How to Build a Primitive Bow
Ash, Elm, White oak, Red oak, Hickory, Sassafras, Hop hornbeam, Mulberry, Blue beech, Most Maples, Red Osier, Eastern red cedar, Juniper, Apple and most fruit trees and the list goes on…
This is a pretty impressive list already and I’m certain I left some out! some of these I have tried personally and I KNOW they work. Your best bet is to purchase a tree and plant I.D. manual or book and go out and look for these specific bow woods in there different stages of growth… spring/summer/fall/winter. You may not have the choice in when you are going to be able to harvest them to make a bow so you should learn how to I.D them from not only leaves but also by bark and buds.
A good rule of thumb for collecting bow and arrow wood is “SPRING UP…FALL DOWN”. In the spring the sap rises through the frost and gives its lifeblood to the tree, in the fall the sap lowers through the tree and back in the roots for the winter months to come. Many feel that the late fall/early spring is optimal for gathering bow wood in Michigan.
I feel that what ever the circumstance may be, you can still get around the general “rule of thumb”, because you might find yourself to be in a survival situation or you may just want to build another bow and not want to wait a year!
What do I look for in the stave “hunting” process?
The fact of life in primitive times was to keep everything as simple as possible and try to work as efficiently as possible as the hunter/gatherer lifestyle was sustained by usage and storage of vital intake and usage of precious calories! I say this to remind those hearty people who think you need to fell a tree, split it into equally sectioned staves… that it can be done with out the back breaking work! This work is hard enough with a chainsaw, harder with an axe, even harder yet with a stone hand axe!
They knew that if you follow simple yet strict methods in building a primitive bow, you did not NEED to do such tedious work. There is NO bow wood in Michigan in which you have to “chase a ring”, or go through the process of selecting the tree with the least amounts of knots and twists, and have demanding heating and drying requirements to obtain a quality stave. All you need to do is find a straight to semi straight sapling about 1 Ã?½” to 2″ diameter at the base or close to the base, and about 6′ to 7′ feet up from that point, and make sure that it is about 1″ to 1 Ã?½” for the top limb. Different trees and different bows will vary a bit but until you make a couple bows and get the feel of what to look for in a bow wood “donor tree”, just stick with this scenario.
By doing this you don’t have to clear a large tree from the woods, and usually the sapling mentioned above grows in the dense under canopy of larger trees leaving there fruit behind to replenish even more trees for bow wood to make in the near future! These saplings should be as straight as you can possibly get. Most of the time this will not be a problem as the trees naturally in this stage of growth just shoot straight up to the nearest source of sunlight. Do not worry about limbs as the limbs may be many , the knots will be small “dimple” pin knots in the bow making process, as they have not had a chance to mature!
A good reminder is to not grab the first tree you find, if you find one…there soon will be many more close by. Do not be afraid to walk around and explore your options here, as the trees that grow close to the edges of the wood lots and are on the outside edge of the woods are more apt to FAIL!
The reasoning to this debate is simple. These trees have more “weather” influences in there growth cycle, the trunks are usually more obliged and twisty because the prevailing winds and rain beats down and the cold winter storms, and winds make the tree twist and move , but the tree naturally will “work” itself back towards the best source of sunlight.
I have it home; now what do I do with it?
When you finally get your prize back to your home you have to follow some simple guidelines….
Did you gather the wood in the winter? If so remember that a lot of the moisture is already out of the tree and bark removal will be more work. The tree will need to acclimate to the “new” indoor conditions for the next couple of weeks so you will have to do a couple of things. You will need to first de-bark the stave, this will let the remaining moisture leave at a more rapid pace, and let the heat in from your indoor environment it will now be in for the time being.
This step does not have to be “perfect” just get the bark off as soon as possible. Next I coat the ends of the sapling with pine pitch, this will aid in the drying process as the open growth rings are more apt to check when they are exposed, so this will slow the process down. Then I use rendered fat/animal grease and coat the bow completely, we will address this more in depth later. I then STAND the stave in the same way it was growing in the woods…larger root end on bottom, and smaller top end up! Here it goes into a pretty stable environment like a broom closet for at least 2 weeks.
I do this as not just to satisfy the creators wishes in the making of a fine hunting weapon to anchor game, but there is some method to this practice, as if you were to put the smaller end of the sapling on the ground and left it that way, it would take longer to dry as you are trying to make water from a greater area of wood and force it out the smaller end, yes. Both ends are sealed and moisture will wick out of the surface portion of the sapling as well but with more water retention and mass on top pressing down towards the smaller end you may get some unexpected twisting and or bends doing it this way. During this period you will DAILY wipe on a THIN coat of grease/animal fat and rub it in briskly.
