How to Make a First-Time String Bow
Making a bow is an exciting experience that is accessible to anyone with a knife, a strong piece of string and some trees. It is a great project to introduce children into woodworking. A homemade bow can easily be modified to be less powerful, so children may use it as a toy along with soft arrows. Since this is your first time, this article will show you how to make the most simple type of bow: the self bow. This bow is made from a single piece of wood and a string.
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Things You'll Need
- Knife or hand pane
- Nylon string, kite string or twine
- Wooden stick, 1-2 inches in diameter
Instructions
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1
Cut a branch 1 to 2 inches in diameter from a living tree. Yew, willow, locust, cedar, hickory, ash, oak, elm, birch or maple are some good types of trees to cut from. The branch should be about as long as the user is tall, but there is nothing wrong with a shorter bow for beginners, as it is easier to handle due to its smaller size, and a bit quicker to make.
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2
Create a handle. Find the center of the branch, equidistant from both ends. Then, using a knife or hand pain, shave off the bark in this area to make a handle. You should be able to hold the branch without touching any bark. The center of the handle should be the center of the bow. Do not shave off any actual wood. Only shave off the bark.
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3
Place one end of the stick on the ground and hold the other end in your hand, so it can freely rotate. Push the center of the stick away from you. The wood should flex and bend away from you. Every branch has a tendency to bend one way more than another. If you build a bow that requires the branch to bend against this tendency, it may snap and injure you.
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4
Shave the bark and the wood off of the side of the bow that will be facing toward you. This is the side that was facing you when you pushed the handle in Step 3. Do not shave off any wood or bark on the other side of the bow. Shave more wood off as you reach the ends of the bow, so that the ends are thinner than the center.
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5
Tie the string securely to both ends of the bow. If the string is not secure, it may hurt you.
Grasp the handle with your dominant hand and pull the string back with your other hand. You should be able to pull the string as far back as your cheek. However, if you made a shorter bow, you may not be able to pull all the way back. -
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At this point you might realize your bow is not flexible enough. If you have a full-size longbow and you aren't strong enough to pull the string past your cheek, you need to do this to make it easier for you to use, or perhaps you simply want a weaker bow for safety reasons. If this is the case, shave some more wood off both ends. The thinner your bow is, the more flexible it will be. The arrows will fly fastest if you make it just thin enough that you can barely pull the string past your cheek.
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If the tension on the two ends of your bow is uneven, shave some wood off of the side with more tension. It is important to have equal tension on both ends of your bow.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit young boy shooting an arrow image by Piter Pkruger from Fotolia.com
