The carnival costume of Pocahontas, St. John's Wort, Chingachgook and Robin Hood will look great if you add such an attribute as a bow and quiver of arrows. This is an important addition for games, matinees, and theatrical performances. It is also a sports equipment, and of course, a serious weapon that will help a traveler survive in extreme conditions.
Making your own bow is easy. You can already be convinced of this today. The following tips and recommendations will help you do it in no time.
Materials and tools needed to make a bow
Materials:
- Skis: pieces of skis for making bow arms;
- Lumber - for making a handle. You need either a large beam (minimum 8x8x50) or small beams;
- A couple of bolts, washers, wing nuts - to attach the bow arms to the handle;
- Nylon thread (or any low-stretch string) - for the bowstring.
Tools:
- Hacksaw;
- Clamps;
- Hand drill with a set of drills;
- Chisel, hammer;
- Wood rasp or file;
- Sandpaper of various grain sizes;
- glue.
The tools listed below are not necessary, but will help make the process much easier if you are making a more complex bow handle.
— Table saw;
- Drilling machine;
- Band-saw;
— Planer;
— Belt/disc sander.
Pros and cons of autumn pruning roses
Benefits of autumn pruning:
- It is more convenient to cover a trimmed plant for the winter.
- The plant accumulates nutrients that will help it develop in the spring.
- The growth of new shoots is increasing.
- The root system develops better.
- The number of flower stalks increases.
- Plants are better protected from infections and fungi.
Disadvantage of autumn pruning
– stimulating the growth of dormant buds if the average temperature at night rises to above zero. Buds that develop will not survive subsequent frosts. This threatens illness and death of the escape.
Bow Handle Design
Original handles in real size:
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A collapsible bow includes two arms in its design, which are attached to both sides of the handle using nuts. The handle should have two flat surfaces for attaching the shoulders, a place for a hand grip, and a shelf-cutout for the passage of the arrow. The handle should not bend (at all!) while using the bow! As long as the bow satisfies these three conditions, it doesn't matter what it looks like. Now is a good opportunity to show your creativity.
Start developing your bow design with a couple of sketches on a piece of paper. I did a few scaled-down sketches so I could have some ideas before drawing the full size handle.
The two handles I created were approximately 51cm and 46cm in length. The handle pictured on the left was designed using only one bolt to secure the bow's limb, while the one on the right was designed using two bolts to each limb. Don't pay too much attention to this. Even after the bow is fully built, there are ways to change the angle to increase the tension on the string. We'll come back to this later.
Next, I made a model of the handle from 5 cm thick foam. This step is not necessary, but it may be useful when later cutting the handle out of wood.
Make a copy of your drawing so that you have the original drawing to transfer to the wood. Cut and glue the design to the foam board and cut it out using a knife or rasp.
On a foam handle, you can choose a comfortable shape for the part that your hand will hold on to, and adjust the curves before making the handle out of wood. The foam model helped me a lot. I'm not very good at transferring a three-dimensional picture from my imagination to a plane. Having a 3D model allowed me to tweak the design before making the wood handle.
Making a bow handle
Depending on your desire and available materials, this step can be short or take quite a long time.
I didn't have a piece of wood large enough to make the handle, so I glued it together from several pieces. This method will also allow you to make the handle multi-colored. If you decide to use one piece of wood, get it as square as possible using a table saw, jointer, planer, and move on to the "Rough Cutting the Handle" step. If you want to make a handle glued together from several blocks, read on. You will need several pieces of walnut, oak, and pecan wood. Take some time to “play” with them and create an interesting color combination from different types of wood.
Use a table saw to shape the selected pieces of wood into uniform widths (along the grain). The width of the blanks should be approximately 5 mm larger than the widest part of the ski. In my case it was approximately 5 cm for both pairs of skis. The 5mm allowance will be removed later with sandpaper. Now cut the planks to the same size along the length (across the grain).
To do this I used a hand-held circular saw. Please note that the planks turned out a little uneven. For high-quality gluing, it is important that the boards fit together as tightly as possible. If you have a plane or surface planer, make the boards even or sand them using sandpaper placed on a rectangular piece of wood.
