Primitive Archer

The safe formula for adult bow making it to make the bow twice the shooters draw length +10". For kid bows it depends on how big the kids are, I made ther little guys a 36" bow, when they out grow the bow add about 10 " to the bow for 8 year olds and another 10" for 10-12 year olds.

I made and gave away a number of kids bows, for safety reasons I always backed these bows with bamboo to make sure they would't break and hurt the child.

I have been advised a few times and read on a post here and there that when trying to figure out if a mystery wood would work for a bow a good approach is to make a mini bow. I am currently trying to build a mini bow but i honestly dont know where to begin. I am currently not in the US and have a few species of trees that i can try but as i am limited with tools and time i really cant spend too much time trying all these species of woods. So my plan hopefully is make a quick kids bow and see if it works but....

1. If i make it a kids bow what would be a good overall length? I havent made much kids bows and the ones i have were just rushed so that my kids can have something to shoot with.

2. How would i even scale up from that is there some kind of formula? For example if i make it 15-20 lbs how would i take that weight along with the dimensions and determine whether it would make a decent not too big 50-55 lbs bow. My goal isnt just to make a bow that is at a weight i like but make a decent bow that will last me a while.

3. I know there is a different method in which I can take a slat of the wood in question and do a bend test however that requires tools i dont have and cant get at the moment. I am very limited to an axe rasp some sandpaper and a scraper. Honestly not limited at all when it comes to building bows but i have gotten comfortable with my power tools and miss them dearly. I really dont know how good you have it till you lose it lol or in my case away from it for a while.

ideally i would like to make a 64-66 ntn bow with not too wide limbs maybe 2inches or less. I know i cant be picky here cause ultimatly its down to whether the wood can handle that or not but i thought i would put this information here just in case it will help with answering my question.

Great idea, Kevin. This should bring folks here to the Primitive Archer site and hopefully more will join. 

My late wife was 5'3" tall and drew 22", I made her bows 60" long NTN, smooth drawing, long lasting, very little set, her osage bows really spit out her 30-35# spine 5/16th 26" arrows.

I would have liked to have met her and seen her shoot!

I could see no reason to push the limits when I was making bows for other folk, when I was selling them, I replaced any that failed no questions asked, for that reason I over build my bows just a little so they would hold up.

That's 'cuz you're a stand-up guy!  And a good egg...   

When you make a bow for a beginner it is likely that they will hand the bow to 6'6" cousin Elbert whose knuckles drag the ground and he will imediately draw it back to 32" before you can stop him.   I have replaced several bows that I suspect had been passed around for others to shoot and were damaged in the  process.

That's funny, right there...  but probably very true.

Quote from: PaulN/KS on May 20, 2025, 04:40:10 pm

I forget just why my wife was calling a "help" line but the person on the other end introduced themself, "This is Bob from Wichita". Based on the strong accent and intonation "Bob" was more than likely NOT from "Wichita"...

Ever since then, when dealing with those phone "help" lines, the "Bob from Wichita" thing has become an inside joke between us.
 

Maybe there's a city in Pakistan called Wichita???   

Uhmmm, doubtful.