Building A Bow - Bogenbau Kurse
Ever since my dad made me bows out of spare bits of wood and a bit of sting to play cowboys and Indians, or just to shoot at my brother with ;o) I have had a fascination with them (which child hasn’t?), sometimes I received them as a gift, the arrows made of a thin dowel rod with the sucker on the end to try and protect anything within striking distanced, sometimes we tried to work out which string would give the most power (it happened to be kite flying nylon).
Occasionally I have had the chance over the years to shoot a “real” bow, those that you pay lots of money for and are made from some modern material or laminated wood, twinned with aluminium arrows, I have never been to any “real” archery lessons so my technique never developed, and managing to actually hit the target has always been a bit of an achievement for me.
The last chance I had for a bit of coaching was in Austria in 2003, an hour of archery at the hotel in the mountains, avoiding the goats was the biggest problem there!
Sylvia wanted to buy me something memorable for my 30th birthday, something I wouldn’t forget in a hurry, but with something I could keep as a reminder, she has bought so many other memorable things, but I only have photos of the balloon ride! So remembering the bow maker we had seen a few years before at the Krefeld Flachs markt (Krefeld Flax Market – a medieval craft fair/show in a city near to where we live) she decided to book a place for me, and mentioned it to a friend of ours who’s husband had just started on an archery course.
Sadly the only course available was to be in March, which is a little before my birthday, but Sylvia figured it would be better to go on the course before my birthday rather than wait for another course next year. So having already been asked how tall I was amongst other things I was aware that I was going on a bow making course.
As the weekend approached I began to feel excited of course, but also a little apprehensive as my woodworking skills leave something to be desired. When the time finally came I was relatively happy to get up at 7:10 in the morning (those of you who know my sleeping habits will be aware that this is like the middle of the night for me on a weekend). It was a fairly grey March morning, and quite by coincidence my brothers birthday!
Rainer picked me up at 8:30 (Don’t know why I got up so early, I could have had another 20 minutes in bed) and we drove the 40 minutes towards a village near the boarder between Germany and The Netherlands, after driving past the entrance a couple of times we found the small drive into the middle of a few old farm buildings, and worked out which one was the woodworking studio.
We were greeted by Heinrich our teacher for the weekend and the other of the three course members Harold from The Netherlands (A multi cultural course),
“Hi I’m Heinrich, hope you don’t mind if I use “du” I find it easier when giving a course” was the introduction (In German of course!) which none of us had a problem with, especially me, as I am not very good at addressing people as Sie (those who know a bit of German may understand my problem), after a cup of coffee and introductions it was straight to the business of choosing a piece of wood for the bow.
Selecting a Piece of Wood
All the blanks were Ash as this was a relatively inexpensive wood and not so difficult to work with having nicely defined growth rings.
Then Heinrich showed us a few bows he had prepared earlier.
We had to determine how long our reach was and how much weight we wanted to be able to pull on the bow, all things that determine the dimensions of the finished article, Rainer wanted a longer bow as he is a bit taller than me, and wanted a draw weight of about 50lbs, I on the other hand being a bit of a weakling decided by testing a few other bows that I would like 35-40lbs.
After working out the dimensions of the bows by some complicated formulas I think, or perhaps more from experience a pattern was drawn onto the front of the wooden blank, the blanks were generously dimensioned allowing for many forms of bow to be made, this meant that either we would have to spend the next couple of days whittling the blank down to size or Heinrich was going to cut them down to size on a band saw, fortunately for us it was the latter, though he apparently has done courses where everyone sits on the floor and whittles the bows to size by hand, his Indian course!
The Blank Marked Out
The transformation from rough piece of wood to something that already looked like a bow was clearly visible and quite rapid, the next step for us was to start whittling away at the form, but not before it had been explained how we were to observe the growth rings, and never go too deep with the file, you can always take a bit more wood off if necessary but putting wood back on is not possible (after all it took the tree about 80 years to put all the bits of wood into the right place!), so if you are not careful you can end up with something only suitable for a twelve year old, or a tooth pick!
Tools of the Trade
Before lunch on the first day things started to look surprisingly like a bow, and after a short break in which we were shown the art of putting an edge on a “ziehklingel” or Drawing blade, (not something that is normally included in the course, but after all we not a normal group) it was off to lunch.
