Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
After you have carefully selected the tree, cut it down, and (hopefully) had time to age the wood it is time to prep the bow staves. Prepping bow staves is a fair amount of work but made easier with the right tools and a little experience. The examples below aged for nearly seven years in … Continue reading Prepping Bow Staves
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 … Continue reading Trade Card from a Bow and Arrow Maker
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 … Continue reading Winter Count Bow Makers
The next hickory bow. I have a barn full of aged staves languishing that need to be made into bows. Today the weather was good and I had some free time so I jumped on the opportunity to get back into production. Over the last three years I've only made about one bow per year … Continue reading Hickory Bow
Preindustrial Craftsmanship 