Legacy Hood Maker Series I
The Falconry Fund is pleased to announce its current sweepstakes campaign featuring hood-makers Scott Webster, Jeremy Bradshaw, and Bill Barbour. After specifying the size and species of their choice. the winner of this sweepstakes campaign will receive three hoods (one from each hood-maker).
The Falconry Fund is grateful to each of our Legacy Hood Makers for their willingness to support the organization. All funds raised will be used to support conservation projects like those funded by the Falconry Fund’s contribution to the 2025 NAFA Small Grants Projects and/or the Falconry Fund’s Presidents Grant Special Project.
The draw will take place at the end of February and hoods will be mailed to the winner by the end of March.
For those interested in adding to an existing hood collection or starting a collection, in August 2026, the Falconry Fund will run Legacy Hood-maker Series Part II featuring Tucker Taylor, Blade, and Jeremy Roselle.
Scott Webster
Scott began his journey into hood making in 2004 after he purchased a set of Ron Rollins blocks from Northwoods Falconry and attempted to make his first hood. With limited resources available at the time, he sought guidance from his favorite hood maker, Jim Osborne, whose generosity and mentorship helped Scott create his first truly successful hood.
Over the next few years, Scott built a website and produced hoods for falconers until his career took priority. After retiring from the fire service in 2018, he returned to hood-making with renewed dedication, refining his techniques and elevating his craftsmanship.
Scott’s work has been most strongly influenced by Jim Osborne, Clayton Smith, and Gene Johnson, and he continues to pursue constant improvement in traditional hood-making today. In doing so he has become one of the top hood makers in North America whose fine workmanship and fit is sought by falconers everywhere
Jeremy Bradshaw
Jeremy started making hoods in 2006 under the guidance of Jeremy Roselle (Hun Country Hoods). Within a matter of just a few short months Bradshaw began making hoods for one of the main falconry supply providers in the US, and began his full time hoodmaking business, Big Jer’s Hood Co. Over the following decade Bradshaw was prolific making hoods for Northwoods Falconry, Western Sporting, and Mike’s Falconry Supplies, various large scale falcon breeders in the U.K., and his growing list of personal clients.
With his own falconry pursuits being rooted in flying merlins he focused on refining the fit and finish of his merlin hoods following the exceptional examples set by Robert Helsom, Jeremy Roselle, Pete Watzke, and Chris Proctor. The final two years of business for Big Jer’s Hoods Co. were mostly spent filling orders for those merlin hoods.
Big Jer’s Hood Co. closed for good on January 22nd, 2017 to free up time for Jeremy to pursue his current career as a bronze wildlife sculptor. Every year Bradshaw still makes a few hoods for good friends, and even occasionally offers a few up for sale.
Bill Barbour
Bill is a Maryland-born falconer and accomplished hood maker. He began his falconry journey in the early 1980s at around age eleven, mentored by longtime East Coast beach-trapper, Bill Lauer. Under Lauer’s guidance, Bill learned to craft much of his own equipment—including field hoods—which laid the foundation for his later work.
Bill’s interest in refined hood making truly took hold around 2009. Having owned hoods from respected makers such as Jim Osborne, Ray Gilbertson, and Lou Woyce, he began experimenting with commercially available Tait blocks and patterns. In 2012, Bill began studying under Utah hood maker Chris Proctor, a mentorship that elevated his craft. After traveling to Utah for a week of hands-on work—focusing on Merlin hoods and pattern development—Bill incorporated the newly developed Tait beaked blocks into his process marking a pivotal step in his hood-making evolution.
Today, Bill still relies on those original Tait beaked blocks and the Indian blocks developed by Chris Proctor. Having spent the past 15 years focused on flying passage Merlins, he now specializes in crafting Merlin hoods.