1. Introduction — Stored Energy in Bent Wood

A bow is a machine. No moving parts, no fuel, no electricity. Just elastic potential energy stored in bent wood and released on command. Understanding what a bow actually does — in mechanical terms — eliminates most of the mysticism around bow making and replaces it with principles you can measure, test, and repeat.

When you draw a bow, you are doing work against the resistance of two wooden limbs. That work is stored as strain energy in the wood fibers. The belly fibers (the side facing you) compress. The back fibers (the side facing the target) stretch under tension. Between them sits the neutral plane — a line through the cross-section where fibers are neither compressed nor stretched. The further a fiber sits from the neutral plane, the more strain it carries at any given bend radius.

Release the string and the limbs snap forward, converting stored strain energy into kinetic energy in the arrow. A well-tillered 50 lb bow at 28 inches of draw stores roughly 35–40 joules of energy. Of that, 70–85% transfers to the arrow (Hickman et al., 1947). The rest dissipates as vibration, heat, and noise in the limbs. Heavier limbs waste more energy accelerating their own mass. Lighter limbs — thinner, less dense wood — transfer more energy to the arrow. This is why specific gravity matters as much as strength.

Two properties of wood control bow performance. Modulus of elasticity (MoE) determines how much energy the wood stores per unit of strain — stiffer wood stores more energy at the same bend angle. Modulus of rupture (MoR) determines how far you can bend the wood before it breaks. A great bow wood has high MoE (stores lots of energy), adequate MoR (does not break at full draw), and low density (does not waste energy on limb mass). Osage orange checks all three boxes. So does yew. Most other woods compromise on at least one.

The geometry matters as much as the material. A limb that is too thick at the tips bends mostly at the mid-limb — creating a hinge. A limb that is too thin at the fades bends mostly near the handle — another hinge. Even bend distribution means every inch of the limb contributes proportionally to energy storage, and no single point bears disproportionate stress. This is tillering. It is the single most important skill in bow making.

2. Wood Selection — Species, Properties, and Stave Sourcing

The Gold Standard: Osage Orange

Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) is the best bow wood native to North America, and one of the best in the world. The heartwood is dense (specific gravity 0.76), stiff (MoE 10.4 GPa), strong in both compression and tension, and nearly impervious to rot thanks to naturally occurring tetrahydroxystilbene fungicides (Scheffer & Morrell, 1998). The Comanche, Osage, and Kiowa nations traded Osage bows across thousands of miles. A finished bow horse was the standard price. That should tell you something about how they valued the material.

Osage grows as a gnarly, thorny tree rarely taller than 40 feet. The best bow staves come from straight trunks or limbs at least 6 inches in diameter with minimal branching over a 6-foot length. The heartwood is bright yellow-orange when fresh, darkening to deep amber with UV exposure. Sapwood is pale and mechanically inferior — always remove it entirely.

Other Proven Bow Woods

English yew (Taxus baccata). The legendary bow wood of the English longbow. Yew is unique: its sapwood is strong in tension, its heartwood strong in compression, creating a natural bilayer analogous to a fiberglass-backed bow. MoE around 8.5 GPa, specific gravity 0.55–0.67. Lighter than Osage, which means faster limbs. The drawback: yew is increasingly rare, slow-growing, and the best bow-quality timber comes from old-growth trees that should not be cut.

Hickory (Carya spp.). Excellent tension wood — so tough that it is the standard backing material for bows made from species with weak backs. Shagbark and pignut hickory make serviceable selfbows, though they are heavier than Osage (specific gravity 0.72–0.83) and tend to take set (develop permanent bend) over time. Readily available across eastern North America.

Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). Underrated. MoE of 13.8 GPa — stiffer than Osage. High density (0.69–0.73). Excellent compression strength. Makes a fast, hard-hitting bow. The challenge is finding straight-grained staves; black locust grows twisted more often than straight.

Elm (Ulmus spp.). The beginner's bow wood. Elm is forgiving, widely available, and produces a reliable 40–50 lb flatbow with minimal skill. It has strong back fibers (interlocked grain resists lifting) but mediocre compression strength, so elm bows must be wider and flatter than Osage bows to avoid belly chrysals (compression fractures). White elm and slippery elm are preferred.

