Bow making course in Devon.

[bigpaul]

I am today recovering from my bow making course of yesterday. very interesting place, not far from Exmoor, just off the North Devon Link road( could hear the traffic ALL the time I was there) on the old back road from Tiverton to South Molton. in a clearing in the woods, next to a roaring log fire(wife says I smell well smoked!!) we were using coppised Hazel and while we were not making a standard Longbow as such (this would have taken longer than just 1 day) neither was it a survival bow but somewhere in between. I ended up with a 20LB draw weight bow @20 inches, 55 inches long, 1 guy ended up with a 13LB bow and another with a 22 LB bow....that one was a real beastie, you should have seen the size of the timber he started with !, I used a thinner piece so didn't have to remove so much wood as others had to. using a spoke shave(never used one before), a metal scraper and a rasp...that's it, and yes we used a made up vice on a trestle, 3 to each trestle, 6 in the group( see I do DO groups sometimes!) I was very pleased with the result, a good bow that will fire an arrow a considerable distance, first arrow missed the target, skimming the top and flying off further down the field, the second hit the target with a resounding thud! more than that I now have the knowledge to be able to make a reasonable bow from natural materials I find around me. we touched on bow string making and we all made our own serving onto the bow strings on which to fit the nock end of our arrows. a very enjoyable day with some like minded people, but after all the standing and stooping over the trestles my old back and knee is feeling the strain