Well there is no question, Turkey feathers have been used by most arrow makers as the feather of choice. There is a great deal many feathers that will work. Goose, swan, eagle, hawk, and more.

Turkey feathers have some great advantages, they are tough as nails, last along time. One of the drawbacks is they can be very expensive, uncut turkey feathers can cost as much as your wooden shaft.

As most people that come here seem to be interested in making their own archery gear, I will tell you a bit about using cheap swan feathers from the dollar store.

I have been using these tail swan feathers for years. I only use them for arrows that I don’t plan on shooting much.

I am a big fan of flaming arrows. A few times a year I will get a few people together or if already at a gathering bring my bow to perform. I live near the ocean and it is a safe place to shoot flaming arrows, I would never recommend you to shot flamming arrows anywhere else but into the water.

For these kind of single use arrows, it doesn’t make sense to purchase either arrow shafts of take the time attaching turkey feathers. This is where the dollar store swan feathers come in.

The swan feathers combined with a arrow made of an ocean spray shoot, with a tip made of a simple washer provide me with a total arrow cost of about .20 cents. I do not finish the the shoots, I only straighten them for this use.

The cheap swan feathers are something I recommend to anyone new to making arrows that don’t expect them to be their last.

The drawback of swan is when they get wet the do not hold up as good as other types, they are easily damaged. I do not recommend them for anything that should last, but for an arrow that you have just whipped together for a little fun, they can’t be beat.

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An old friend I used to go hunting with back in the day was diagnosed with incurable cancer of his throat and a year later passed away. His Cancer never got him down until the last minute.

On occasion Fred would make a bow and carry it along with his Recurve on hunting trips to shoot around. Fred went on a bow making rampage for his last year. He made at least 6 bows that I know of and heard he made even more experiments, some with fir over 5 inches wide.

His last bow was a bow made of vine maple and was given to his brother in law. The amount of love and care that when into this bow was apparent straight away, and as I got a chance to shot it I fell in love with the design. 64 inches long, about 2″ wide at the fades, white leather handle.

Sometimes I wonder if I found out tomorrow I had Cancer what the last bow I would make would be ?

R.I.P. Fred

I was talking to a friend who was telling me about a boy from his childhood that lost an eye trying to string a bow over his other friends knee,and the question popped in my mind. What happens if a bow you make is in the hands of the wrong buyer and they over draw it and it breaks ? What if they loose an eye ? What if they sued you ?

Most Bowyers will never have to worry about this, but as you get to a certain level of sales you might find that, as you are making a primitive piece of archery gear, that there is a level of risk involved.

A hunting guiding company would never dream of going into the bush without a waver and without insurance. But everyday bow makers send off bows of the internet to buyers the never get the chance to explain things to first hand.

A simple first step for someone making their own bows and selling them, is to include a warning paper in your shipment. This is especially useful for buyers that simply order a bow and then send it off.

This is useful in the case that the bow is a present for someone without even basic knowledge or respect for wooden bows that can break easily.

The warning should state exactly what not to do :

Do not string your bow without a proper bow stringer.
Do not over draw the bow past what it was made to do.
Do not shoot damaged arrows.
A shooter should be aware of the risk to his wrist and recommended to use a gauntlet.
A shooter should be aware of the risk to his eyes if anything goes wrong and be suggested to wear eye protection.
The boring list goes on.

Now I will say most bowyers don’t have insurance, and I have never hear of anyone that has been sued and even need their insurance at a hobby level of bow making.

I would not want to see the day when people can’t freely make primitive and exciting items without insurance without the worry of being sued by their customers. But as the world is we know, people get sued for a great many things, some of them start from the ignorance of the user.

I would be interested in finding out more about this, as their is not much information out there about it.

Do you have insurance ?

Making Fancy Elk Antler Nocks for you Flat or Longbow is not the 1st thing people think about when designing their bow.

But you if you have spent extra attention on your longbow, and good with a rotary tool and have the basic attachments you can carve yourself out something like you see below. Some designs were better for a flat bow, some were on kids bow, and some were on longbow. (some ended up getting sewn on a quiver)

The question has been asked of me if the kind of hemp you find in typical craft stores makes and acceptable string. Well, the answer is depends.

The best kind of hemp you will find for making strings, will be coarse and not waxed, the craft store walmart crap may not do very well from my own personal experince, but others seem to think it works ok, after all hemp is hemp right ?

The hemp you should used should be tested before use, pull on the a single strand, how easily does it break ?

Hemp strings can last a very long time and work very well, but they come with a risk, and require a level of respect. You must make sure any string you make from hemp to be flaw free, and your bow never be overdrawn.

Hemp is the strongest plant fiber on earth, it works great for bow strings and has been used and trusted in many situations.

Harvesting your own wood can be a lot of fun.

Building a bow for yourself is much hard work. Starting with the right wood is very important.

Some people think they automatically have to be looking for osage or yew, or one of the other “first string” bow woods. Well this can lead some to frustration as even if you are lucky enough to find these woods in your area of the world, finding the right piece can be daunting.

People over look the white woods, and may feel that because the wood isn’t rare and valuable that somehow it will make lesser of a bow. Its true wood like yew can be the start of some of the finest bows, but as the saying goes a average yew longbow will shot worse than an above average white wood bow.

I would suggest using what you can find easily in your area and concentrate on that. Look around at the kinds of trees you have access to and start looking up the characteristics of the wood. Lucky for you most of the information is already out there, almost all woods have been tried at one time or another.

Find the most plentiful wood you can get your hands on easily enough and find the perfect design. That way you can make many bows, and you are not so upset when that dream yew bow stave doesn’t turn out right.