How to Build Bow Strings

Bowstrings come in all sizes for a variety of applications.

The art of building bowstrings has been passed down through generations, beginning first with Native American man. Today there are still bowyers who carve and build their own bows and bowstrings. Bowstrings are not difficult to make and take considerably less time to build than do the bows themselves. With only a few hand tools, some scrap lumber and a roll of B-52 bowstring you can follow these simple steps to build your own bowstring.

Things You'll Need

• 2 eight-penny nails Piece of scrap lumber as long as your bow Roll of B-52 bowstring Tape measure

Instructions

1. Begin by determining the poundage of your bow. The draw weight determines the thickness of the bowstring that you build. You can have a bow shop determine the draw weight or make your own draw scale by placing one end of the bow on a bathroom scale, holding the other end in one hand, and pushing downward on the handle of the bow with your free hand. Read the number on the scale and add 10 lbs. to get your final draw weight.

2. Measure the distance between the nocks of your bow with the tape measure. Subtract four inches from that length to give you your bowstring length. (This will give you a brace height--the distance between the string and bow handle--of around 6 inches).

3. Pound the nails into the scrap lumber the distance apart that you calculated in step 2. This will be your bowstring building bench. Make a loop of bowstring that wraps all the way around the two nails and tie it together with an overhand knot or a fisherman's knot, then begin wrapping the bowstring around the nails repeatedly. Wrap the bowstring until you have at least 14 wraps for 45-pound draw weights, adding a wrap for each 5 pounds of resistance. When you finish your last wrap, tie a fisherman's knot to complete the loop.

4. Use more bowstring to tightly wrap the two ends of the bowstring to create loops for the nocks to fit in. Also, wrap the middle of the bowstring tightly to create an arrow nocking area on the bowstring. Pull the bowstring off of the bowstring bench and try fitting it to your bow.

Tips & Warnings

• Making your own bowstrings is very inexpensive if you are making lots of bows; however, if you are simply trying to get one bow ready to shoot it might be worth your while to go ahead and purchase a manufactured string.

• Do not under-string your bow, as this could cause a broken bowstring and personal injury. If in doubt, it is better to have too strong of a string, rather than too light.

Resources

• Extremely useful article on building your own string jig and bowstrings