Shaping the Bow
After a hearty, yet healthy meal it was back to work removing wood and rounding off edges, until the time came to string the bow for the first time, before this takes place groves must be very carefully cut into the ends of the bow for the string to grip onto, this was done by Heinrich, as one false move and its back to the drawing board! For the first few tests the string used is longer than that used to shoot with, as the wood is still too thick in certain areas and the bow is not yet balanced, as a natural product it has to be handled gently. The bow is stretched to determine how well each arm moves, and by how much, with markings being made on it, showing where work has to be done removing more wood, half a millimetre at a time at the most, after which the string it put back on and the bow stretched and tested again. To an untrained eye the bows looked at this stage as if they were ready to shoot, but we were assured that they would not be ready until the day after, when the moon was in Sagittarius not in Scorpio!
Testing the Bow
Sunday was a much a nicer day, with blue skies and bright sunshine, it would have been perfect for archery if it wasn’t for the wind.
After a cup of coffee to get us started we picked up were we left off, Heinrich had made a few adjustments after we had left on Saturday, and had made us our own tool to help us put the string on the bow. A short interlude was provided when ex-marine Harold tried to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together (I told you we weren’t a normal group), only to be upstaged by Heinrich and his display of the technique to start a fire using the principles better known for their use in the Diesel engine, a fascinating little tool comprising of a chamber, and a plunger, in which a piece of “schwamm pilz” fungi is placed in the plunger and then pushed rapidly into the chamber, the heat generated ignites the fungi, causing it to glow. Apparently a method of creating fire that might have become more widespread in Europe if someone hadn’t have invented the match. I have since learned that they are called fire pistons, and the internet has something to say about them, along with some interesting videos!
Anyhow it was back to more of the same work, stringing the bow, testing it on the scale, each time with a bit more tension, marking the points that needed attention, taking the string off, shaving half a millimetre or less of wood of the particular point, rounding the edges, then putting the string back on, testing it on the scale and repeating the whole procedure about 20 times or more, it was very time consuming and at times one wondered if it would make any difference to the way the bow shot, especially as the bow had changed so much in the first few hours on Saturday only to change minutely in the first three and a half hours of Sunday morning, but this was tuning the bow to its maximum potential.
After another delicious dinner Heinrich showed us the attic in the barn where the wood is stored to dry, then how he makes the strings for the bows. Talking of strings, the string was made to match the length of each bow and of course to the draw weight, twine is then wrapped around the string at the middle point to protect it when the arrow is attached (apparently called “serving” the string), a point is then put on the string above/below where the arrow is to rest, the string, the string itself was made of Dacron, or whatever takes your fancy, apparently in England Hemp is used due to the sound it gives, the string is then is then waxed.
Then it was back to perfecting the bows, until we got to a point which Heinrich decided that they were ready for their first test. Each of us received a number of old arrows to use, a glove and an arm protector.
We put new our new strings on the bows instead of the old ones we had been using during the tuning and went outside to a piece of land next to the barn, we put a net behind the target to ensure we didn’t loose any arrows or shoot any sheep.
Ready to Shoot
Then we were all allowed to test the bows, my attempt at hitting the target was fairly miserable, but improved slightly with coaching, like don’t hold your shoulder up, and pull the string back to the corner of your mouth etc. Getting your stance right is pretty important too, as is avoiding the string hitting the bone in your elbow as that hurts, hmm, I don’t have a photo of that bruise.
Back inside for coffee and cake (A German tradition a bit like tea and scones, only still in use!), and to choose some leather to wrap round the handle, before Heinrich made each of us a set of arrows, the length, tip weight and diameter all chosen to work well with our individual bow and style.
Then it was back outside to test the new arrows, and to try and find the new arrows in the next field, it was the wind that was the problem I’m sure.
Testing The Bow With My Arrows
After the wind picked up even more, and it began to get dark it was time to pack up, and have a short lesson on how to finish the bows, the wood had to be smoothed off with sandpaper and then sealed with oil, but as it takes twenty four hours to dry between each coat of oil, and one requires about three to four coats this final stage had to be carried out at home, so we were provided with a jar of linseed oil, and the interesting information that if you leave the oil on a cloth, and the cloth warms to over thirty three degree Celsius it will spontaneously combust, something to do with the linseed oil content apparently.
We said our good byes and drove home, happy that each of us had managed to make a wooden bow in two days, even if we had had quite a bit of assistance from Heinrich.
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