Bowyers Craft: Yew Longbow Making

Ever wanted to make your own longbow?

A good longbow is said to be 9/10ths broken at full draw. Bow making is a rewarding process and once you have made one you will want to keep going. That’s a warning! Taught by Master Bowyer Clark Dennil he will divulge his methodology secrets that he has mastered over 30 yrs. An awesome opportunity to learn from a master of his craft.

Traditional longbows have individual characters that are created by the wood and the maker. Working with the stave blank using hand tools you will slowly sculpt the bow out of the wood. No carpentry experience is required and you will be using hand tools such as axes, drawknives, spokeshaves, rasps, steel scrapers and a shave horse. The bowyer has to tease out of the wood what the wood already knows it has and turn it t our will.

Yew is the best bow making wood in the area and it’s also one of the best in the world. The Kootenays grows some of the strongest yew ideally suited for longbows. This is because relatively harsher winters than the coast and a shorter growing season means the grain gets a bit tighter and the wood gets a bit stronger. This is all to our advantage. It means we can make smaller lighter bows that are still strong and fast shooters. Many woods can make good bows and in fact you can make a bow with almost any wood but whether it will last you a lifetime or not is a different question. Yew will outlast every set of arrows you have.

After several days of patiently working your stave you will have a bow you can be proud off. You can work to a target bow draw weight or just see what happens and where you finish up. You get to choose your stave and Clark will take you through the whole process. Roughing out the bow to putting it on a tiller and seeing how it behaves. You will make a string to fit your bow and we will get some shooting in before you leave.

You can come and make your own bow for almost as much as it would be to buy a basic yew bow. The knowledge and skill you will acquire means you can go home and make more! So what is stopping you from making your own bow?

Tools

Please bring a few hand tools with you if you have them

• Rasp
• Hatchet
• Knife
• Drawknife
• Steel cabinet scrapers

Accomodation

Accommodation is available in our glamping tents on a first come first serve basis at an additional cost. Camping is also available as is a power hook up for trailers and campers. Please contact us directly if you wish to camp. glamp or hook up ;-)