bow and arrow

This instructable will teach you how to make a bow and arrow. Out of a few household thing's.

Step 1: What you will need

You will need a straight stick that is about 2inches thick. a string and a knife

Comments

[Imcrazydude]

Oak ,lemon wood ,ash,maple,hickory, all work well but the BEST for this type of bow is hickory because it grows in a lot of places for a war-bow/longbow it would be yew but its very rare and staves cost a lot for a flat bow it would be osage orange but then you have to chase the ring after u remove the sapwood. So the best for this kind if bow is a hickory branch that has dried and hasn't cracked in any way.

[jstnb]

You need fletchings, most people say it's just for decoration, but they are ignorant idiots, it helps the arrow fly straight.

[Master97865]

Also makes it fly further. Thank you very much, for letting everyone here know that fletches are NOT decoration, I am so sick and tired of people saying, "why do your plastic arrows have such ugly bright green feathers?"

[bsturg]

thanks. what kind of wood is best?

[PRINCESS-AINA]

JUST STRAIGHT STICK IN 2INCHES THICK ,A STRING AND A KNIFE

[mije123456]

hi wat string would be best for bo and arrows a string that stretches like a lastic band lz reply

[james4]

You don't wan the string to stretch, the stretch come from the bow arms.

[pearldrummer]

a bowstring

[ladiesman247]

NO WAY!!!!!!!! string that streches will not help u @ all. the less stretchy the string is the longer the distance the arro goes!!!!!!!

[kunai9000]

 he's right

[kunai9000]

 all your power should be in wood not the string

[RMConstruction]

no way to you. bowstings don't stretch.

[ThePyroManiac]

I don't post to offend, but I think you're(actually a lot, a LOT of people are) a little uneducated on "bo"s. When you have a bow, you use the power of the bow material/media, in example: wooden bows utilizes the power of the wood fibre's properties so it will spring back when you pull it (the taut string bends the wood). You do not use the elasticity of the string. In fact it's best that you use a string with a low percentage of stretch like kevlar rope, for one, buy a reel of kevlar thread and make them into a rope. Heck, hemp twine or nylon would do fine. I am by no means a professional in archery, I'm just a hobbyist, and I already understood the beauty of a bow right when I started.

[roboman 92]

you could even use a paracord braclet for the bow string

[mauiwowie24]

i made a bow from japanese elm (with the annoying circle seeds that blow into every corner of my lawn) and i could shoot pretty accuratly from 150 feet

[MR.builderguy]

what's the draw weight?

[tech dawg]

it depends on how tight you string the bow :D

[l0wmaster]

hello, firstly a bit of constructive criticism: your posture is all wrong, your bow hand should not be bent at the wrist like that one is 'cause it will tilt the bow when you loose and send your arrow off not where you want it, also your shoulder on you bow arm is too high, it should be brought down to it is level with you arm so that you hand, arm, shoulders and elbow of your drawing arm are in a strait line, it will feel weird at first but it helps your accuracy and makes you use the right muscles to draw the bow. you should not be drawing using your arm muscles, you should be using your back muscles mainly. also your elbow on your drawing arm is too high it should be brought down a touch, not lots, just a bit. and one last thing, you are bending backwards at the hips, not good! right onto the bow, it looks allright actually, but you need fletching on the arrows, you can buy them on the internet for about £3 and that will give you about 12 feathers, 4 arrows worth. if you do do this maksure that one feather is perpendicular to the nock at the end of the arrow and then when you nock the arrow onto the string have this fletching facing towards you. good luck and have fun.

[bubba j]

ya i noticed that too but isn't that a low wrist grip that is meant for longbows to make it more comfy and acurret cuz i shoot bows more than propuply every one on this site i have learned from olimpic archers and know more than eany one i know ive made a recuve bow with just a knife, fire(for heat treating), string, and a peice of osage orange so bring it foo

[RMConstruction]

possibly, but this doesn't really count as a longbow i don't think... not much of a recurve either....

[bubba j]

well i gess but if its a stick and string it can't be a compound

[bubba j]

but you got the sholders right

[l0wmaster]

i may be, i havn't had much expirience shooting longbow, but for a recurve that is definatly wrong, i also know a thing or two, being the county champ in my area.

[bubba j]

well good job how do you do scoring

[l0wmaster]

what do you mean? how do you score? or what scores do i get? or what?

