OT How do you make a bow (as in bow and arrow)?

[summerdays]

For some reason my son this evening seems to want to make a bow and arrow... so with penknife (yes I have already sorted out the cuts!!!), he has made something that vaguely looks like a bow and arrow ... but it litterally just drops to the ground when fired. What should he be doing to improve his bow (preferably without it becoming so good he can kill the neighbours's cat!!!)

 

[Spinney]

How bendy is the stick? It needs to be pretty springy, I would think. And when the string is in place it should still be slightly bent. (The last time I tried to make a bow and arrow was probably 40 years ago, and I don't think it worked all that well, so my advice may not be worth much!)

 

[meenaghman]

The genius of Ghengis Khan.. composite - What the mongols discovered was by having two different types of wood/material glued together they could create a bow which was small enough to be fired from a horse, but had a range greater than a longbow.

We used to make them from willow and twine and got decent enough range (20 -30 feet) out of the arrows when younger... there are some yew trees near us but father wouldn't let us cut branches off.

 

[summerdays]

I think its random branches he has used so far.... we do have a contorted willow ... would it matter if the bow wasn't straight?

 

[summerdays]

Oh and it isn't that thick as he asked for the secateurs to find the wood...

 

[Arch]

There are two sorts of proper bow - a stick carved to shape, which uses the relationship between outerwood and heartwood to create the spring, and a laminate bow, comprised of layers of wood laminated together to give the spring. Doing it well is a real skill.

If just using a stick, it needs to be able to bend enough. The cheap wooden bow and sucker-headed arrows sets you get for kids tend to use a flattened strip of wood, to give the spring. We used to use garden canes - not brilliant, but enough spring to make believe with. The stick does need to be slightly bowed (well duh!) when strung to work, and it's no good if all the spring is actually in the string, not the stick - I think that's what makes the arrow dive.

 

[jnb]

Real bows are a lot more sophisticated than just a stick which bends a bit. Typically their construction is a form of laminate although tradition longbows would often be made from a single piece of wood but selected from an appropriate piece of timber so that the grain effecitvely forms a natural laminate. Without that there isn't enough compression / tension to provide an effective draw weight. Usable bows have draw weights that are about 30K or more, ie when pulling the bow it should feel like you're lifting 30Kg.

 

[meenaghman]

The Mongols tended to use birch. From what I remember (and we were only kids) our bows were fairly straight.. it was the tying of the string that bent them.

 

[Spinney]

I think its random branches he has used so far.... we do have a contorted willow ... would it matter if the bow wasn't straight?

Not being straight will probably affect its accuracy (which is probably a good thing for next door's cat!).

I think what matters is that you can bend it a little, and it tries to spring back. It is this springing back that fires the arrow (sorry if I'm stating the obvious here). If it won't bend much then he won't be able to fire it. If it is too bendy, there won't be much force when it springs back. The harder it is to pull the string back when the bow is made, the more force will be applied to the arrow (longbowmen had to practice for years to build their muscles up - he's not going to be Robin Hood overnight!)

 

[bauldbairn]

35 years ago for me.

Piece of Willow about as thick as a finger(or thicker if he's strong) - use about the same height as your son.
The cord is quite important too - nylon blind cord(or equivilant) is better with very good locking / self tightening knots. Remember to put a bend in it too - making it bow shaped.
Make arrows with a piece of dowel - or some thin / straight(stripped of bark and buds)willow or similar.

Hope this helps - I know what I'm looking for but it's hard to explain. It took years of failure to get the right bow and arrows.

 

[Kestevan]

You can make a decent composite bow fairly easily.
Get a thick rubber band and some epoxy resin. Unstring the bow stave and straighten it out (or even bend it back on itself slightly)). Glue the rubber tightly to the outside of the stave (the longer side when the bow is bent).

Allow the glue to dry properly. Now when you string the bow the tension will cause the rubber to act as a spring.

If you use too strong a rubber/glue too weak a stave it will snap quickly, it's fun messing with different materials tho


A simple self bow is strangely much harder to do properly. You need to get exactly the right cut of wood to naturally form the spring.

 

[Arch]

Not being straight will probably affect its accuracy (which is probably a good thing for next door's cat!).

That depends - if he's a lousy shot, then inaccuracy might 'help'!

 

[Norm]

The way I did it was to find a friend with a couple of longbows for sale, practice loads, join the local archery club, pass the tests, practice loads more, realise your getting hooked and that there's no such thing as n+1 with bows, it's more like n+5 with longbows, recurves, compounds, crossbows... and then rein yourself in as you've lost your job, your mortgage needs to be paid, school fees are coming up etc.

It all seems so easy when it's just a bent stick.

 

[Crackle]

Cheap cheerull and quick. Use a bamboo cane as the bow, notched and bent with the string attached and make arrows of the green garden canes or even thinner bamboo pieces. Eventually it will split but you just make another. Arrows fly well but don't have much weight and it isn't so accurate that wee birdies are in danger. The green sticks also make great French arrows but they are a different matter.

 

[Fnaar]

Tell him to fire it in the air... it looks more impressive to a boy that way...