff thanks for posting that. 4nolz thanks for sharing. I wish I could have hunted with him. I would have been all ears,no doubt about it.

Jan Adkins assembled my zillion photo portraits into a truthful and hilarious illustrated panorama of GORH guys, including famous rabbits and, of course, Dean. And a bunch of LW regulars.

"...charming, yes, but vaguely larcenous and volatile. I would trust him with my life but not my dignity" ;-)

I am holding one of his bows in my hands now, feels like a relic. I miss him and his complex nature. I talk to him when I'm in the woods, my greatest satisfaction hunting was to get a buck with a bow he made for me. Dean could establish a relationship in about 3 minutes, and he was deep. Thank you Mike for your post. As sad as we are I can't imagine how much Mary and his girls must miss him.

One story.If you remember Mickey Lotz aka the ferret.Penny Banks and I met up with Mickey and Dean and Banjo Hill one year for fresh oyster jambalaya (Dean chased Mickey around with a raw one which Mickey refused to eat).Mickey actually ate hotdogsfromhell while we ate the most incredible Deano jambalaya ever.

Mickey always prided himself on only taking ONE arrow when he hunted.When he got out of the truck he promptly slammed in the door....Im not sure I have ever laughed that hard.(anyway he had a spare)

Dean shot a very small spike-when Mickey realized he had used a CARBON ARROW I thought he was going to faint...I also thought he was going to faint when it became obvious Dean wasnt going to tag the deer or take it to a check station.....

Dean and I snuck the deer out packing the body with ice (it was really hot) and after we became partners in borderline larceny it cemented our friendship.

I'll never forget the little spike or realizing that the larger than life Dean Torges was just a regular guy despite what we all thought.

Actually Ive always assumed he checked the deer later but that maybe, just maybe he was testing me.

That's awesome! I am sure he checked it in.;)

This reminds me of the threads when I first came on here. And why I kept coming back. Some stuff was very deep. And other stuff would make you laugh out loud hard. Anyone that has made a little dust Knows Dean. If they met him or not. Good Thread Michael!

My wife refers to him as "Yoda". She met him only once, and briefly , yet tells all her friends about him and talks about him to this day. He mixed phylosophy and literature with wooden bow making and bow hunting (or was it bow hunting and bow making with phylosophy and literature?)into an addictive cocktail tantamount to moonshine and mountain dew. I have been fortunate to be longtime friends with many noted hunters and bowyers, learned a lifetime of lessons in mere hours from those personally taught by Howard Hill and Fred Bear, but Dean was different in a way that is hard to describe. He was a cross between a shaman and the pied piper. Every sentence he wrote was highly entertaining, yet so complex you have to s-l-o-w-l-y re-read it multiple times in order to fully digest the richness of the text. Dean is hard to describe with superlatives, even in comparison to the powerful political and military figures with whom I have run into during my work career. Put him at a cocktail party with rich, powerful, and famous people, and I bet in short order most would have gathered around Dean, drawn to his stories and the topics of his chicken tractor, or latest hunting adventure. I cannot sit in the woods on a quiet day with a wooden bow in my lap without thinking of him. I guess he is still with us.

I was getting ready to tell the Ferret, broken arrow, carbon arrow, spike buck story when I saw Nolz beat me to it. I have a picture of all of us taken in front of the banjo factory but photobucket has it held hostage.

Might work http://smg.photobucket.com/user/PennyBanks/library/05%20Ohio%20Hunt?sort=3&page=1

Did y'all know Dean, as a college professor, taught Shakespeare. During his last days we burned up the text with him trying to beat an appreciation of the Bard into my hard head. I miss him.

Deans license plate-note the Clergy sticker lol

Why did he have a clergy sticker??

I guess it was "ironical"

dean made me do this

I have a debt to a guy i have never meet and we exchanged a couple of e mail when He was ill . He and his book [ or my little manual of bow making ] . If it wasnt for this guy and a couple off others on i would still be shooting ordinary bows but i now only shoot selfbows weather hunting or targets . THANKYOU DEAN WISH THERE HAD BEEN MORE TIME .

http://tmuss.tripod.com/

Tom Mussatto on Spam, Dean Torges, and cosmic truths.

...and of course, the immortal Haggis:

http://tmuss.tripod.com/spam/spamorama.html

A pair of aces.

Liquid Amber is amongst this group of shady characters.:)

A photo of Jerry Pierce and Dean Torges. The greatest glass lam recurve bowyer (namesake of "pierce points", and he painted them flat black when he was done, never sold one,but gave them away, they still draw $10k or more at auction) and THE greatest wood/grass bow builder of our time. Both passed way too soon.

