Bow and Arrow

[Emdiesse]

Could someone please post a guide on how to make a bow and arrow.
I have attempted to make one before, unsuccessfully. I would now like to know how and to succesfully build a decent one and also have the knowledge of one you can whip up in the bush!

Ideally i would like to see a few variations.
Mainly one that would take time and effort to construct for a bit of a project more than bushcraft.
And secondly A guide to whipping one up whilst bushcrafting.
Don't forget the guide on stringing it

Finnally, the arrows. You can't use a bow with out them.
Again with this i would like to see the two variations of arrows.
Ones made with time and effort for projects, etc.
and ones you can whip up in the bush!

Thanks

 

[hootchi]

You could try this thread . I can't remember having seen any other types covered, but i may be wrong! And there are lots of archers among us so they may be able to help?

I don't know much myself but I have made a flat selfbow before. It took me a long time and did not pull at much.

 

[C_Claycomb]

As has been said before, "The Traditional Bowyer's Bible" is almost a must have if you are wanting to make a bow. Volume 1 (there are three volumes total) will give you good ideas for both long projects and quick in the bush bows.

Going from memory here . The first Volume is a must have, it covers wood seasoning and selection, bow design principles, making yew, osage and white wood bows, indian bows (eastern or westerd, can't remember), tillering, finishing, glues, backing and some other bits that I can't recall.

Vol 2 has a big seciton on making bows from lumber yard boards, reading the wood fibre, not just the grain, it has the other kind of indian bows, string making, ancient European bows, recurves, bending wood, some stuff on other gear...um not sure about the rest.

The 3rd Volume has a chapter on tools,a good section on bows of the world, some stuff on using stone tools, flint knapping, asian composite bow making (there might be some more in Vol 2 ) some stuff on problem solving and tips and tricks.

I know there are bits on footed arrows, normal arrow making, making self arrows, spread over three chapters, that there is material on making and using metal broad heads, setting up a bow to shoot, and improving accuracy. I can't remember which books have them though.

I think that you should get the first two for sure, and that the third would be a nice to have. I made my first board bow without having read the second volume and coule have saved some problems if I had. Oh, since the final book was written after the first two were published, some of the authors do a little back peddling having gone and done some more thinking.

I bought mine when they were only available in hard cover, £22ish a piece, now they are paper back which is cheaper. If you get all three you won't be disappointed and wish you had only bought one

The Leatherwall Forum on www.stickbow.com is used to be full of information.
www.primitivearcher.com is also a good place to look.

So far there hasn't been a detailed instructional thread on bow making here, there is so much to cover. Such a thread is in the pipeline, but is liable to take a while. Too long to help you out now.

 

[bambodoggy]

Most survival books have a section on making bows and arrows - field expedient ones anyway.....

Tom Brown's Books show the opposite bouble stave bows he likes....
Lofty Wiseman's SAS handbook has one....which I still can't get to work at 4" long...lol
Several of RM's books have how to make them.....

I've never made a "proper" one but have made several field expedient ones and the first 5 to 10+ I made where close to useless, no pulling power, no range, no consistancey of accuracy, many of them snapped.....as I kept making them and learned by my mistakes.....so they got better..... There's no short cuts in bow making my friend....just keep plugging on till you get it right

Same story with arrows.....

 

[greg2935]

I have found the "The archer's craft" by Eliot Hodgkin to be the most jealously guarded book for those who own a copy, it is out of print and quite hard to find but worth every penny spent. A reprint was published a few years ago which you might be able to get hold of.

Greg

 

[greg2935]

that should read Adrian Eliot Hodgkin, sorry.

Greg

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

The english Actor Harvey ( first name?) wrote an excellent history and how to book on the english yew longbow. Wilderness Way Magazine www.wwmag.net has several resources from past articles to material and complete bow resources. Don't overlook the spear thrower either!

 

[beach bum]

The actor your thinking of is Robert Hardy of "ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL" fame he also did one of the episodes of "SIGNIFICANT WEAPONS" which dealt with the English long bow at some length. They reckoned that one of the long bows found on the MARY ROSE had a draw weight in excess of 140lb.


regards

beach bum

 

[Paleoaleo]

Hi, I just found this discussion, and thought I would provide a link for you.

One of the authors of the Bowyer's Bible series (Tim Baker) has posted information on the PaleoPlanet site entitled "Making your First Bow" - or something similar.

I hope this helps you.

http://p081.ezboard.com/fpaleoplanet69529frm13.showMessage?topicID=352.topic

Perhaps I can help further by trying to answer questions you might have. I'm nowhere near the expert that Tim is, but I have made quite a few bows, and lots of arrows!

For fun, here's a photo of some bows I made in years past:

Here are some arrows I made in replication of a local Native American tribe - the Chumash, of Southern California. The arrows are made from a bamboo-like reed. They have hardwood foreshafts, and stone points hafted with pine pitch adhesive and sinew. The turkey feathers are lashed to the shaft with sinew as well:

Finally, here are some arrowheads I made and hafted on hunting arrows. The arrows are bamboo, and the flint points are hafted with pine pitch and sinew:

Hope you enjoy the photos, and that you find useful information in Tim Baker's post about making your first bow!