Properties Comparison

Property Osage Orange Yew Hickory Black Locust Elm
MoE (GPa) 10.4 8.5 12.0 13.8 8.5
Specific Gravity 0.76 0.60 0.78 0.71 0.57
Compression Strength Excellent Good Good Excellent Fair
Tension Strength Excellent Excellent (sapwood) Excellent Good Good
Rot Resistance Exceptional Good Poor Excellent Poor
Availability Regional (central US) Rare Common (eastern US) Common Common
Forgiveness Low Moderate High Low High
Best For Any bow style Longbow Flatbow, backing Flatbow Wide flatbow

Stave Selection: Split Log vs Board

Split staves are superior. When you split a log with wedges, the wood separates along the grain — the split follows the fibers. This means the back of your bow (the growth ring you chase) has continuous, uncut fibers running the full length. Uncut back fibers are the primary tensile reinforcement. A board from a sawmill has fibers cut at a slight angle by the saw blade. This creates runoff — exposed fiber ends that act as stress risers under tension. Runoff of more than one inch per stave length is grounds for rejection.

To split a stave: fell a straight trunk or limb at least 6 inches in diameter. Cut a 72-inch section (longer than your finished bow). Split it in half with steel wedges and a sledge, then quarter it. Each quarter yields one stave. Seal the end grain immediately with wood glue, latex paint, or paraffin to prevent checking (end-grain cracking from uneven drying).

Board bows work if you select carefully. Look for boards with dead-straight grain running the full length, no runoff visible on the edge, and growth rings that arc gently across the width of the board (indicating the board was cut tangentially from the log). Hickory and elm tolerate board construction better than Osage because their interlocked grain resists splinters even with some runoff.

3. Design — Bow Type, Dimensions, and Taper

Longbow vs Flatbow vs Selfbow

These terms overlap and often confuse beginners.

Selfbow means a bow made from a single piece of wood — no laminations, no backing, no glued-on handle. All the bows in this document are selfbows.

Longbow refers to a narrow, deep cross-section (width-to-depth ratio near 1:1) with a D-shaped or stacked profile. The English longbow is the archetype. Longbows work well with woods that handle both tension and compression equally — yew and Osage. They are poor designs for weaker compression woods like elm, which will chrysal under the deep belly.

Flatbow refers to a wide, thin cross-section (width-to-depth ratio of 2:1 or more). Flatbows spread stress across a wider belly, reducing compression per unit area. This allows weaker woods to reach higher draw weights without failure. A flatbow made from elm or hickory at 2 inches wide and 5/8 inch deep will match the draw weight of a narrow Osage longbow at 1.25 inches wide and 1 inch deep.

Draw Weight Targets

Purpose Draw Weight
Target shooting / youth 25–35 lb
Small game (rabbit, squirrel) 35–45 lb
Deer-sized game 45–55 lb
Elk / large game 55–70 lb

First bow recommendation: 40–45 lb. Heavy enough to hunt small game. Light enough that tillering mistakes are less likely to cause catastrophic failure. You will learn more from one 40 lb bow that survives to completion than from three 60 lb staves that break on the tillering tree.

Bow Length by Draw Length

Longer bows bend through a gentler arc, reducing stress per inch of limb. Short bows are more stressed and more likely to break. General rule:

Draw Length Minimum Bow Length
24–26 inches 60–64 inches
26–28 inches 64–68 inches
28–30 inches 68–72 inches
30+ inches 72+ inches

Measure your draw length: stand with your arms extended to the sides, measure fingertip to fingertip, divide by 2.5. A 70-inch wingspan gives a 28-inch draw length.

Taper Design

The limb must taper in both width and thickness from the fades (where the handle transitions to the working limb) to the tips. Width taper is straightforward — draw lines on the belly from fade width to tip width and remove wood outside the lines. Thickness taper is where tillering happens.

A good starting point for a flatbow:

  • Handle: 4–5 inches long, 1.5 inches wide, left full thickness (non-bending)
  • Fades: transition from handle to working limb over 2 inches
  • Mid-limb width: 1.75–2 inches, thickness 3/4 inch
  • Tip width: 1/2–5/8 inch, thickness 3/8 inch
  • Nock: 1/2 inch from tip, cut or reinforced with horn

The taper is not linear. The inner limb (near the handle) is thicker and wider, providing the stiffness needed to resist the high bending moment near the pivot point. The outer limb tapers more aggressively because the bending moment decreases toward the tips. This is why a limb that looks uniformly tapered will hinge at mid-limb — the inner third needs to be proportionally stiffer.

