July Bow Immersion

Just finished off a great week with 5 great folks. Here's the video showing the bows. 3 flatbows & 2 longbows in the batch..

The week started off a little funny as the ferries were very delayed coming up from Vancouver, so 3 of the folks were late arriving. Nevertheless everyone got going on there bows the first day, working on debarking and laying out the dimensions of their bows.

The day got everyone comfortable with the hatchets and spoke shaves as they worked down to the outline of their bows. Day 3 was more of this - working on getting to a brace height (where you can string your bow). Also worked on some heat bending with both steam and the heat gun.

Day 4 everyone worked on their tips - either overlays or horn caps. This takes a bit of practice (on some scrap wood) and it's great to see the personalities of the folks coming out in their design choices. Also spent some time on recurving this day.

The next day was more wood removal, focusing on working at a slow and steady pace, getting the bows up to the correct draw length. Also adding arrow rests for those that wanted them. And starting to oil the bows. Sure look sharp once you get the oil on - makes the colours really pop out. Managed to squeeze in a little break at a local swimming hole with a zunga (rope swing to those not living in Powell River).

Day 6 was all about arrows. Lots of time spent cutting, chopping, & gluing on the fletching. And lots of silk wrapping. Adding tips too. And more oiling...

This was a day for focusing on wrapping up all the projects (some folks had been working on side projects in the evening as well). More arrow work. And oiling. We also got to take a drive up into to the bush to see an amazing yew forest nearby.  We also got to enjoy the hard work put into the bows and arrows as we spent a good couple hours shooting our bows into the big old growth stumps in the area.   We only lost one arrow in total and there were some great bulls eyes.

The final day we focused on leather handles and any other wrapping up that needed doing.  Before taking the quick video and wishing the folks well as they raced off to catch their ferries home.