How to Build Traditional Longbows

Making a longbow is a long and delicate process, but definitely a rewarding one. Longbow construction requires patience and a great deal of careful sanding, but no great expertise is required to make a bow capable of shooting arrows hundreds of feet. With practice, you'll be able to create your own traditional "self" longbow—a bow made out of a single piece of wood.

Things You'll Need

  • A workbench with clamping capabilities
  • Tropical hardwood with dimensions of 1,820-by-30-by-36 mm
  • 100-320 grain sandpaper
  • 80 grain abrasive cloth
  • Bandsaw
  • Plane
  • Spokeshave
  • Tape measure
  • 3 to 4 mm straight, half-round and round wood files
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Instructions

    • 1

      Draw a perfectly straight "heart-line" along the length of the bow stave's backing by tracing either the tape measure or a piece of string. Trace the shape of the future bow as seen from the front. It should be symmetrical, and taper evenly toward the ends.

    • 2

      Cut the bow out with the bandsaw and plane, leaving 2 mm of tolerance outside the drawn lines. Allow the bow stave to set for 24 hours, and check to be sure the heart-line is still straight. If not, plane the sides until it is.

    • 3

      Trace the profile of the bow and plane it to the correct thickness. Again, it should taper evenly from the middle, being thicker than it is wide near the handle, and wider than it is thick near the ends.

    • 4

      Draw another heart-line on the belly of the bow. Use a spokeshave to roughly round the belly of the bow, being careful not to cut off any of the heart-line. Smooth the rounding with abrasive cloth and sandpaper. Slightly round the backing of the bow.

    • 5

      File a small notch to temporarily hold the string at both ends of the bow. It should be 2 mm deep on the sides of the bow and 1 mm on the backing. Intertwine several nylon strands together to form a temporary bowstring 6 to 7 cm shorter than the length of the bow stave.

    • 6

      Carefully string the bow, bending it until there is a distance of 15-16cm between the string and the grip of the bow. Sand and scrape the bow with the spokeshave until the two ends of the bow have the same amount of bend to them.

    • 7

      Over the next several hours, occasionally draw the bow to half your draw length. Sand it down further if it seems too stiff. Draw it to 3/4 of your draw length, and a few hours later, to 4/5 of your draw length. Once the bow has been sufficiently flexed, draw it full length and fire a few arrows.

    • 8

      Shape the tips of the bow to fit the horn nocks, or tips, and add them. Make a permanent string out of dacron and restring the bow. Glue a 5 mm layer of cork to the backing for the grip, and sand it. Finish the grip with velvet or leather.

    • 9

      Lacquer and sand the bow three times, waiting three days between each layer.