4. Tools

You do not need a shop full of equipment. Bowyers made functional weapons for millennia with a sharp rock and patience. Modern hand tools make the work faster and more precise, but the list is short.

Drawknife. The primary wood removal tool. A 6–10 inch blade with two handles, drawn toward you along the stave. Removes wood quickly during roughing. Keep it sharp — a dull drawknife tears fibers instead of slicing them. Cost: $25–50 for a serviceable used one.

Spokeshave. A small, controlled shaving tool for finer work after the drawknife gets you close. Flat-bottomed spokeshaves work for flatbows. Curved-bottom versions help shape the belly of narrow longbows. Cost: $15–30 new.

Rasp. A coarse half-round rasp (Nicholson #49 or equivalent) for shaping the handle, rounding edges, and refining taper in areas where a blade might dig in. Also useful for reducing tip thickness. Cost: $10–15.

Tillering stick. A vertical post with a string groove at the top and a series of notches at measured intervals down one side. You brace the bow at the top, pull the string into successively lower notches (increasing draw length), and step back to evaluate the bend curve. You can make one from a 2x4 in ten minutes. Cost: $0.

Heat gun. A standard 1000–1500 watt heat gun from any hardware store. Two uses: straightening lateral bends in the stave (deflexed or warped sections), and heat-tempering the belly to increase compression resistance. Apply heat evenly to a section, clamp it straight or reflexed, and let it cool under constraint. Do not use a torch — localized overheating chars the wood and weakens it. Cost: $20–35.

Cabinet scraper. A flat piece of hardened steel with a burr edge, held with both hands and pushed or pulled across the wood surface. Produces paper-thin shavings. The precision instrument for final tillering adjustments — when you need to remove 1/64 inch from a two-inch section of belly to eliminate a stiff spot. Cost: $5–10.

Additional useful items: A long straightedge or taut string for checking lateral alignment. Calipers for measuring limb thickness at intervals. A bathroom scale and a long tape measure for checking draw weight at measured draw lengths. Pencil and masking tape for marking.

Total investment for all tools: $75–140. Every one of them has a hundred other uses on a homestead.

5. Stave Preparation

Splitting

If you are starting from a log, split it the day you cut it. Green wood splits cleanly. Seasoned wood fights you.

Use a felling axe or saw to cut a straight, knot-free section at least 6 inches longer than your intended bow. Score a line down the center of one end. Start a split with a hatchet or wedge. Drive additional wedges ahead of the split to control it. The wood will follow the grain — if the grain spirals, the split spirals with it. This is useful: it shows you exactly what the grain is doing. A stave that splits clean and straight has straight grain. A stave that spirals badly is firewood.

Quarter the log. Each quarter is one potential stave. Seal the end grain within minutes of splitting — drying end grain checks (cracks) faster than you can blink in dry climates. White wood glue, latex paint, or melted paraffin all work.

Debarking

Remove the bark carefully. You want to expose the outermost complete growth ring without damaging it. That ring becomes the back of your bow — the tension surface. Its fibers must remain continuous and uncut from tip to tip.

Drawknife the bark off in the direction of the grain. On Osage, also remove all sapwood — it is mechanically weak and adds dead weight. The sapwood-heartwood boundary is obvious: pale yellow sapwood, vivid orange heartwood. Take it down to clean heartwood, following one annual ring if possible.

Chasing a Ring

This is the technique that separates functional bows from broken sticks. The back of a selfbow must follow a single growth ring — one continuous layer of wood fibers. If you cut across a ring, you create exposed fiber ends on the back. Under the tension of drawing, those exposed ends act as crack initiation points. The bow will eventually lift a splinter from the back, and a back splinter is a catastrophic failure.

To chase a ring: pick the outermost undamaged ring. Using a scraper, drawknife, or sharp knife, carefully remove wood above that ring. Follow the ring's contour — it will rise and fall as the grain undulates. In some areas you may be chasing the ring down into a dip; in others, scraping off a high spot. Take your time. This step might take two hours on a six-foot stave. Those two hours are the difference between a bow that lasts twenty years and one that breaks in the first month.

On species with clearly defined rings (Osage, hickory, ash), chasing a ring is straightforward. On species with diffuse-porous wood (elm, maple), the rings are less visible, and you may need to work under strong raking light to see them. Wetting the surface with a damp rag can make rings temporarily visible.