I hope Jeff doesn't mind me saying this.

Jeff Durnell sent me a stave of hickory for my first self bow and I stated that I would send him the money for shipping. Jeff asked me instead of sending him the shipping cost, to buy Dean Torges Book on building the Osage selfbow. Now that is how much Dean impressed Jeff.

I did and I am as impressed with Jeff and his generosity as I am with Dean after reading most of his book.

He always drew a crowd at MoJam, as did his bows. The BBO I had was a simple looking perfectly tillered shooter. He and my mentor, Joe Mattingly, will always be missed. I still have several of Joe's selfbows and always enjoy shooting them.

We grew up Greek in America.

I grew up on a small farm in MA. Life was hard but we always had food.

Dean and I shared our Greek heritage. We would often speak on here in phonetic Greek for no other reason than we could.

He told me about Star Mitsos, an on line site, which most of the time made me laugh so hard I would spit out my Ouzo.

I complimented him on an article he wrote about packing with mules. He asked me if I knew how to say donkey in Greek. I said I sure did. My mother called me a gaitharo pretty often. He told me he laughed very hard over that.

Guess you gotta be Greek to identify. :)

I met him at Mojam in 2003 where I did a demo on hand planing shafts. Dean watched. I remember thinking that I hoped he liked it and then I saw him smiling. It was nice.

I also remember sitting with him and someone brought us a really difficult stave and asked us if we could make a bow from it. We told him he was better off to find a better stave. I don't know why I remember that but I do.

I met him again at ETAR where he was marketing his video on the bamboo backed osage bows. I forget the year.

He was an incredibly interesting man.

Jawge

Dean's perhaps-most-financially-important success was in furniture design and building. Solid, simple, graceful..beautiful wood.

He told me his wife recognized how important that craft and art was to him when she supported his farewell to academia.

BowAholic,,, thanks for mentioning Joe mattingly I have a few of his bows also and they are the ones I reach for when hunting with a selfbow I never personally met joe but spent long hours talking bows on the phone,,, the smallest tips in the business!!

prayers 8^(

Also,, George good to see your still posting I hope all is well with you and the family and if you ever see ole Paul and Sean from up there tell them I said hi..

My son and I met Dean at Denton Hill quite a few years back. In fact, George mentioned when Dean was selling his bamboo backed osage bows, well that is one of the times I met him. I bought a blank bamboo backed bow from him with the intent of making a bow for my son. At the time my son was big into making selfbows and Dean was most gracious spending lots of time with us talking to my son.

I still have that blank. Now it's taken on a different meaning and I'm not going to work on it until the time feels right.

Met Dean through the LW here. He was interested in some of my dads adventures with Howard Hill and Ben Pearson. I put them in touch with each other and they shared some telephone conversations with each other. Sent my dad one of his videos and his book which I now have. I remember when ATHA was first trying to get off of the ground. Dean approached me about becoming an charter member.

Dean was a good man. Loved his writings and his respect for my father.

I miss the Dean of blessed memory. He was one of a kind. I also missed interacting with him on the LW. It's a shame he stopped but I understand why he did. Jawge

He didn't leave too soon and he didn't leave without giving plenty of life for his wife and family and all of us.

His article titled,, Dimensions of a Hunting Bow,,is a lesson in life,,and one i often think of..

Traxx, I just read it again. It describes very well why I prefer osage selfbows for my hunting and most of my shooting. Many of the truths in the article have been hitting me on the head with the highly reflexed bamboo and osage bow I've been working on. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea at the time, as I've made most of my bows in such ways as to avoid these pitfalls. I may soon need to cut this sexy, high maintenance she- devil up in pieces, burn it ceremonially on the shop floor, and snatch up the most characterless, straight standing selfbow stave I can find to exorcise my psyche.

At the end of rereading that article, I pictured Dean looking over his glasses at me, smirking a bit ;^/

Great post Jeff, I dug the book out again the last couple nights and been reading and getting a lot more out of it the second time around, He wrote in detail of what you could encounter making an Osage bow.

I wanted to make a yew bow, but now I'm leaning toward an Osage first, his book is addictive, everyone even if not interested in a self bow should read this book, you will definitely learn something...............Jeff, Thank you for recommending this book to me.

It is almost as if Dean purposely dangled the temptress BBO in our collective face, fully knowing we would chase the sexy/high performance bows, just to drive home the value of the plain, simple osage self bow. Yes, I do believe that was his possible motivation (But Dean chased her too - no excuse).

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