# Beginner Bow Building Books



## Canuck71 (Jul 7, 2009)

Hey all,

I've got the itch to try my hand at making my own bow. I would like to find a good SIMPLE TO FOLLOW book that would help me with this project. Where I live, I have plenty of good tree species to pick from - ash, hickory, hop hornbeam (aka ironwood up here), maple and oak, and land owners to let me cut a tree or two.

Can someone recommend a couple of good books to get started? I have heard that "The Traditional Bowyers Bible" is a good one. I have volume two, and yes, it is a good read, but does not have any "beginner" designs, diagrams, etc to get one started ( I suppose that would be in Volume One?).

Thanks for your help with my new addiction to Trad Archery


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## WillAdams (Jun 6, 2009)

I rather like an old book, _The Flat Bow_ by W. Ben Hunt & John J. Metz, from 1936.

http://www.archerylibrary.com/books/flatbow/

Just finishing up a bow based on the dimensions in it, which has turned out well (also trying the fancy nock design shown in Figure 22). Hickory backed hickory w/ a pecan handle (still debating trying to add some reflex at the tips by gluing on a bit of wood).

There're lots of build-alongs though. The first one I tried was:

http://poorfolkbows.com/oak.htm

(which failed 'cause of poor wood grain choice on my part)

You're very fortunate in the wood species you have available (I truly regret that I allowed mulberry and crepe myrtle trees to get cut down and landfilled on my property before I was interested in building bows).

What sort of bows are you interested in? There're lots of books....

William


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

_The Bent Stick_ by Paul Comstock is the simplest for making good hunting bows. Frankly, I think it's the bet book for getting started. Not alot of extra and relaly cheap. Not as good as TBB volume 1, but hey for $17 what more can you ask for?

You're quite right also, Volume 1 of TBB has all the "how to build a bow" info, after that it's all additional info that could be useful. Vols. 2 and 3 are the other aspects of building and primtive archery, and Vol. 4 is everything updated (and how to really make a simple stick sizzle and arrow out there).


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## Canuck71 (Jul 7, 2009)

Thanks guys - I was very intrigued by a flatbow I saw in The Traditional Bowyers Bible Vol. 2 - it was very very short and a diamond shape to the limbs which were very wide near the grip. It looked like a great hunting bow.

I eventually want to make a practical, hunting bow, that I can use in thick bush country and from treestands, so the super-long limbed english longbow style bows are out.

Thanks for the tips guys!


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

That's a simple pyramid bow (like a shorter version of "Black Betty" I posted). 

I can give you dimensions and basic instructions if you want to get started making hunting bows from local lumber (straight grained red oak boards from Lowes and Home Depot can make some nice weapons) if you'd like. PM me with specs and style, and I'll try and get you as close as I can to what you're looking for


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## WillAdams (Jun 6, 2009)

It would be interesting to build several bows of similar dimensions from red oak boards of varying densities and rings per inch and see what the performance differences are.


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