Seasoning

Green wood is full of moisture. Moisture weakens wood under compression — a green bow will take excessive set (permanent bend) or chrysal (compression fractures on the belly) at draw weights that seasoned wood handles easily.

Dry the stave slowly. Fast drying causes checking and warping. Slow drying — six months minimum, twelve months preferred — allows moisture to equalize gradually throughout the cross-section.

Store staves horizontally on a rack in a sheltered, ventilated area. Not in direct sun. Not in a sealed building with no airflow. A covered porch, a barn, or an open garage works. End grain stays sealed. If a stave develops a slight lateral warp during seasoning, you can heat-correct it later. If it develops a severe twist or propeller warp, discard it.

Target moisture content: 8–12%. A cheap pin-type moisture meter ($15) reads accurately enough for bow wood. Below 6% the wood becomes brittle. Above 14% it is too wet for reliable performance.

Shortcut for the impatient: you can rough out the stave to near-bow dimensions while green (reducing drying time because thinner wood dries faster), then season the roughed-out blank for 2–3 months. This works but requires extra caution — a roughed blank warps more easily than a full stave. Strap it to a straight board during drying.

6. Shaping — From Stave to Bow Blank

Layout

Once the stave is seasoned, lay out your bow. Find the centerline — the midpoint of the stave's length. Mark the handle section: 2 inches above center, 2 inches below center (a 4-inch handle). The upper limb extends from the top of the handle to the upper tip. The lower limb from the bottom of the handle to the lower tip.

Upper and lower limbs are not identical. The upper limb is typically 1/2 to 1 inch longer than the lower. The arrow passes on the side of the handle — the bow is gripped below center. This slight asymmetry balances the forces and keeps the arrow's departure angle consistent.

Trace your width taper on the belly. A flatbow narrows from about 2 inches at the fades to 1/2 inch at the tips. Use a straightedge and pencil. If the grain has lateral sweep (curves left or right), follow it. Straightening a swept stave by cutting across the grain creates runoff on the back and weakens the bow. A bow that curves sideways but follows the grain is stronger than a straight bow with cut fibers.

Roughing Out

Use the drawknife to remove wood outside your layout lines. Work with the grain. If the drawknife digs in, reverse your stroke direction — you are cutting against the grain. Remove wood from the belly to bring the stave to roughly even thickness across its width. Do not try to tiller yet. Just get the stave to a uniform rectangular cross-section along its length, following your width taper.

Check the back constantly. If you see any damage — a nick, a cut across a ring, a lifted splinter — stop and evaluate. A small nick can be sanded smooth if it does not cross a ring boundary. A cut that severs back fibers may require redesigning the bow to avoid that area (shifting the layout, or narrowing the limb at that point to put the damage at the edge rather than the center).

Floor Tillering

Before you put a string on the bow, check the bend by hand. Place the tip of one limb on the floor, grip the handle, and push the fades forward. The limb should flex in a smooth curve. If one area bends sharply while adjacent areas remain stiff, mark the stiff spots. They need wood removed from the belly. Mark the flexible spots — do not touch them.

Repeat for the other limb. Both limbs should show similar resistance and similar bend curves. This rough check catches major imbalances before you stress the bow with a string.

7. Tillering — The Art of Even Bend

This is the heart of bow making. Everything before this was preparation. Everything after is cosmetics. Tillering is the iterative process of removing wood from the belly until both limbs bend in a smooth, continuous arc at full draw, with no hinges and no stiff spots. It takes patience, good light, a willingness to step back and look critically, and the discipline to remove less wood than you think you need.

String Tillering

Make a long string — a tillering string — that is 4–6 inches longer than the bow. Tie loops at both ends and slip them over the nocks. The bow is now "braced" at a very low brace height (the distance from the string to the handle). This long string lets you begin bending the limbs without applying much force.

Place the handle on your tillering stick. Pull the string to the first notch — perhaps 10 inches of draw. Step back 10 feet and study the bend curve. Both limbs should bend evenly. Look for:

  • Hinges: any point that bends noticeably more than the areas on either side. A hinge is the single most dangerous defect in a bow. It concentrates stress at one spot and will eventually fail.
  • Stiff spots: areas that remain straight while the rest of the limb bends around them. Stiff spots force the flexible areas to bend more, creating hinges at their borders.
  • Limb balance: both limbs should bend symmetrically. If the upper limb bends more than the lower, the lower limb is too stiff — remove wood from the lower belly.

