Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
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.
Happy archery Sunday. Diana on a rock with bow, arrows, quiver, and very little else. More posts about ARCHERY here.
Painted when the common man still met at the butts for an afternoon of shooting and relaxation. Then hopefully, off to the pub for a pint. I love to scan old images for the details. Some nice redware jugs, probably for beer, a great little bench, and clothing details for the historical-minded. Most interesting to me are the bows themselves, as the ones depicted here are reflexed recurved flat bows. Also notable is the conspicuous absence of anything like a quiver. I expect everyone just showed up with a handful of arrows tucked into the belt.
Here are a few older posts on archery from previous years.
Some epic archery shooting here. Lars takes it to an extremely high level.
I just posted a “how to” for bamboo arrows on Instructables. It is impossible to teach a complete class in this way but I’ve done what I can.
If you have an interest in arrowsmithing, have a look by clicking the arrows above.
Definitely watch this if you believe in a real handcrafted lifestyle. He has obviously been given the right encouragement and access to knowledge. Many parents would scoff at these things or actively discourage some of these activities. I’m glad to know there are other parents out there with an open mind and encouraging this thirst for knowledge. It’s a fire waiting to be fanned.
On 7 September 2011, an advanced constructed and complete bow was found at the edge of the Åndfonne glacier in Breheimen mountain range. The C14 dating shows that Norway’s oldest and best preserved bow is 3300 years old.
The 131 centimeters long bow was discovered by archaeologists in connection with the last check before summer fieldwork was completed. The bow was found at the ice edge about 1700 meters above sea level. This shows how important it is that archaeologists are present just when the ice is melting.
Findings of complete bows are very rare, and it turned out even rarer after the results of the C14 dating returned from the laboratory in the U.S.: The bow turned out to be 3300 years old – dating back to about 1300 BC – in other words from the early Bronze Age.
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It is the oldest bow ever found in…
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Finished up the quiver. It’s been unfinished for at least a year and this weekend finally saw some completion. It’s a time for closure on unfinished projects.
Mónus József here is a multiple record-holder in Hungarian traditional long-distance archery. In an archery contest in inner Mongolia, he made a successful 653m shot (nearly half a mile) with his home-made bow.
Click the link to see the original page or HERE for more information about Hungary.
Preindustrial Craftsmanship 