[bubba j]

if you miss the target it's a miss if you hit the ouside white it's: 1 inside white 2, outside black 3 inside black 4, outside blue 5 inside blue 6, outside outside red 7 inside red 8, outside gold 9 inside 10 aka bullseye try looking at a target

[pearldrummer]

its not suppose to be a recurve

[tjsdaname]

yeah thanks for the help. i am using a left handed PSE nova with a whisker biscuit arrow rest, TruGlo Brite-Site, whitetail carbon arrows, Tru-Fire Team Realtree release. 50 - 60 pound pull, 75% let off i can get a 5inch group at 25yards

[bubba j]

good job

[Jaycub]

If possible you should try making a flat-bow out of a freshly cut branch 2-3 inches in diamiter from a WESTERN RED CEDAR tree(this wood type has exceptional bow-makiing qualities in my experience). The section you cut should be 5-6 feet long. Scrape off all the bark with a knife, then scrape along the inside and outside of the natural curve with a block plane. Leave a handle in the center and make the limbs thinner the farther out you go. I have made bows in this way that can equal my $$ Laminate recurve bow $$ that was made professionaly.

[rjcullis]

I would like more information or pictures of your cedar creation. There is a lot of cedar where I live and it would be fun to try this out...Richard

[Jaycub]

OK. If you want we can start a PM discussion about it or I can start a forum topic. I will do my best to help you during the process if you decide to build one immediately. If you want to get started now, go with a saw and get a branch ~1 1/2" to 1 3/4" on diameter. You want a live, wet, dense branch with small tight growth rings. It should be a long section that is straight or slightly curved but not very wavy and no side branches (knots). Choosing the branch is the most important part when working with this wood. An older larger branch is more brittle, while a younger branch is not stiff enough. It is also good to not let it dry completely with this wood. Linseed oil coating can help with that. A bow from this material should be a long bow, try 6'.

[rjcullis]

I will go and get myself an appropriate branch this week. Luckily there are lots of cedar trees around here. Lots of them are giants with branches starting twenty feet up. Hopefully I can find something a little closer to the ground.

[Jaycub]

Cool! I am excited to find out how well your bow will turn out. This discussion has made me get back to finishing a cedar longbow I started early in the summer.

[Jaycub]

BEFORE you start though you should also consider other materials. I now use PVC mainly and am experimenting with a laminate paper bow (not sure if this has been done before). I'm not sure what you want the bow for but if you just want a good bow I would reccommend more modern techniques (I can help with that too if you want). I would also refer you to the youtube channel: BackyardBowyer.

Notice that the comment you replied to is over 3.5 years old. I am 20 so to me that is a long time. I have gained a lot of skills and knoledge since then. Cedar is not so sacred to me now as it was for years.

I taught myself to make and shoot bows. I draw to a certain spot in the air by my ear and use a 2 finger draw, that's weird. Cedar is also weird I guess. It's just that in my 1 acre micro world, the choices of bow materials in the formative years of my archery research were douglas fir, alder, hucleberry, maybe hemlock, and maple etc... Maple could maybe be good, but in my experience all those materials are completely outclassed by a well chosen cedar limb.

I attatched pictures of a few bows I have made. The wood one is a cedar longbow that is not finnished. The last cedar one I finnished was very good looking. I was in middleschool or maybe 9th grade. 2 1/2 days of work with hand tools, 68# @22" (I was not full grown, so it had a short draw). I gave that to a good friend for his birthday. The other pictures are of a compound bow I made earlier this year, and some PVC recurves (sold on ebay).

[rjcullis]

I like real wood but the pvc bows are very interesting. Maybe it would be good to try one of those. What would I need to start?

[Jaycub]

I couldn't put the pictures of my newest bows in a PM so here they are:

[Jaycub]

To start making a PVC bow all you need is the tube, nylon string (3 pices of mason line twisted together works), a heat source like a weed burning propane torch, and some kind of mold or form to shape the limbs.

Mark out a section for the handle and the limbs. I use about 8" of handle, 4" for your hand and 4 inches above center so the arrow can be exactly centered. Then heat one limb at a time with the torch being carefull not to scorch it. It will become soft and flexible. Put it into the form and let it cool. then just cut the knocks in the end and do some carefull final heating and bending so everything is straight.

For a form I use a piece of 2 x 8 wood with a curved cut in it shaped like the side view of the desired limb. It has a leather hinge between the two cut pieces of the board so I can just hinge it closed with the hot limb in it and it will get an even progression from thickest near the handle to thinest by the tip.

When choosing your pipe, one thing I have noticed is that there is a difference between brands. One brand when held in sun light has a yellow glow inside the tube, while another has a red glow. The one with the red glow has a higher draw weight. It is charolette pipe.

[Banthablaster]

Any kind of wood at all can make a good bow. i made my first successful one

from Jacaranda. it had a tubular cross section and was a "D" bow. I flattened the

back of the bow so that the tension forces were evenly distributed on that most

critical section of the bow .it was short, but suprisingly powerful. i was foolish

however, and wanted to pull it past 25 inches. it exploded. Ha Ha

[ihaveguitarskills!]

I disagree. Alot of woods are too weak or brittle,or the cellulose isnt compact. I do agree however with your yew statement.