Bow and Arrow

Intro: 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

STEP 2: Cutting the Notches

you need you knife to cut the wood on each and at an angle like the pic

STEP 3: Tie the String

now you must tie a loop at each end of the string

STEP 4: Attaching the String

now you just put the string on

STEP 5: Making the Arrow

now you go to the store and buy a wooden dowel and sharpen it

STEP 6: Now You Put on the Finishing Tuches

now you can sand it down and make handle







note some types of wood will not work

STEP 7: How Much Power

this is six inches of solid stirifoam from a distance of 30 feet away

Comments

[Sussysalamander]

I tried it with the styrofoam and it hardly went 3 inches in from 2 feet away… you lie

[lilly7]

Where can I buy durable string?

[beck11]

You can just get paracord

[I❤️FredWeasley]

Do this really work

[1201004]

this is a scam, don't waste your time doing this

[qwertzuiopüasdfghjklöäyxcvbnm]

Wow
The arrow through the foam was clearly put there by you
It is too far through and too straight to be fired from 30 yards
It has no fletchings and so would not fire that straight for 30 yards
I've made bows that can go 70 yards
Aside from the fact that your bow won't last more than 2 weeks and will not realistically fire more than 20m taking into account the arrows which are no more than sharpened sticks and the rubbish overall quality of the bow
Putting all that aside it is very nice

[paralax3306]

FFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKEEE
you would have to bend the stick in som way, or it would be incredibly hard to put the string on. also, the arrow is way to strait to be from thirty feet away. and by the look of the bow, its was put there by hand

[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.

[mbecks]

if your the expert please make an instructable.

[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

[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'.

[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.

[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.

[bubba j]

good job