Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
Tracking the process for creating the ancient and venerable flat bow; a complex hunting tool from five continents. This is a very brief overview of a process that takes many bows to master. I can honestly say that bow-making was my gateway skill into the primitive technology world. It's one of the few things I …
Continue reading "Revisiting the Bowyer’s Craft"
An advertising card from when people appreciated hand made archery equipment. No training wheel, gizmos, releases, or sights. There is no date on the image but I suspect that late 18th century or early 19th century would not be too far off. Apparently javelin throwing was in vogue at the time as well. Now we …
I have been working on a bow-making tutorial for quite a long time now. Trying to be as explicit as possible while not dumbing everything down is a tricky narrative to follow. Just gathering the appropriate images of the process is time-consuming and difficult but truly, a good image is worth a thousand words.
19th century archery set, one bow missing.
A beautiful photo of arrows from the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. Collected in the early 20th century. Wonderful sinew wrappings, glass points, and clay pigments. And the nice little bow that accompanies them.
When people appreciated hand made archery equipment. No training wheel, gizmos, releases, or sights. Click the image to access the British Museum page for this item.
Believed to be a Yup'ik quiver, bowcase, bow, and arrows from the late 19th century. Click the image to learn more.
Chiricahua Apache, Arizona ca. 1880 Click the image above to see more about these artifacts at the National Museum of the American Indian. Detail photo of some fletchings and points from this collection.
Thanks to those who participated in our bow making class this year. I failed to get many photos so if anyone would be willing to share theirs with me, I would be most grateful. Email me at zcoyotez (at) yahoo.com. We made very traditional flat bows. This is a straight-forward, predictable design that is easy …
Prepping bow staves is a fair amount of work made easier with the right tools and a little experience. The examples below have aged for about 6 years, 11 months in a dark, dry barn. These are nearly all hickory and therefore, are generally easy to split if the grain is respected. I use an …
