Video: Crafting a Bow and Arrow with 100 Percent Primitive Methods
OutdoorHub Reporters 03.24.16
Lots of archers prefer to craft their own bows and arrows, and some even like to do it the old fashioned way. Just to be clear however, when we say that the bow and arrows made in this video were produced by primitive methods and tools, we don’t mean it’s some guy in the woods with a knife, hatchet, and a small number of simple tools. No, we mean he uses sharp rocks. In fact, the most advanced piece of technology he uses in this video are probably his shorts.
How he accomplishes this is amazing.
“I made this bow and arrow using only primitive tools and materials,” Primitive Technology wrote on YouTube. “The bow is 1.25 m (55 inches) long and shoots 60 cm (2 feet) long arrows. I don’t know the draw weight—safe to say greater than 15 kg (35 pounds) perhaps? The stave was made from a tree that was cut with a stone axe and split in half with a stone chisel. I don’t know it’s name but it’s common here and is the same wood I use for axe handles. One half was used for the bow and was cut to a length of 1.25 m (50 inches). The limbs of the bow were carved with various stone blades so that the limbs tapered in width, and to a lesser extent depth, towards the tips. The middle of the bow was narrowed in width to form a handle about 12.5 cm (5 inches) long.”
The string was made from the bark of a fibrous tree, cut into strips and dried before being twisted into a taut bowstring. The arrows came from the same tree as the bow and were fire hardened. Feathers came from the local bush turkey that he gathered from the ground.
All in all, very impressive especially considering the bow’s relative accuracy and power.
