By Pedro Victor

Those who are interested in traditional and primitive archery may find themselves wondering how the ancients made bows and how stone-age man managed to fashion weapons that equal the modern fibreglass weapons sold in hunting and archery stores. The answer is that the ancients often made their bows from green wood with minimum effort, using stone tools that are better suited to bow crafting than our modern metal tools. In this series Pedro Victor explains how one can craft one’s own bow from greenwood.

The string is a critically important part of the bow, so it cannot be made from just any material. Suitable strings can be made from animal gut, rawhide, sinew or plant fibre. Animal gut (intestine) from cows, pigs or game can be used. I purchase gut from a butcher who uses pig guts for sausage casing. I wash the salt thoroughly from the gut and then proceed with the string making.

Three plies
Three plies are sufficient for most draw weights. The gut is washed and cleaned and then one end of the prospective string is suspended from a dowel stick or a tree branch, which must be positioned at a longer distance from the ground than the length of the required bow string. A dowel or short stick is then inserted through the loop at the loose, lower end. The string is now stretched with a moderate amount of force. Once under tension the dowel stick at the lower end is twisted until the string begins to shrivel from the torsion. The purpose is to twist the gut fibres under tension, resulting in a fairly uniform, round cord

The lower dowel must be tied to weights such as two bricks, which are then rested on the ground, keeping the string under tension until it dries. On the highveld this is usually less than 24 hours. Once dry, the string is fitted to the bow by soaking the ends in water and tying them onto the nock with a slipknot, one at a time, and allowing each end to dry.

The bow is strung only after both knots have been made and dried. The string is then greased with pig fat.

Making a bow form
To make a bow form, you will need three lengths of pine board 75 millimetres wide, 30 millimetres thick and 1200 millimetres long. Lay two of the planks end-to-end on a workbench or table. Centre the third plank over the two on the workbench and attach it to them by driving four tech screws into each half. The result is a 2,4-metre long bow form onto which bow blanks can be clamped. Recurves, reflexes and deflexes can be clamped onto the blank, although recurves and reflexes will pull out unless the wood is steamed after drying. Dry heat can be applied to these bends while the wood is green.

Bending wood
Wood can be straightened or bent into recurves and setbacks by heating. Dry wood is best steamed and then bent into shape using clamps or jigs. The African and native-American technique was to form such bends between trunks and branches of trees. All heated wood must be cushioned by the use of leather pads on the points were pressure is exerted – e.g. clamping or bending points. Thin 30-millimetres staves need to be steamed for at least 35 minutes. Thicker 40 to 50-millimetre staves can take an hour or more to steam.

Green wood is easily heated and bent into shape using a fire such as from a braai or a paraffin stove. I find that the paraffin stove allows exact control of the heating process. Use a medium or low flame, rest the stave or branch 200 to 300 millimetres above the flame and drape tin foil over it. Branches less than 30 millimetres in diameter can be heated in less than five minutes, while thicker 40 to 50-millimetre-diameter branches require up to ten minutes or sometimes even more.

Provided that the heat is not excessive and the stave is not exposed to a direct flame, the bark seals in the moisture in the green stave, causing the wood to roast inside its own bark and preventing excessive dehydration. Care is essential in this process and I suggest that the bowyer first practise with branches and sections of wood prior to committing a valuable stave to this process. The wood should be overbent – i.e. bent farther than the intended final position. Green wood thus overbent can often be set in shape by rapidly plunging it into cold water.

A heat gun can be used for bending seasoned wood with dry heat. The staves have to be pretty hot so apply heat for at least 20 minutes, taking care not to burn the wood. Continuously pass the heat gun over the area to be bent – do not hold it in one spot. Bending wood with dry heat is a tricky process that can lead to wood cracking and splitting. Remember that steamed or dry-heat-treated wood requires several days of exposure in a moist environment for the moisture content to return to safe levels.

Relative humidity and South African conditions
The main reason for bow failure within the South African context is probably ignorance concerning the effects of relative humidity on wood properties. Many parts of South Africa experience low relative humidity, particularly during the drier winter months. Summer humidity also varies dramatically, making wood drying and bow crafting far more complicated and unpredictable than in Europe. Coastal areas are characterised by high humidity, while arid areas such as the Karoo and even the more temperate highveld are low-humidity environments.

Wood with a moisture content lower than eight per cent tends to be brittle and more likely to break if stressed. Woods between eight and twelve per cent become progressively weaker and will cause a bow to lose cast or spring. Above twelve per cent many woods are too moist and the ability of the bow to cast the arrow is significantly reduced. In the Johannesburg environment wood dries to below eight per cent naturally as the equilibrium moisture content of the wood is determined by relative humidity, which can be very low.

Thus care and patience should be exercised in the drying process, throughout the actual bow crafting and for the entire life of the completed bow. A good polyurethane varnish will seal in the moisture. Additionally, bows should be stored in a fairly humid environment such as a bathroom, and never in a hot garage or tool shed. This is because moisture does leach through the varnish, albeit at a slower rate, and a bow thus stored in a low-humidity environment will dehydrate over time. Rehydrating a bow is a simple process of placing the weapon in a high-humidity environment such as a bathroom or a sealed, moistened drainpipe for at least one week.

Bows may be sealed using traditional finishes, provided they are to be kept and used in the more humid parts of the country.

Conclusion
I recently had a conversation with an old friend who informed me that he had purchased a compound bow. He was surprised to learn that this was actually not a bow, but a device better described as a catapulta or a ballista – a weapon technically related to and similar to the arrow-launching machines of the ancient Roman army. A similar device was used by the Greeks and named an ampurias. In fact, some of these ancient artillery pieces are closer to the traditional bow than modern compounds. So next time you take your catapulta, ballista or ampurias to the range, spare a thought for the ancient Greeks and Romans whose engineering led to its creation.

The old Boers knew their rifles intimately. Although they couldn’t make such weapons by hand, they were more skilled with and knowledgeable about the performance of their Martini Henry and Mauser weapons than most modern rifle hunters can hope to be. Many modern archers and hunters are alienated from their equipment. They couldn’t produce these ballista even if their lives depended on it, and they instinctively find the metal and synthetic objects alien to their hands and eyes. In some cases they are more familiar with the functioning and use of their mobile phones than with the weapons they use to hunt and ethically kill game. Making one’s own weapons invariably leads to a great familiarity and understanding of the weapon, which creates not only personal satisfaction but also leads to more efficient use of it.

Ancient wooden self-made bows are quite capable of being just as effective as modern fibreglass bows and metal ballista. And if the craftsman so desires, the handle section of a wooden self-bow can be made centre shot, thereby creating a bow every bit as accurate as the bows sold in archery and hunting stores.

Crafting one’s own bows allows the creation of replicas of ancient designs that are individual, unique and loaded with character. Holding such a bow in your hand gives you an understanding of your history and places the archer back on the path of all those countless generations that went before.
For enquiries related to wooden bow-crafting, or to discuss the possibility of classes, contact Pedro Victor at 083 703 3966.

For enquiries about custom-made knives and edged tools such as draw knives and adzes, please contact Chris Botha on 083 523 0817 – or refer to his website at http://www.blademarket.co.za/