If you took your stave in the summer, the methods will be almost identical but you will find that the bark will peel nicely as the sap is up under the bark, and you may need to store the bow for an extra week or more.
Personally I like to make a small fire and set the bow near the fire…not too close; if you can not handle the stave with bare hands it is too hot!
When the fire slowly goes down you will add some of the ashes both white and black to the bow by rubbing that in well. This method will increase the drawing the moisture out.
If you can not build a fire you can just reverse the drying method as stated above…The first week in the summer drying method will be done differently now instead of wiping ON grease, you will be wiping down the bow with a dry towel.
As you know the primitives probably did not have a broom closet, but they did have pretty dry living quarters in which they probably had fires more often than not, so these methods will do quite well�·
What tools do I need?
No power tools are needed in building a simple bow…it just takes longer! If one so desires they can use this technique and build the bow with all aboriginal tools such as rock shards, scrapers, burnishing rocks or sticks.
I try to limit the use of even the modern simple tools. Some of the obvious tools are drawknives, scrapers, files rasps etc. All perfectly good hand tools but defiantly not a necessity! You need something to cut the sapling down, de-bark, rough shape, scrape and tiller.
For cutting the tree, and de-barking, and rough shaping I pretty much just use a machete cut to a workable 12″ blade. A lot of the shaping of the bow comes from a good quality farrier’s rasp, and lastly for scraping and tillering the machete or large knife turned up on end has done just fine.
The primitives probably would have used a hand axe or large blade to cut down the sapling, and used the same implement to debark, and scrapers made of knappable materials, hardened animal bones, and mussel shells sharpened on there edge to final scraping.
How does “greasing” the bow help it?
“Fat is a wonderful thing!” It helps seal the bow, it fills in the pours and repels moisture, it keeps the wood from scorching while heating and or coloring the whitewood bows, it slows down the moisture release as the bow is curing, along with burnishing fat helps your wood cells have some “structure” when you compress them while boning or burnishing it and seal the bow as you work it in, plus it is a great natural finish. Need I say more?
I’m ready to make a rough outline of a bow, but what kind do I want to make?
Now that the bow has cured for about 2-3 weeks and you rubbed in the fat and kept working it into the bow wood, you probably were thinking of what type of bow you want to make. I let the bow “speak” to me as I let the natural curves and dips dictate what “it” wants to be.
Later when you get more sufficient at bow building you will be able to make more complex bows if you wish…but let’s try to keep this one simple!
What measurements do I need to take to get a true custom fit bow?
To start crafting the bow you can just as easily take some standard measurements marked by a stick, but for our general instruction a common tape measure will do.
There is a simple height to draw length ratio you should stick with if you wish to make a hard working, long lasting primitive bow. The bow should be no less than “man” tall. You can get away with eye level to ground measurement for this. True draw length is a much debated thing, but after you make one my way, you can decide which suits you the best.
True natural draw length is measured by finding the “v” type depression in your breastbone, and putting one end of a straight stick or arrow right into the “v”, then you keep your shoulders FLAT against a wall outstretch your hands and fingers and try to match up your middle fingers of both hands on your measuring implement, making sure that your shoulders are still flat against the wall. This is the measurement you will need. This is your TRUE natural draw length.
When we start to tiller the bow we will keep this measurement well into our minds as we do not want to pull the bow more than an inch past this draw length. When you make your arrows make sure that the back edge of your flaked head, or the back edge of the field point, is about 1″ longer than your true draw.
Now I have the measurements how do I relay them to the wood?
Take your stave and cut it down to your height measurement. This will give you a good look at what you will be working with as far as the shape of the bow. Decide where you think the center of the bow is and draw a line around the stave here. We do not need to add 1 1/2″ to the top limb or anything of this nature as we take the bow down to its final dimensions the bow will be naturally stiffer on the bottom limb naturally, as you want the bottom of the bow to be the same end as the root end of the tree.
What is floor tillered? and fistemele?
The process of getting the bow to roughly begin bending while putting the bottom limb end on the ground and holding the top limb with one hand, and putting no more than one half of the desired draw weight worth of applied pressure in the center of the bow and watching it flex.
Before we start applying all this pressure to a bow we haven’t had a lot of time working on, we should decide which side of the bow should be the back and belly. The term “back” of the bow refers to the side of the bow that will be facing away from you when you are drawing it, and the “belly” is the side of the bow that faces you when you shoot the bow.