Varieties
Among all the popular models of bows for hunting, the following classification can be distinguished. Each option is more complex in design than the previous one:
- The traditional bow for hunting seems to have come to us from our ancestors - similar weapons were used in the old days. It is made only based on the dimensions of the hunter - height and arm span. The design is simple, so you can easily make a homemade bow for hunting; you only need one piece of wood to make it. They are not very powerful, although they are quite large, so they are unlikely to be suitable for a modern hunting enthusiast.
- The composite model is made on a wooden (modern bows are made from composite) base, which is supplemented with internal linings and tendons. The main element requires careful preparation, however, the finished products are much closer in shape to sports models than simple ones.
- A compound bow is a powerful hunting weapon that has sufficient ergonomics and a high arrow launch speed (90 m/s or more). Their production has moved to factories, since the design of the blocks is difficult for manual assembly, and it is unlikely that you will come across a good homemade compound bow. For the most part, these models are sporting, but such weapons are best suited for hunting purposes.
Gluing the handle
Now the wooden planks are ready for gluing. Any glue for gluing wooden surfaces will work for us. Next I used wood glue. If after gluing you finish with some kind of polyurethane, then there is no need to use waterproof glue.Cover the surface to be glued with small drops of glue, and then spread it over the entire surface to create a thin, even layer. After the glue has been applied to all the boards, press them together with a clamp and remove any beads of glue that protrude from the edges. Make sure there are no visible gaps between the boards. Leave them in this position overnight.
If you decide to save time and glue all the boards at once, they may move during the gluing process (see photo). Before you continue working, it will be better if they form one surface. In my case, I used a planer. To avoid displacement of the boards when fixing them with a clamp, glue them several at a time, and not all at once.
Wood harvesting
It is better to harvest wood to make a hunting bow with your own hands in winter, at a temperature of -10 degrees or slightly lower. If you look for a suitable rod in the fall, you won’t have to wander through the snowdrifts in search. It is necessary to cut it, the length of the rod should be several tens of centimeters greater than the expected length of the bow. This is necessary, since when drying, the ends of the rod may crack.
Before making a bow, the wood must be dried for a long time, on average three months is enough. A room with room temperature in which the rod needs to be hung is suitable for this.
In this case, there is no need to remove the bark, but it is better to paint or coat the ends with varnish, which will not allow moisture to evaporate, then the future arc will dry evenly along the entire length. A rod that has a slight curvature can be straightened over steam.
In camping conditions, drying can be quickly done using a fire; the main thing is to do it carefully, do not put the wood too close to the fire and not overdry it. Such onions will be more fragile and less durable than those dried at room temperature.
Making a bow handle
Rough sawing of the handle
So now you have a straight piece of solid wood (or glued wood), it's time to cut out the template and glue it to the wood.Rough cutting of the bow handle is best done with a band saw, but a jigsaw will also work. First make cuts from the edges of the workpiece to the edge of the template. They are needed to make it easier to remove excess wood and facilitate sawing along the curved lines of the template.
Once these cuts have been made, begin sawing along curved lines. As soon as you reach the cuts, pieces of wood will fall off. This will create natural places to stop the cut.
Now you need to cut out the shelf for the boom to pass through. Turn the bow handle blank on its side and draw the outline of the shelf. If you have a band saw, the cutting process is simple - follow the same steps as when rough cutting the handle. If you only have a jigsaw (like me), then you may need a chisel. Most jigsaws can cut into boards up to 5cm thick. The handle I designed is about 7.5 - 9 cm thick when placed on its side.
To chisel a shelf, hold the piece against the bench with a clamp and make a vertical cut with a handsaw. Next, turn the handle blank on its side and secure it again with a clamp on the bench. Using a hammer and chisel, carefully holding the chisel as perpendicular to the workpiece as possible, gradually cut out the shelf. Now it's time to grind, use a rasp and sandpaper to give the handle a smooth shape. I did most of the work using a belt and disc sander.
Ski trimming
To get an idea of what the meadow will look like without the string, place the ski and bow handle together as shown above. You don't want the bow limb to be too long or you'll lose some power. This is especially true for cross-country skis, because... they are less harsh.For a 45cm handle, I cut the ski to a length of 55cm (including the part that overlaps the handle). The shoulders were made slightly longer than the handle to maintain visual balance. Use a square to make a straight cutting line and cut off part of the ski using a hacksaw. Do not use a circular saw or ax for this operation, especially if the ski has metal reinforcement.