Tom Mills

 

[Doc]

That is truly magnificent craftsmanship.

I did wonder how accurate a field expedient bow would be. With my Bear recurve and cedar arrows I can only group about 10 to 12 inches at 20 yards - I am a relative beginner. Obviously an experienced archer would do better.

On the other hand, I understand that a lot of bowhunting in the US is done at even closer range, so perhaps even a relatively inaccurate bow could be used efficiently.

I suspect it is in the arrow making that real accuracy lies.

 

[RovingArcher]

from my experience in shooting everything from selfbows to 1000.00 recurves, they are all pretty much accurate, it's the shooter that needs more work. ):

 

[C_Claycomb]

Paleoaleo, WOW :shock:
The bows look good, but those arrow heads are stunning!! I have noticed something interesting, people who knap lots of things, not just arrow heads, don't seem nearly as worried about what their arrow heads look like, compared to people who are archers first, knappers second. Dunno if that applies to you, but those heads look like they mean business!

Thanks for the pointer to that article! Baker has a knack of making bow making sound easy and attainable, which it is ):

Doc, the archer and the arrows are more important to accuracy than the bow. A half decent bow will group good arrows, but a brilliant bow will struggle with only half decent arrows.

 

[GrahamD]

Another good book that may help is 'The Traditional Archers Handbook' by Hilary Greenland.

In the edition which I have (vol 2) she includes practical advice re. the design of a longbow as well as a flat bow. She also talks about making arrows and covers things such as tuning.

Hilary is a bowyer and was, and maybe still the secretary of SPTA, the Society for the Promotion of Traditional Archery. I made my first primitive bow on a SPTA workshop, and if the are still running they are an excellent way of taking the first step into bowmaking!


Cheers,

Graham.

 

[Snufkin]

That is truly magnificent craftsmanship.

I did wonder how accurate a field expedient bow would be. With my Bear recurve and cedar arrows I can only group about 10 to 12 inches at 20 yards - I am a relative beginner. Obviously an experienced archer would do better.

I suspect it is in the arrow making that real accuracy lies.

You hit the nail on the head. A bent sapling with a bit of string will be accurate is the arrows are well matched but if you grabbed a bunch of twigs and fired them out of your recurve...

A field expedient bow won't be as fast as your recurve, and arrow tuning will be far more critical as it wouldn't have the centre cut arrow shelf. So for all intents and purposes, ie making meat (in a survival situation, no bowhunting in the UK), it could be considered less accurate.

 

[Stuart]

beautiful arrowheads Paleoaleo :You_Rock_

 

[idoaik]

Just a quickie , Its a He.

 

[2blackcat]

Hilary Greenland and the SPTA are still running.
She recently held a shoot near Leatherhead.

The prizes were better than the the usual medals - tis a shame I didn't win anything though

Ho hum! :roll:


Steve

 

[GrahamD]

Hilary Greenland and the SPTA are still running.
She recently held a shoot near Leatherhead.

The prizes were better than the the usual medals - tis a shame I didn't win anything though

Ho hum! :roll:


Steve

Yep, I know, when I used to be a member of SPTA there were cool prizes - especially for people shooting primitive bows - I came 2nd in a field shoot once and won a pair of knapped flint arrowhead earrings - luckily my Lady is a archer and has pierced ears!!!

They also used to have a venison shoot - with real meat for prizes...

Reminds me, I must get back into that side of archery again.

Cheers,

Graham.

 

[Emdiesse]

I havent looked at this tread for a while.
Paleoaleo, your bows and arrows are amazing.
Those arrow heads look fantastic, how long does it take you to make them?
How long have you been doing this?

Thanks for the link.

 

[R-Bowskill]

THE book to get if you really want to get into making archery equipment is the three volume set 'The Bowers Bible' available from Quicks (www.quicks.com) They stock most of the books on archery that are still in print and sell materials for bowmaking such as horn knocks etc.

At the East Anglia meetup I made a willow recurve selfbow in about an hour and a half to get to the tillering stage. 4 foot long with a natural recurve at both ends that shot fairly accutately. More Asian in style than the English longbow or the American flatbow.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get it finished there and as I had to walk along a buisy road then use public transport and walk through Norwich city center to get home hope one of the others now has it.

That's the most complicated design I've made and I usually use a split ash stave to make a longer bow. Parracord works as a bowstring, either intact or the center threads with a twist and some wax. Beeswax is best for bowstrings but candle wax does the job as well. I think at a push even Nikwax would be suitable.

Arrows have to be straight and smooth, and for primitive archery thicker than the turned port oxford ceder shafts or alluminium shafts used in most competitions to take the strain.

Don't forget you'll need a bracer and finger tab!!!! or it gets painful