I just do a simple test of putting the bow; root end down on a flat surface and lean the top of the bow about 60 degrees. What you want to look for is which side of the bow NATURALLY wants to face up. This will be the belly of the bow. A good rule of thumb is to mark the saplings side which faces “true south” this side in our hemisphere is the side that gets the most sunlight, hence more branches and growth on the southerly side, and also the bows grow rings will be naturally thicker on this side as it gets more water and sun to make it grow!
When floor tillering the bow you should be looking for any abnormalities in the flex of bows shape. Only make the bow flex about 5 or 6 inches.
Fistemele is an old term, and it pretty much describes the measurement of bows “brace”. A bows brace is a measurement from the center of the bow according to one half its overall physical length of the bow, to the bowstring. There is no common brace height for bows. All bows are different in length, shape, design, and performance.
How much wood do I remove?
The bow will determine its final shape, you just have “listen” to what the bow tells you…for example If your drawknife is chattering on the wood in a certain spot, work it from another direction…If the knot in the wood keeps pulling up splinters…work from another angle, or just let it be…Some parts of the bow may be thick, and some parts of the bow may look like they are getting thinner than the rest, take note of this and mark it with a pencil as some parts of the wood may be naturally stiffer than other spots…
When removing wood you can never really work too slowly! You can not put wood back on to the bow! Go slow!
At this point get to know your bow, every dip, every twist, around every knot etc. Using a nice scraper at this point to go over the whole bow removing all the tiny missed spots of bark and tool marks.
Every time you work on the bow, and after every completed “stage” you should wipe the bow down with fat and burnish it in. Really take the time to cover every inch of the bow, and do not be afraid to really work it in deep with pressure, I usually use a hardwood stick, or an antler tine when I do this.
Generally I try to work the bow gently from the center of the handle section to each tip in a gradual taper.
Which string nocks I prefer and why?
For most the easiest and best working string knots I just notch the end and call it them good .Some say it is called “opposing string nocks” as one notch is cut from one side of the bow, and the other is cut from the opposite of the first.
I really do favor this as not only is it simple but it makes the bow track in the exact center of the handle of the bow, so no need for any real calculating to measure how much one limb should be longer than the rest to achieve a well balanced bow.
In my eyes a well balanced bow will hold center in the hand, draw smoothly and evenly through the draw, no un-natural twisting and turning of the limbs due to UN needed heat inducing straightening processes, and heating up the ends to “up” the performance, or recurving the tips for good looks.
If we were going to look for straight perfection we should go to the lumberyard! Not the woods looking for a close to “perfect bow wood” as possible.
I also simply taper the tips to a pencil type point. Some times I modify them by working a small grove all the way around the tip about an inch down from the sharp end of the point. This is used when I have a stave that wants to twist or turn naturally and I just let the bow do what it wants to do, as if I start trying to “correct” or “fix” the woods natural state you will have equal forces working against the bow every time you draw the bow.
Most of the time my tips are just wrapped with thin rawhide and or sinew and bound in place, like making a “stopper” of sorts. You can cut in any nocks you wish or add on cow horn, antler etc. the possibilities are limitless, but once again we are building a “simple” bow.
What is the long string process?
Our bow now has a way of securing a string to it for the next stage. Long string tillering is just that, putting a much longer string on the bow and pulling it back inch by inch and watching the bow flex, and you making marks on the bow on where to remove or not to remove wood, and not having the bow under tension when you let the weight down.
An important rule is to never draw the bow past its intended draw weight before you are able to hit your draw length! For example…
You are long string pulling the bow and you realize that your bow feels like it is pulling 50 plus pounds at just several inches of flex!!! Well if this happens you have a lot of wood removal to do!
This is why I recommend and personally use sapling staves as it saves you both time and effort as your finished bow should be sleek and slender.
I have the bow bending, now what do I do? And what do I look for?
Now that you have got a general taper in the bow from handle to tips, you have applied numerous coats of fat into the bow both by wiping in and burnishing it, you have whittled your tips to what ever will hold a string on securely, you have put a long string on the bow and started to pull on it to watch the wood bend, and you now know which side of the bow will become the “belly” and this is where you will begin your initial wood removal. At this stage your bow outline should be looking more and more like the finish product, if not do this now if you are not satisfied with its general profile, as when you finish the next couple of steps you will be shooting an almost completed bow!
String the bow now at a low brace, this means strung so that there is about 3-4 inches in-between center of the bow and the string. Now look at the bows bend…is it nice and elliptical?
“Elliptical is the shape of a nice crescent moon”. This is what we want to achieve…even if the bow has natural dips and flaws…all parts of our bow should work harmoniously together, all doing its equal share of the work.
