From Board to Bow
Take a $12 hardware store board to a finished, shootable bow using hand tools alone. Three complete builds — longbow, flatbow and recurve — for people who've never touched a woodworking tool.
What's included:
Learn exactly how to select the best wood for bows
How to use the right woodworking tools like a pro
''Tillering'' The essence of bow building. Getting the bow to bend evenly
Making bowstrings from scratch
How to seal the bow against humidity and hard use
Building the basic longbow, flatbow, and recurve bow
The magic of steam bending: Making recurves
Heat treatment: The secret way of supercharging a bow
Subtitles available in: English (spoken language), Dutch, German, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese,
Who's teaching you:
I’m Jaap Bolt. I’ve been building wooden bows for over 20 years. I’ve won five national archery titles, most with bows I've built myself, so I know what separates a good bow from an excellent one.
I also teach woodworking, which is why this course is everything I’d tell you if you were standing next to me in the workshop, in the order you’ll need it.
TOTAL VALUE: $97
LIMITED OFFER: $47
FAQ:
1. What else do I require for this course?
The wood and tools, but I will show you exactly what you need. A new drawknife can be bought online for around $30, but probably under $10 at a thrift shop. The wood will cost around $10-20 per bow. Then there is the string or string material for around $15. Not even close to what a physical bow making workshop would cost, let alone a custom made bow. Once you have the craft, you can build bows in a matter of hours. The longbow in this course was built in under 3 hours
2. I've never worked with wood before and I'm not exactly a handyman, is this for me?
I've helped teach people exactly like you how to build fully playable and great sounding acoustic guitars. Yes, really. They had never touched a woodworking tool in their life and they went home with amazing looking guitars.
That's when I started to believe anyone can learn this craft. It just takes the right instructions and understanding. I will guide you through the process.
3. Why shouldn't I learn for free from YouTube?
Good point, and I won't deny it; There are great instructional videos on YouTube. However, it will take you hours upon hours to figure out all the information that you need. Plus most of the free stuff is great, but doesn't offer in-depth explanation that you need in order to actually build great bows. It's hard to know which detail matters until it's too late. The bow takes a huge amount of set, or it breaks — and by then the wood is gone. This course shows you how to build bows with the reasoning behind each step.
As a bonus I teach you to build bows efficiently. As a professional woodworker I'll show you how to be efficient, instead of rasping for hours to remove an inch of wood.
4. Does this require me to go cut down a tree and mill it into boards?
Nope! That's the beauty of this course: The hard work is done by the lumber mills. Recognizing the right tree, cutting it down, milling it, drying the wood etc. We skip all that. In this course we focus on the bow building skills and results. I want you to spend a couple of hours and then walk to the shooting range with your new bow in hand. Not having to spend 3 months before you can even start working on your bow!
5. I've already built a couple of bows. Does this course teach me anything new?
Probably, yes. I've been building bows for over twenty years and across all the self-made bows I've seen, the same handful of principles come up again and again - Gluelines, tiller, set and heat treatment are subjects that get the proper attention in this course. If you've already solved all of those, this course isn't for you and I'd rather you kept your money.
6. What if it's not for me?
Then email me within 30 days and I'll refund you in full. No form, no questions asked. I'd rather give you your money back than have you sitting on a course you don't use.