Free Downloads The Backyard Bowyer: The Beginner's Guide To Building Bows
With over 300 step-by-step pictures, the Backyard Bowyer is geared for the beginning bowyer, backyard hobbyist, and anyone who has ever pondered building a wooden bow. Easy to read and follow steps go down to even the smallest detail in the design and construction of basic archery bows. Learn to craft fine wooden bows without huge investment in equipment and materials, and without being bound by location and limited workspace. Learn to construct: A classic target flat bow, an English Longbow suitable for hunting, and even your own strings and arrows for traditional and primitive archery.
Paperback: 194 pages
Publisher: Levi Dream; 1st edition (March 10, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0983248109
ISBN-13: 978-0983248101
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #303,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #50 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Archery #527 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Home Improvement & Design > How-to & Home Improvements > Woodworking > Projects
In this immensely practical book, Nicholas Tomihama shows, step by step, how to make a bow out of an ordinary piece of hardwood lumber, including: choosing the board; shaping the bow's the outline; "tillering" -- the heart of making a wood bow; and adding a glued-on handle and glued-on nock reinforcements. As a bonus (he calls it his "bonus track"), he even shows how to make a string and arrows for your new bow. I originally bought it because Tomihama was the first author who explained to me that a bow gets thinner or narrower toward its tips in order to spread the bending force evenly along the limb. You can read this part of the book, and many others, with 's "Look Inside!" feature. Read the back cover. It is honest when it says "Easy to read and follow steps go down to even the smallest detail in the design and construction of basic archery bows."If you intend to build a wood bow, you may want to read other books, like The Traditional Bowyer's Bible (volumes 1 through 4). But you must read this one.
I've just recently gained an appreciation and fascination of wooden bows while on a hunting trip with my uncle. He uses a fiberglass bow when he goes bow hunting and we began talking about building our own bows to make our hunting experience a bit more fun. We loaned several books on creating bows from the local library but they were all far too difficult to understand for beginners like ourselves. When I found this book I snatched it up right away and my uncle and I have not been disappointed. The book is very easy to understand for beginners like ourselves and the included designs were perfect for our needs. The book even goes into how to construct your own arrows. This book has been an invaluable guide and thanks to the instructions inside we'll soon be hunting with our own custom built bows and arrows. Highly recommended. A+
I agree with the rating of the other reviewers that this is a 5 star book. It is exactly what the beginner needs to successfully build his or her first bow!One of the other reviewers said that he has not yet built a bow from the instructions. When he does, he will be successful.I have built two bows using exactly the techniques in this book, although I did not learn them from this book. I spent several months studying other books and websites to learn the techniques, so this book would have saved me a LOT of time! My first bow broke while I was tillering it. My second one was successful and is shooting at about a 40 pound draw weight.Tomihama gives instructions for building what are commonly called "board bows", which is a fantastic way to start. You go to a store like Home Depot or Lowes and just get a red oak board that matches the description in the book. Minimal tools and investment is required. He shows you how to build several styles of "flatbows" and then how to build the Robin Hood style English Longbow. The method he shows for building a bowstring is the technique that I have decided is the easiest way to make your own bowstring. I would strongly recommend putting a loop on only one end of the string and using a bowyers knot (timber hitch) on the other end for its adjustability.This book accomplishes exactly what its title promises. It will enable the beginner to make a successful bow at minimal cost with only a few tools. It's easier that you might think! If you can get the draw weight at about 45 to 50 pounds you can even go hunting with it!
Easy to read, easy to understand and filled with excellent building instructions to making your first bows.Though I have yet to create my first I now truly have the feeling I'll know what I'll be doing, the author explaining each and every step surprising thoroughly.
This book is fun to read and very easy to understand. I've been reading high level books on the subject for months. I consider them worth their weight in gold for their depth of information, but some of the technical data can get excessive and overload a student at my level.For me, getting out and producing a final product will be a great achievement and I feel confident that this simplified "board bow" approach can work!Not only did I read this book and comprehend it all- I actually ABSORBED most of it on a single read through. If I were locked up in a home improvement store and didn't have access to the text I could build the English longbow he describes from memory. The process is efficient, minimalistic and detailed without going overboard.I hope to see more from this author. Well done!
This book is a great simple introduction to making a wooden bow. Two simple bow designs are described. But, more importantly, the terminology of bowyers is introduced in a way such that it is easy to understand. An important note is to look in the glossary to see what some of the specialized terms mean, although just reading through the book, then reading the glossary, then re-reading the book works just as well. (It was what I did! -- I bought the book in the Kindle edition.)This introductory book is quite enough to be able to make a simple, inexpensive wooden bow at minimal expense using modern materials. After reading this book, a good next step is to read some of Saxton Pope's books, especially his books on Yahi Archery and Hunting with a Bow and Arrow, in which classical Indian methods for making a wooden bow are described. But, the use of non-traditional modern backing materials is undoubtedly in line with Ishi, the Indian who Pope learned traditional North American Indian archery from circa 1914. Even Ishi switched from using obsidian flakes to steel knives in making bows when he had the chance :-)
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