Correcting the Bend

Mark stiff spots with a pencil directly on the belly. Remove a thin layer of wood from the belly of the stiff section only — never from the stiff section's back. Use a scraper for precision. Remove wood, check the bend, remove more, check again. The cycle is: scrape, string, draw, observe, mark, unstring, scrape. Repeat fifty times. A hundred times. However long it takes.

The amount of wood you remove matters enormously. A single heavy scraper pass across the belly at mid-limb can drop the draw weight by a full pound. At the tips, where the limb is thin, a few passes can drop it by two pounds. This is why you go slowly — you cannot put wood back. Every ounce of wood you remove past your target draw weight is gone.

Draw Weight Reduction

As you tiller, you are simultaneously reducing the draw weight toward your target. Check draw weight periodically by hanging a scale from the string and pulling to a measured draw length. At first you check at short draw — 15 inches, 18 inches. As the tiller improves, you work toward full draw — but you only pull to full draw when the bend curve looks even at shorter draws. Pulling a poorly tillered bow to full draw invites breakage.

The Ideal Tiller Shape

For a standard handle bow (arrow shot off the hand), the ideal tiller shape is an elliptical arc — similar to the curve of an old-fashioned wagon wheel, with the greatest curvature at mid-limb and decreasing curvature toward the handle and tips. The handle section is stiff (non-bending). The inner limb (nearest the handle) bends gently. The outer limb (nearest the tip) bends more sharply. The tip itself is stiff again — the last 4–6 inches of the limb (the "siyah" or tip lever) should not flex.

Some bowyers prefer a circle-of-the-arc tiller, where bend is uniform from fades to tips. Both work. The critical rule is: no hinges, no stiff spots in the working section. If the bend is smooth, the bow is right.

Set and Chrysals

Set is permanent bend in the limbs. All wooden bows take some set — the belly fibers compress permanently under load. One inch of set on a 50 lb bow is acceptable. Three inches means the belly is overstressed — the bow was either too narrow for its draw weight, or the wood was not fully seasoned.

Chrysals are compression fractures on the belly — visible as thin lines running across the grain on the belly surface. Minor chrysals (faint, shallow) reduce longevity but do not demand immediate retirement. Deep chrysals that you can catch a fingernail on are structural failures. A bow with deep chrysals will break eventually. Reduce the draw weight (remove wood from the belly to make the bow thinner and lighter-drawing) or retire the bow.

8. Finishing

Finishing is functional, not decorative. The goals are: seal the wood against moisture change, protect the back from minor abrasion, and make the handle comfortable.

Sanding

Sand the entire bow with progressively finer grits. Start at 100 grit to remove scraper marks and tool tracks. Move to 150, then 220. Go to 320 or 400 if you want a polished surface. Do not power-sand the back — hand sand only, parallel to the grain. Power sanders round over growth ring edges and can damage the back fibers.

Sealing

The bow needs a moisture barrier. Unsealed wood absorbs humidity, gains weight, takes set, and loses cast. Options:

  • Tung oil: traditional, penetrating, hardens in the wood. Apply 4–6 thin coats over a week, sanding lightly between coats with 400 grit. Tung oil does not build a surface film — it stabilizes the wood from within.
  • Linseed oil (boiled): similar to tung oil. Slightly slower to cure. Apply the same way.
  • Spar varnish: builds a harder surface film. More moisture-resistant than oil alone. Two thin coats on the belly and back. The back is the priority — that is where humidity does the most damage.
  • Shellac: traditional finish for longbows. Easy to apply, easy to repair. Dissolve shellac flakes in denatured alcohol, brush on thin coats.

Do not use polyurethane. It builds a thick, brittle film that cracks under flex and traps moisture underneath.

Handle Wrap

Shape the handle with a rasp to fit your hand. A gentle oval cross-section, slightly narrower front to back than side to side, feels natural for most hands. Wrap with leather — a 3/4-inch-wide strip of thin leather (2–3 oz weight) spiral-wrapped with contact cement holds for years. Start at the base of the handle, wrap upward with each wrap overlapping the previous by half, finish at the top, tuck the end under the previous wrap, and secure with a small drop of superglue.

Arrow Shelf

A small shelf cut into the side of the bow above the handle gives the arrow a consistent rest point. Cut no deeper than 1/8 inch into the side of the bow at handle height. Round the edges. Glue a small leather pad to the shelf to cushion the arrow's passage. Some bowyers skip the shelf entirely and shoot off the hand — this works but requires more consistent hand position.

