Therapeutic archery has been offered at the Euro-BBW for around eight years. Now some interested participants have had the opportunity to build their own bow in our carpentry workshop.

As part of the final project of her training as an educator, our employee Gabriele Grochowski invited bow maker Michel Bombardier , who first gave the participants a comprehensive theoretical grounding in bow making and its history, before everyone was allowed to choose the appropriate bow blanks - depending on their personal draw weight.

Our residential group supervisor Rudi Kuhn was also on hand to provide help and advice during the practical part of the project. There was a lot to do: The surfaces of the bows had to be smoothed, edges rounded and the chord notch attached. The purpose of the subsequent tilling of the bow is to determine an even bend, which can be achieved by sanding the underside of the bows accordingly.

Once the uniformity of the bow was achieved, the participants attached a leather grip to the middle section of the bow: A simple, rectangular piece of leather is wrapped around the bow and fixed with a leather thread in cross-stitch. Finally, a small wooden wedge is attached between the piece of leather and the bow to serve as an arrow rest.

As soon as these steps were completed, the sinew was twisted. To do this, 12 equal lengths of sinew were twisted together and finally a sinew loop was attached to the top and bottom. These loops are needed to attach the bow to the bow. Once the string is finished, a center winding and a nocking point are attached.
In the meantime, the arrows were produced according to the progress of the participants: First, the required arrow length was determined based on the length of the arms, before the arrowhead and feathers were glued to the arrow blank.

At the end of a long and busy day, the participants proudly presented their self-made bows.

Many thanks to Michel Bombardier for this exciting workshop and to Gabriele Grochowski for the vivid report!