Ash Longbow
Our three-day Longbow course is based in the Witherslack valley. It is designed to delve into building familiarity with basic hand tools and to get to know Ash wood as a tree and material with the overall aim of making a primitive style longbow.
You will be guided through shaping your Ash stave with an axe to then remove more material with a draw knife and spoke shave. Once the bow is tillered to satisfaction you will use a scraper and rasp followed by oil and beeswax to get a fine finish on your bow.
Our course instructors at To The Root aim to teach participants how to select the appropriate wood for bow making and how to work with its character using traditional wood working tools. Once a unique and personal bow is made we will then look into making your own arrows, and string.
Course Content
- Learning how to choose and prepare the right wood
-use simple hand tools to produce a primitive bow from a roughly split stave
- Achieve an understanding of tillering a bow and how the wood reacts
- Learn to make the right length string for your bow
- Preparing feathers and fletching arrow shafts
- Adding nocks and arrow-heads
- learning how to use local materials to make arrows from scratch
-learn how to finish the bow to prolong its use with after care
