If youre wondering why it takes so damned long to recieve your order, allow me to give you a peek into what goes into each piece.
fterApestooth Crossbows consists of me, Dan Burr. Yup, its just me. After my teaching job each day, i drive a very short distance to my shop. Located in Alamedas west end, on what used to be The Alameda Naval Air Station is a one acre farm, known as Makerfarm. My shop consists of a 40' shipping container modified into a wood and metal shop, with an outside space for my forge, anvil, and scrap metal. When i arrive, I check my email for orders, respond, and get to work right away on whichever order is up next. Generally im working on around three crossbows in varied stages of completion. One day, I may make bolt heads exclusively, average around 6, then pound out a tiller since the fire is hot. After that, i move inside and begin shaping tillers. This is done partially by machine then by hand with handplanes, spoke shaves, rasps, cabinet scrapers and sand paper. average about halfway through one tiller per day. Why only one? Because each piece is unique. I could easily use a template and knock out cookie cutter pieces and double or triple my production but thats not its done here. NO TWO PIECES ARE THE SAME. This al+so means that occasionally an idea that sounded good, ended up horrible and pieces get scrapped, thats a day or two set back.
Next day i turn out a half dozen roller nuts and work on the inlay for another piece. So on average, one piece can take a couple weeks, or more.