Has anyone here ever made their own bow and arrow before? I have done it at least 10 times... The more you try it the more successful you become at choosing a proper stick to use (It has to be kind of new fresh wood, not dead and bendy), also you don't want a huge one that would be a lot harder. Arrows don't really need feathers on them if you're at a close enough range either and you don't necessarily have to craft arrowheads out of rocks if you simply sharpen the stick... I can't remember if I added feathers or not but I don't think they were necessary or necessarily hard to find in the woods either Also I used nylon string or shoe laces
You have to notch the stick at both ends (a groove for the string) you put it into the grooves then tie it and wrap alot of tight string underneath the grooves so the wood doesn't split and have the string slide into it from the tension
Bit more to a good bow than that. Really you should use a split stave which contains the boundary between heartwood and sapwood. You shape it with the heartwood in compression and the sapwood in tension and the best nock tips are carved from a piece of deerhorn and slipped over the end of the bow. for a decent power one, you need to carefully tiller it before you try to shoot it or pull it to full draw. Make a stick with several notches in it which will rest on the handgrip of the riser and pull the bow a few inches to a notch, let it sit a few minutes then relax it then pull to the next notch etc until you have slowly worked up to full draw, otherwise you may break the bow. While doing this you can sight along the bow and shave off a bit here and there to correct for a limb pulling to one side, or one limb being stiffer than the other. Ideally the slightly stiffer limb is the bottom one. Both should be close though. This is my main type of bow though, a laminated take down recurve. I have mad a couple of them now but never seem to have one to shoot, as I keep making them for friends instead.
Technically it is not that difficult, but there is a whole crapload of time and a good dose of patience to get it done. takes a few jigs and tools too. Good fun though, long as you don't have some dickhead breathing down your neck asking when his bow will be ready...
I remember gazing at several authenic examples of native American bows while touring the Smithsonian. The looked liked wide sticks! Made of woods like osage orange, they looked anything but complicated. With an average "pull" of about 45lbs, they certainly provided for their owners.