Make sure the ski is cut exactly at the right angle. If not, use sandpaper and a rasp to smooth out the corner.
Drilling holes for fasteners.
To drill the hole, use a drill bit that exactly matches the diameter of the bolt. You don't want the thread to cut into the wood. The bolt should fit into the socket without resistance, but should not play. At this stage it is very convenient to use a drilling machine. Press the ski to the handle with a clamp, place them on the drilling machine table, the plane should be perpendicular to the drill. If you don't have a drill press, these holes can be drilled with a hand drill.
Mark the center of the future hole (with an awl or nail) in the middle of the ski and approximately 3 cm from the edge of the ski. This will help you drill the hole accurately if you are not using a drill press. Place the bow limb and grip together and drill a hole together. You can also drill the holes individually. To prevent the bolt head from protruding from behind and being scratched, it must be “recessed”. Use a drill bit that is a hair larger than the diameter of the widest part of the bolt head. Determine how deep to drill the hole by holding the bolt next to the folded ski and handle, as shown below. It is necessary that approximately 1-2 cm of thread protrudes from the front in order to put on the washer and tighten the wing nut. Make a mark on the handle and return to the drill press (or drill).
If you're wrong
It may happen that the arms of the bow will not be in line after you insert the bolts into the holes, and the bow will look something like this. A small gap like this will cause the bow limb to play, causing the bow to be inaccurate. Don't worry, it's easy to fix.Cut and glue a small wooden wedge onto the end of the play arm. When the glue is dry, sand it down with sandpaper so that the shoulder fits tightly. Finishing the bow handle
It's time to remove all marks and scratches. I used M40 sandpaper. M63 paper will also work. After sanding, remove the wood dust and apply the finishing touch. I used two pieces of finishing gloss polyurethane sandpaper with an intermediate sanding of M40.
Making a bowstring
To perform a weak bend (10 kg or less), there is no need to strengthen the ends of the arms. Several needle files I used for the jewelry did a good job of making the grooves. Be sure to round the edges of the grooves so that the bowstring does not rub against sharp edges.For such a light bow, the nylon thread is strong enough to serve as a bowstring. The thread itself is too thin for the slot in the heel of the arrow to properly tension and shoot accurately. This can be corrected by weaving the thread in a special way (see below) to double its thickness.
Before making a thickened bowstring, determine how long the slightly untwisted bowstring should be. Tie two bow knots at the ends of the string and draw it across the bow. If the string is too long or too short, it will greatly interfere with its use. The distance between the string and the handle is called the "base". Although it may vary slightly between bows, it is approximately 18 cm.
To make a twisted string that will fit a bow, cut a piece of string equal to three times the length of the single string drawn as the bowstring. The video below shows how to twist the thread. If you can't see it clearly enough, here's what happens: Fold the thread in half. Using the thumb and index finger of your left hand, hold the thread by the loop (with a pinch). Place the upper end of the thread coming out of the pinch on the end of your index finger, press it with your thumb and roll the pad of your thumb along the index finger to the joint, unwinding the weave of the thread. Having rolled the thread to the joint, press it with your thumb, and without releasing it, grab the second end of the thread with your index and middle fingers and turn the hand towards you. Move the pinch holding the loop forward a little. Repeat.
Detailed description of the operation on video (in English)
Now you have a large piece of twisted nylon thread, tie a double knot at the end to prevent unraveling, trim and melt the ends.
The string is almost ready. The part of the bowstring where it comes into contact with the fingers and the nock of the arrow is subject to increased wear when shooting. An additional thin thread layer can be added to strengthen the bowstring. This process is called bowstring maintenance. Maintain a section of the bowstring a few centimeters below and above the arrow shelf.
To prevent this area from fraying and sliding up and down, it is necessary to thread a hemp thread through the bowstring. Also, a small nail can be inserted into the twisted bowstring to thread the hemp thread. The tape in the top photo is used to hold the hemp thread in place during the twisting process. This process is similar to basic overcasting. However, the hemp thread is not strong and pulls the end of the loop back and twists it. Therefore, thread the working end of the hemp thread in small increments through the twisted bowstring. Tie the end in a knot and add a drop of superglue to the end to prevent fraying. Last steps.
