Got back last night from a weekend bowmaking course with Bushbasics in Surrey.
It was an excellent course. Chris and Terry, who run Bushbasics, took us from roughly split ash staves onSaturday morning to shooting six-foot flatbows on Sunday Afternooon and through all the stages in-between.
Bushbasics have a 200 Acre site in Surrey - a mix of predominately Oak, Beech Birch and Hazel. The atmosphere throughout the weekend was structured but informal - we were allowed free-range of the site and to forage and harvest anything that took our fancy - so long as we were sensible and responsible about it - I ended up with a bunch of tinder fungus in my pack and a load of hazel for some other little projects of mine.. Chris and Terry were a font of infromation and were happy to talk about any aspect of Bushcraft we wanted, while gently keeping us on track with making our bows. All food and drinks were provided and Terry's 'Want a brew?' cry was a regular relief for hands cramped on axe handles.
On the saturday we spent most of the day using axes to rough shape the staves to a floor-tillering stage. Those who had not used axes before were taken through safe use and Chris and Terry seemed to have eyes in the back of their heads when the axes were being used. I asked Chris about his reasoning for using axes and he explained that some courses only work with knives, but this means adding an extra day to the course as well as being much more exhausting work. He also pointed out that he would much rather teach people how to use an axe safely in the first place rather than see them leave the course and head out into the woods on their own with an axe and no knowledge of how to use it properly.
On the saturday evening we sat round the camp-fire making bowstrings. and talking about other bushcraft skills. Every time I asked about something - like fire pistons, one of them seemed to miraculously produce it from their pockets.
Sunday was tillering day. It was quite a change of pace from the frenetic axe work of the firast day to slow down and tiller gradually. We also spent some time making arrows from cedar shafts. By 3pm all bows and arrows were made - we had a range of poundages - from 20lbs to about 42lbs (mine
) and we went off into the woods and shot at (non-living) things to our hearts content (and until my left-forearm started bleeding!) before breaking camp and heading home.
Chris and Terry kindly gave us additional ash staves to take home with us to make more bows.
The whoel weekend was excellent - both for those who had no woodworking experience and for the more practised. Chris and Terry inspired confidence in everyone and always had the right advice on hand.
One thing that sometimes annoys me with courses is when primitive skills are taught using modern materials without explanation - I want to know how to do it from scratch. Chris and Terry have the attitude that using modern materials is fine as it saves you time, but at every stage they would talk through and show us the traditional alternatives - so when we made arrows with cedar shafts they showed us how to make them from hazel (which they also let us take a bunch of home with us). When we used aralditte to glue steel tips to the arrows they showed us how to use pine resin and harden the tips/ use flint and bone tips etc. Because of time limits Chris and Terry had already split and seasoned staves from a round, but again they took us through in detail how to choose and split a tree into staves - what part to use, how to split with wedges etc. We also covered natural fletchings of every type, the archer's paradox and a hundred other things.
At the end of the course Chris took us through useing bark and antler backings for strengthening and decorating the bow and antler and bone inserts to protect it from the fliughts of the arrows. We looked at the differences in wood types for bows and arrows, how to repair bows snapped at the handle with wood inserts. Basically we went through all that could go wrong in bow-making since as Chris put it -' At some point you will break bows when you make them or you will end up with 10lb pull. It's inevitable. So its best to learn how to fix these things (or how not to do them in the first place.!)'
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Chris and Terry were very encouraging and helpful, kept the atmosphere friendly and informal without letting us get behind, and they clearly work hard - having to set-up and dismantle the base camp just for our course, as well as keeping an eye on all of us. My brain is still processing all the information thrown at it. I came away with a clear grasp of the process, a powerful flatbow that shoots perfectly and needs sanding, and a claw hand - I really must learn to use an axe with my left hand One thing I would like to see is a written handout on all the dimesions etc. - I wrote them down,but some might not and it would be nice to have an easy-to-hand sheet reminding me of dimensions for use with Ash as opposed to yew etc. No biggie though.
Now I just have to let my bow season fully and sand it down over the next couple of weeks. Then I'm going to try backing it with some bark - Chris had a beautiful example of a flatbow he made backed with Cherry bark and I want to try somethingsimilar. Photos when I'm done.
I thoroughly reccomend the course and Bushbasics. If you want more details on them adn their courses you can find contact information in the BCUK bushcraft schools list.
