One of the oldest weapons is the bow. It is a mechanism held by hand, and it shoots out a sharp point to hit its target, called an arrow. In the olden days, the bow was used both for hunting food, and for defense. Today, it is still being used, but more for recreational purposes. Nonetheless, the art of the bow still exists in today’s culture, both for hunting, and also known as archery, a sport.

It is possible to make a bow and arrow without needing much professional skills, or using complicated machinery to create one. Anyone can easily make a bow, without also having to spend a lot of money for resourcing the products. In fact, a lot of the items needed to create a home-made bow is already found in your home and in your garden.

Creating a bow is not that difficult. There are a few steps to follow, and overall, you need a long piece of wood, or something malleable, which will be the long thing that you hold on to, also called the stave, and a flexible string, to pull back the arrow, and to create some force through the tautness of the string. Of course, you need to be able to connect these two items. It is also easy to make some home-made arrows, which need a shaft, and a pointed end, called the arrowhead.

To give more detail about what is needed. Primarily, let as break down each item, so that anyone who is interested in making a bow at home would know what to look for, and what to do with that item.

Typically, you can start out with a long piece of wood. Be wary though, that not all kinds of long pieces of wood would be suitable for a good bow. You must be able to look for wood that is malleable, can bend as you stretch it backwards, but will not break. It also must be dry wood, because a damp piece of wood would stay. Some good kinds of wood are bamboo, willow, hickory, ash, yew, and even some hard woods may work, like maple or oak.

Be sure that you have the correct length for it. This may vary as well with your height, or purpose. Typically, you can have a bow that is about 5 feet long. The diameter of the wood that you get would have to be about 1.5 inches in diameter. It would be difficult to have it longer than that, because you may not be comfortable with wrapping your hand steadily on it. When you cut your wood, also make sure that you do not create cracks because it will break easily when you use it.

Now, make a mark in the middle, and this will be your handhold area.

You need to clean the bow you have created, smoothing out the edges, especially to prepare it for the stringing process. Trim the sides, to create the limbs. Start about 5 inches from the halfway point of the bow, and on either side, use your knife to scrape off parts of the sides. The purpose of this is to create more flexibility with the bow you are creating. Note that, you will only be trimming around the handhold area, and do not touch the back. Keep that area free from trimming.

Be careful about how much you trim from the wood, and it would be a good idea to frequently check on the status of the bend of the limbs. And look out for the equality of the bend on both sides of the wood. Your target here is that you want to have your bow as balanced as possible. So that when you pull back, it will create a nice equal curve from both sides.

You would need to attach the string at the edges of the bow. Before you can do that though, carve out some small notches at near the tips of both sides of your bow. As much as possible, do not create too much of a bend, as the string may also be a cause for the bow to break. Just make a small enough indentation so that you will be able to string in your bow well, and have it securely in place.

To string the bow, there are many kinds of materials that are available in your home. Many people recommend using nylon, or fish line for this purpose. It is recommended you wax the string before you attach it to the bow, so that it can stay taut and has some protection against natural deterioration.

To string a bow, you have to make sure that the string is taut, it mustn’t be too loose, because that would defeat its purpose.

This step gets frequently forgotten, but it would be a good tip to do this step, especially you are serious about having a useful bow. The purpose of tillering is to check if the bow you have created passes all sorts of tests, and fits to your requirements. You can check for cracks with this method, and other imperfections that you may want to revise on.

What you can do to tiller the bow is to horizontally place the bow above you, likely on a branch of a tree, and then, pull down the string a few inches so that you get to see the performance of the bow, especially on the balance of the bow.

This now sounds about right, and you are almost ready to get hunting! But wait, how will you get to hit your target? With arrows, of course!

And just like being able to create a home-made bow, you can also create some home-made arrows.

To create arrows, you would need some more wood sprigs, a tape, some feathers and a knife.

It is highly recommended you get some young sprigs that do not have sharp sides and edges, and it needs to be straight. It is recommended that you find sprigs that are about 30 inches long.

Have you seen how arrows look like? They have feathers attached to the end, and it is not necessarily to make it pretty. Actually, these feathers serve a purpose, and that is to keep the arrow accurate to come into contact with its target. To be able to do so, you have to first create a notch, so that the arrow will be able to come into contact with the bow string. Further on, also attach the feathers at the back, as they are used to help the arrow glide, and that is the purpose of them being in the back of the arrow.

This may be done with sharpening the other edge of the arrow that you are almost done with. Would definitely would also like to have it pointed, so that it will have a nice clean cut, as it comes into contact with its target.

And so now, with just following these steps, you are now ready to be a bowman! Enjoy your new tool, and if this is the first time for you to take up hunting, remember, it may take some time to of getting used to, before you can perfect your game.