Nocks

Reinforce the string grooves at the tips. On Osage and locust, the wood is hard enough that simple grooves filed with a round file work indefinitely. On softer woods (elm, hickory), glue horn or hardwood overlays to the tips and cut the string grooves into them. Horn nocks are traditional, durable, and visually distinctive. Cut a piece of cow horn to fit the tip profile, epoxy it in place, file the string groove, and sand smooth.

9. String Making

A bow without a string is a stick. The string transmits your draw force to the limbs, absorbs the shock of release, and propels the arrow. Material and construction matter.

Material: B-50 Dacron

B-50 Dacron is the standard bowstring material for wooden bows. It is a polyester fiber with 2.6% elongation under 300 lb load (Hamm, 2000). That stretch is critical — it cushions the shock of release, protecting wooden limbs from the instantaneous deceleration that would stress them beyond their elastic limit. Modern materials like Fast Flight (Dyneema/Spectra) have less than 1% stretch and will damage or destroy wooden bows. Use Dacron on any selfbow, longbow, or unbacked wooden bow.

B-50 comes as a continuous strand on a spool. You build up a bowstring by laying multiple strands together to achieve the desired breaking strength. For bows under 50 lb: 10–12 strands. For 50–70 lb: 12–14 strands. More strands make a thicker, slower string. Fewer strands make a faster string that wears sooner.

Flemish Twist String

The Flemish twist is the traditional method. Two or three bundles of strands are individually twisted, then braided together at the ends to form permanent loops. The loops fit over the bow's nocks. The body of the string — the twisted section between the loops — provides the serving surface for the arrow nock.

To make a Flemish twist string: cut strands 12 inches longer than the bow. Divide into two bundles (for a two-bundle twist). Twist each bundle clockwise. Lay the bundles together and twist them counterclockwise around each other — this counter-twist locks the string so it cannot unravel under tension. Form a loop at one end by folding the bundles back on themselves and twisting them into the standing body. Repeat at the other end, adjusting the string length to achieve your target brace height.

Endless Loop String

Simpler to make than Flemish. Wind the string material around two posts set at half the finished string length (accounting for stretch). When you have the correct number of wraps (strands), tie the bundle together with serving thread at both ends to form loops. Serve the center section where the arrow nock sits. Endless loop strings are more uniform in construction but lack the aesthetic character of a Flemish twist.

Brace Height

Brace height is the distance from the string to the deepest point of the handle when the bow is strung. Correct brace height balances performance and limb stress.

  • Longbows: 6–7 inches
  • Flatbows: 5.5–7 inches
  • General starting point: fist with thumb extended (the "fistmele")

Too low: the string buzzes against the bow on release, arrow flight is erratic, and efficiency drops. Too high: the string is effectively shortened, increasing stress on the limbs and reducing stored energy. Adjust by twisting or untwisting the string — each full twist shortens the string slightly and raises the brace height.

String Maintenance

Wax the string regularly with bowstring wax (beeswax/silicone blend). Waxing consolidates the fibers, prevents fraying, and repels moisture. A string that is fraying at the center serving or developing fuzzy individual fibers is overdue for replacement. A well-made, well-maintained Dacron string lasts 1,000+ shots.

10. Arrow Making

A bow is only as good as the arrows you shoot from it. An arrow that is too stiff or too flexible for the bow's draw weight will fly erratically regardless of how well the bow is tillered. Spine matching — selecting the correct arrow stiffness for the bow — is the critical variable.

Spine Matching

When an arrow is released from a selfbow (shot off the hand or a shelf), the string pushes the nock end forward. The arrow bends around the handle, flexing in an S-curve called archer's paradox. The arrow must flex enough to clear the handle but recover quickly enough to stabilize in flight. Too stiff: the arrow kicks outward and misses left (for a right-handed shooter). Too flexible: the arrow wraps too far around the handle and misses right, or fishtails wildly.

Spine is measured by deflection. The AMO standard: support a 28-inch arrow at two points 26 inches apart, hang a 2 lb weight at the center, measure how far the arrow deflects in inches. Common target: a 50 lb bow at 28-inch draw wants arrows in the 0.50–0.55 inch deflection range.