Apologies if there are spelling mistakes but I really do have a bit of a claw-hand today
It was an excellent course. Chris and Terry, who run Bushbasics, took us from roughly split ash staves onSaturday morning to shooting six-foot flatbows on Sunday Afternooon and through all the stages in-between.
Bushbasics have a 200 Acre site in Surrey - a mix of predominately Oak, Beech Birch and Hazel. The atmosphere throughout the weekend was structured but informal - we were allowed free-range of the site and to forage and harvest anything that took our fancy - so long as we were sensible and responsible about it - I ended up with a bunch of tinder fungus in my pack and a load of hazel for some other little projects of mine.. Chris and Terry were a font of infromation and were happy to talk about any aspect of Bushcraft we wanted, while gently keeping us on track with making our bows. All food and drinks were provided and Terry's 'Want a brew?' cry was a regular relief for hands cramped on axe handles.
On the saturday we spent most of the day using axes to rough shape the staves to a floor-tillering stage. Those who had not used axes before were taken through safe use and Chris and Terry seemed to have eyes in the back of their heads when the axes were being used. I asked Chris about his reasoning for using axes and he explained that some courses only work with knives, but this means adding an extra day to the course as well as being much more exhausting work. He also pointed out that he would much rather teach people how to use an axe safely in the first place rather than see them leave the course and head out into the woods on their own with an axe and no knowledge of how to use it properly.
On the saturday evening we sat round the camp-fire making bowstrings. and talking about other bushcraft skills. Every time I asked about something - like fire pistons, one of them seemed to miraculously produce it from their pockets.
Sunday was tillering day. It was quite a change of pace from the frenetic axe work of the firast day to slow down and tiller gradually. We also spent some time making arrows from cedar shafts. By 3pm all bows and arrows were made - we had a range of poundages - from 20lbs to about 42lbs (mine
) and we went off into the woods and shot at (non-living) things to our hearts content (and until my left-forearm started bleeding!) before breaking camp and heading home.Chris and Terry kindly gave us additional ash staves to take home with us to make more bows.
The whoel weekend was excellent - both for those who had no woodworking experience and for the more practised. Chris and Terry inspired confidence in everyone and always had the right advice on hand.
One thing that sometimes annoys me with courses is when primitive skills are taught using modern materials without explanation - I want to know how to do it from scratch. Chris and Terry have the attitude that using modern materials is fine as it saves you time, but at every stage they would talk through and show us the traditional alternatives - so when we made arrows with cedar shafts they showed us how to make them from hazel (which they also let us take a bunch of home with us). When we used aralditte to glue steel tips to the arrows they showed us how to use pine resin and harden the tips/ use flint and bone tips etc. Because of time limits Chris and Terry had already split and seasoned staves from a round, but again they took us through in detail how to choose and split a tree into staves - what part to use, how to split with wedges etc. We also covered natural fletchings of every type, the archer's paradox and a hundred other things.
At the end of the course Chris took us through useing bark and antler backings for strengthening and decorating the bow and antler and bone inserts to protect it from the fliughts of the arrows. We looked at the differences in wood types for bows and arrows, how to repair bows snapped at the handle with wood inserts. Basically we went through all that could go wrong in bow-making since as Chris put it -' At some point you will break bows when you make them or you will end up with 10lb pull. It's inevitable. So its best to learn how to fix these things (or how not to do them in the first place.!)'
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Chris and Terry were very encouraging and helpful, kept the atmosphere friendly and informal without letting us get behind, and they clearly work hard - having to set-up and dismantle the base camp just for our course, as well as keeping an eye on all of us. My brain is still processing all the information thrown at it. I came away with a clear grasp of the process, a powerful flatbow that shoots perfectly and needs sanding, and a claw hand - I really must learn to use an axe with my left hand
One thing I would like to see is a written handout on all the dimesions etc. - I wrote them down,but some might not and it would be nice to have an easy-to-hand sheet reminding me of dimensions for use with Ash as opposed to yew etc. No biggie though.Now I just have to let my bow season fully and sand it down over the next couple of weeks. Then I'm going to try backing it with some bark - Chris had a beautiful example of a flatbow he made backed with Cherry bark and I want to try somethingsimilar. Photos when I'm done.
I thoroughly reccomend the course and Bushbasics. If you want more details on them adn their courses you can find contact information in the BCUK bushcraft schools list.
Apologies if there are spelling mistakes but I really do have a bit of a claw-hand today