Now the onion is completely ready. To finish, I glued a small piece of leather onto the arrow shelf.
Nuances of classic throwing weapons
Archery, at first glance, is a simple activity. He took the weapon, set the arrow, pulled the bowstring and fired. But in reality, the archer must have good strength to hold the device in tension and still aim.
Standard models do not have sights, so it is difficult to hit the target. When launching an arrow, take into account the correct position of the rod, sufficient tension of the bowstring and ensure that the thread does not oscillate during the shot.
Historical fact! In medieval Europe, the crossbow replaced the bow. The design of the device is complex, but the shooters no longer wasted effort on holding the bowstring. They stand on the front of the crossbow with their feet and with both hands they throw the rope into a special groove, take aim, press a kind of trigger and release the rod. Other models were equipped with a roller with which the bowstring was pulled.
Adjusting Bow Power
Here are some ways to increase the power of your bow.
Angle between the handle and the bow shoulder:
The smaller this angle, the more the bow arm will bend when drawing the string, and thus develop more energy. To avoid putting too much stress on the skis (otherwise they might break), I prefer to reduce this angle to 0?. The easiest way to change this angle is to cut a small wedge out of wood and drill appropriate holes. Insert a wedge between the arm and the handle and bolt them together. To make the wedge more visible in the photo, I wrapped it in paper. Shoulder wedging increases the draw of this bow from 26 to 30.
Changing the length of the shoulders
If the bow limbs are too long, the bow can end up being quite weak. Long arms bend less when the bowstring is drawn. Less bending means less strength. The string can be drawn back further and the limbs can be bent more without likely breaking, increasing the strength of the bow. Shoulders that are too small can be broken by normal bowstring tension. My advice: if you want to replace the shoulders, measure approximately 10 centimeters from the edge of each shoulder. Drill new holes and make a new string.
Removing material from the ends of the arms
Not all the force developed by the tension of the bowstring is transferred to the arrow. Significant energy is spent returning the shoulders to their original position. If the arms are lighter, less energy is required to move them, resulting in more energy transferred to the arrow. This does not change the draw weight of the bow, but it does make the bow more efficient and powerful. Because the ends of the bow must move as far as possible to reach the starting position, they are often the part of the bow from which material is removed. To remove material, use a rasp, file, sandpaper, and use them to “sharpen” the ends. If you remove too much material, you will compromise the structure of the bow. I warned you. This can be done as long as you don't go too far. Do not remove more than 20% of the material in the top third of the onion.
What do you need to know before you start?
Even if you're making a bow and arrow for fun or as a gift for a child, there are a few things to consider:
| Swing by hand | Arm length | Arc length |
| 137-142 | 55-58 | 137 |
| 145–150 | 57-60 | 145 |
| 152-157 | 60–64 | 152 |
| 160–165 | 64-66 | 160 |
| 167–172 | 66-68 | 167 |
| 175–180 | 70 | 178 |
The classic version of the arch consists of:
- Shoulders
- Bow string
- The main part, namely the handle
After making the bow, it is necessary to ensure proper care. Don’t be alarmed, leaving is easy and won’t take much time:
- The bowstring is only put on when shooting, so it is immediately removed. Before shooting, you need to “click” the bow and pull the string.
- Store only in a dry place, preferably in a case.
- Onions should be stored in an upright position.
- You can't pull the bow.
How to make arrows with your own hands
Perhaps their production is the most important and no less complex part of production. The main problem is the straight and even rod. The second difficulty is the plumage or guide ribs. Requirements for the body - it must be light. You can use aluminum or thin and even strips of PVC from a large-caliber pipe. Do not use steel (Figure 8).
You can make plumage according to the following instructions:
- Draw a triangle with equal sides on paper.
- From each vertex draw a bisector perpendicular to the edges.
- Three lines form a point in the center.
- Take a sheet of plastic and cut out the blanks for the feathers. The feather is made as follows - 4 cm of indentation on each side of the main part.
- Place the rear end of the projectile in the center of the drawing.
- Now, using the blanks, glue the layers on the side, directing the tip to one of the vertices.
- Alternate feathers in the direction of the vertices, filling all three cells.
- Wrap the wire/duct tape tightly around the edges of the feather.
Figure 8. Main stages of making arrows