Shaft Material

Wood shafts are the only authentic choice for a traditional selfbow. Port Orford cedar is the classic material — lightweight (6–8 grains per inch), straight-grained, and consistent. Sitka spruce is lighter still. Birch and ash are heavier but more durable for hunting arrows that hit bone and dirt.

Buy pre-spined shafts from an archery supplier (specify the spine weight matched to your bow's draw weight), or make your own. To make your own: split a straight-grained board into square blanks, round them with a dowel plate (a steel plate with progressively smaller holes — drive the square blank through and it comes out round), and sand smooth.

Each arrow in a set should match the others in spine, weight, and straightness. Sort shafts by spine and weight. An arrow that weighs 50 grains more than its siblings will group low. An arrow with mismatched spine will group left or right.

Fletchings

Fletching stabilizes the arrow in flight by creating drag at the rear, forcing the point to track forward. Three feathers are standard — two hen feathers and one cock feather set perpendicular to the nock slot so it clears the handle.

Turkey wing feathers are the traditional material. Right-wing feathers spin the arrow clockwise in flight; left-wing feathers spin it counterclockwise. Do not mix right and left feathers on the same arrow. Full-length feathers (5-inch parabolic or shield cut) provide maximum stabilization for selfbow arrows, which need more correction than arrows from a center-shot compound bow.

Attach fletchings with hide glue or Duco cement. Align them using a fletching jig ($15–30) or by eye with a V-block and steady hands. The cock feather (the odd-colored one) points away from the bow when the arrow is nocked.

Points

For target shooting: field points. Glue-on steel points in 100–125 grain weight. Use hot-melt adhesive — heat the point, melt a stick of ferrule cement inside, push it onto the tapered shaft end. Hot-melt lets you remove and replace points easily.

For hunting: broadheads. Two-blade glue-on broadheads in steel are traditional. The blade plane must align with the cock feather so the broadhead passes the handle cleanly. Sharpen to shaving-edge. A dull broadhead is worthless — it pushes tissue aside instead of cutting through it.

Arrow Weight

Total arrow weight (shaft + point + fletchings + nock) should fall between 8 and 12 grains per pound of draw weight for hunting arrows. A 50 lb bow wants arrows in the 400–600 grain range. Lighter arrows fly faster but stress the bow (equivalent to partial dry-fire). Heavier arrows absorb more energy, fly slower, but penetrate deeper and are gentler on the bow.

Arrow Safety

Inspect every arrow before every shot. Flex each wood shaft by bending it gently while listening for cracking. A cracked shaft will explode on release and drive splinters through your bow hand or into your forearm. This is not hypothetical — it happens. Any shaft that shows a crack, a splinter, or a suspicious sound goes into the fire, not back into the quiver.

11. Sources

  • Hamm, Jim. The Traditional Bowyer's Bible, Volumes 1–4. Lyons Press, 1992–2008. The definitive reference. Covers every species, every technique, every historical style.
  • Hickman, C.N., Nagler, Forrest, and Klopsteg, Paul E. Archery: The Technical Side. National Field Archery Association, 1947. The engineering fundamentals of bow performance — efficiency, stored energy, arrow dynamics.
  • Kooi, B.W. and Bergman, C.A. "An Approach to the Study of Ancient Archery using Mathematical Modelling." Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries, Vol. 40, 1997, pp. 38–48.
  • USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-282, 2021. Mechanical properties of all species referenced in this document.
  • Marsh, Harry and Rodríguez-Reinoso, Francisco. Activated Carbon. Elsevier, 2006. Referenced for comparative wood property data.
  • Scheffer, T.C. and Morrell, J.J. "Natural Durability of Wood: A Worldwide Checklist of Species." Forest Products Journal, 48(1), 1998, pp. 22–30.
  • Baker, Tim. "Bow Design and Performance." In The Traditional Bowyer's Bible, Volume 1. Lyons Press, 1992.
  • Baker, Tim. "Tillering." In The Traditional Bowyer's Bible, Volume 1. Lyons Press, 1992.
  • Massey, Jay. The Bowyer's Craft. Bear Paw Publications, 1987. Practical Osage selfbow construction from a master bowyer.
  • McEwen, Edward, Miller, Robert L., and Bergman, Christopher A. "Early Bow Design and Construction." Scientific American, Vol. 264, No. 6, June 1991, pp. 76–82.
  • Allely, Steve and Baker, Tim. Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers. Lyons Press, 1999. Documented designs from dozens of tribal traditions.