Making a Bow

(Worked on May 2,3, 2009)

Despite my first shopping trip to Home Depot, I was still lacking in a lot of the necessary materials to make my bow and string. To remedy this, I went to three stores- first, The Island Archer, then on another day, City Mill and WoodCraft. At The Island Archer, I picked up two rolls of bowstring material, and a roll of serving string. I didn’t know what kind of bowstring material I wanted, but they only had one kind, so I picked up blue and black rolls. Turns out, after a quick Google search of “Brownell & Company, Inc.” (the name on the roll), that B-50 bowstring, (the type I bought) is the type the company listed for traditional bows, which is what my bow is (in a way). My next shopping trip was to pick up a rat-tail rasp to cut the nocks at the end of my bow. At City Mill, I found a GreatNeck 6″ Round File, but I decided I needed a thinner rasp, so I went to WoodCraft. At WoodCraft, I was able to find a 160mm round needle rasp, which was much thinner. I also bought a handle for the rasp, as it came without one. Both rasps I bought were tapered, which I thought might be a problem, but it turned out to be a good thing. At City Mill, I also bought some bolts and nuts and washers to make my tillering stand.

Time Spent: ~1hr20min