When you see after several pulls of the bowstring that the limbs are pretty much bending the same, go ahead and pull the bow a little past brace 7-10 inches. At this time you really have to have a feel for the poundage that your bow is pulling, or what you want the final draw weight to be. I think that for your first bow it should be between 35 and 45 pounds at your natural draw length. Don’t worry about making a heavy 70 pounder yet, let’s just get through the process of making your first primitive weapon that you can enjoy shooting while making your next heavy one.
I generally pull the bow with some sort of tool or tillering device, this would be a heavy straight shoot for an arrow, with no fletching, marked in increments every 2 inches all the way to my natural draw, this stick I use just for me as I have special marks on it and I can identify the marks very well with it.
To use this “tool” I clamp the bow down, secure it on a vice, or on a tree limb, or even sitting on the ground with the bow at me feet and me pulling back with both hands watching the stick and how the limbs are bending. Please use caution when doing any of this as some bows may want to give up to early in the bow making process because of unknown bug damage, decay, maybe your string would break… just be careful!
How do I work the bow into the desired draw weight?
The bow now is getting a work out for sure! If you feel comfortable with the short string and the bow is equally dispersing the forces applied, take the bow, unstring it, and wipe it down with fat one more time and burnish it well.
I must say that every time you stop or start working on the bow, the time frame may be different, you may have to stop for a day, maybe more, in-between sessions while building your bow…remember that every time you end a session working on the bow, and it isn’t done yet…..keep applying the grease!
After you burnished the bow, wipe it down well and make sure it is not wet in any way because at this point you have forced many layers of grease; not only a weather barrier and vapor loss barrier to keep it from drying out and it becoming too brittle, but on this last burnishing you will have noticed that you did not need to put as much on the bow because the wood “cells” and “pours” are partially filling up and being compacted for elasticity!
String the bow now with about 6 inches of brace height. Begin pulling the bow using your tillering tool and be mindful of the draw weight. Pull the bow 2 inches at a time only! During this workout you will consistently be hitting the same mark on your stick and be watching the limbs bend. What you are looking for is equal amounts of bending at the same portions of both top and bottom limbs. If you are satisfied with the bending at this draw length and weight, move on to another two inches. By slowly repeating this process and watching the draw weight you will eventually hit your intended weight at your natural draw length.
Every step in the above process of moving slowly and every two inches and working the limbs about 50 times every two inches will give the bow some “memory” that different parts of the bow limb will be working at different draw lengths and the more you work and pull it further you should stop every 4 inches during this process. You do this because your belly of the bow will be compressing more and more and at this stage the bow will be “squeezing” the excess fat out of the “pours” that were not able to be filled as they were too deep in the bow limb and they are now accessible as you are scraping away more and more wood to achieve a nice elliptical shape and you will need to replenish and re-burnish it every 4 inches. This makes your bow STRONG.
Time to shoot the bow in! How do I do it?
The bow has now been greased more than loosed pig at the country fair! And you successfully pulled your weapon back 1 inch further than your natural draw; let’s get to the fun part…shooting it in!
At first be mindful that the bow has never loosed an arrow yet so there is some rituals I like to do at this point. I like to pull the bow about 1/4 draw and relax the tension about 20 times. Then I like to pull it 1/2 draw 20 times, then 3/4 and full draw doing the same as mentioned above. I then take a rag and wipe the bow down well as you may have worked out some of the fat. This will not be a problem after it sits after this day as it will slowly work its way into the wood and become dry.
You should now realize that after this exercise that a lighter weight bow is best for now as your arms may feel like noodles!
Take an arrow and stand about 10 paces away from your intended target and start drawing and shooting the bow only to 1/2 draw, this will give the bow some memory of the limb travel and not “shock” the bow limbs. Keep doing this for as many shots as you feel comfortable with, keep mindful of any string slap, arrow wobble, etc. as these are simple tuning problems you can fix after.
How do I finish the bow?
I personally like natural colors and pigments, rubbed in bark, dirt , a mixture of blood and hardwood ash, heating the bow under flames , natural dyes made of plants stems and flowers, the possibilities are endless.
How to get the most out of your new bow?
My bows are tools, workhorses, and if they can not stand up to abuse; I do not want them at my side. It is best to be kept unstrung while not in use, and stored in dry to moderate conditions. Check your strings, and nocks now and then and re apply a coat of fat once a year. One thing I like to stress at this point is the stringing and unstringing of the bow. No matter which technique you use, or what bow stringer you use, always try to string and unstring the bow the same way every time.
