bamboo longbow

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http://www.instructables.com/id/3%24-bamboo-longbow/

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3$ bamboo longbowby lennyb on May 27, 2007

Table of Contents

3$ bamboo longbow ...........................................................................................................

Intro: 3$ bamboo longbow ....................................................................................................

Step 1: Materials list and overview ..............................................................................................

Step 2: Arrange the materials .................................................................................................

Step 3: Tie off the ends ......................................................................................................

Step 4: Next step ..........................................................................................................

Step 5: Beefing it up ........................................................................................................

Step 6: Nocking and stringing .................................................................................................

Step 7: Uh-oh .............................................................................................................

Step 8: Ammo and improvements ..............................................................................................

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................

Comments ................................................................................................................
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Author:lennyb

i am a photolab technician and an incurable packrat.i have made swords ,chainmail, crossbows.cameras,bike trailers,kayaks,guitars{slide and electric},knives,various film winders and vacum easels for thephotolab i work at,generators for 12volt ,and small science fair size one for the kids, and most all of it is made out of discards or yard sale junk.whewim worried my other half may make me clean up the garage.

Intro: 3$ bamboo longbowhere is a quick and easy project for the budding archers among us.make a bow ,terrorize the local wildlife{dont really though}.

useful for survival situations.

Step 1:Materials list and overviewgood day folks today im going to show you how to make a longbow out of bamboo garden stakes.this material shows up every spring in the seasonal sections of dollar stores and walmart gardening centers.if your lucky and have bamboo or river cane growing nearthe your price just dropped.a bow like this is not going to take down a deer but in a survival situation being able to make a light bow out of available materials may just give you the edge you neenot die of hunger.

materials required:2 packages of 48"bamboo garden stakes{20 pcs) ................$1 each1 Roll dollar store jute twine.........................................................$1Total $3optional:roll of hockey or electrical tapeglue to coat bindingstape and glue are not 100% necessary for this project .

tools required:none.but a pocket knife or small finetoothed saw wont go astray{even a sharp rock}
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Step 2:Arrange the materialsfirst thing to do is pick through your sticks.select the best and straightest ones you haveline them up from thickest to thinnest {this will save you from the first result i got)make 3 even piles choosing an even cross section of all sizes of cane.i selected six sticks for each bundle and discarded two{the numbers of sticks are optional but more means stronger}in 2 piles line up the sticks with the thicker ends all together.in 1 alternate between butts and tips

Image Notes1. small ends2. big ends3. alternating ends4. dollar store jute twine

Image Notes1. dollar store bamboo. you can probably get better ones from a garden center

Step 3:Tie off the endstake one of the two aligned{bias} bundles and even up the ends{thinnest section}.tie it very tightly about 1 inch or so from the end.then about a foot or so down the shafts tie it again very tightly.repeat with the other bias bundle.so what you should have now are two bundles of sticks tied near the thinnest ends.

Image Notes1. smallest ends...sorry for the blurry picture it was too bright to see the lcd andrealize i wasnt in macro. and too late to change when i did figure it out.

Image Notes1. tie it tight


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Image Notes1. second bindings distance not critical just keep it even

Image Notes1. 600 feet of dollar store twine. i once checked a 500 foot roll out and found itcontained 350 so dont take it too hard if you get cheated here

Step 4:Next stepnow take your two bundles, turn one around and interleave them into each other until the ends come within an inch or two of the second bindings.now bind the bundles an inch or two below the ends.

what you have now could be used as a weaker bow with a bit more wrapping.but we want to make it stronger again.

Image Notes1. second bindings distance not critical just keep it even

Image Notes1. push the bundles together like this and try to space the sticks around evenly


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Image Notes1. tie it tight

Image Notes1. you can completely cover joins like this with cord once you finish. heck if youwant to you can completly wrap the entire bow

Step 5:Beefing it upnow take the bundle left over{the ones with the alternating ends}and lay them on the bundle evenly {the ends should line up between the first set of bindings an the tips}.

tie them off very tightly and wrap the whole bundle in several places wi th the twine.wrap the middle section to form a handle.and {i cant stress this enough} make all bindings as t ight as you can .the energy stored in the bending wood should not be allowed to dissipate by sticks flexing away from each other.

Image Notes1. leftover string from another project

Step 6:Nocking and stringingto form a "nock" wrap some twine around each end to form a knob that your string wont slide down over.i wrapped mine in hockey tape but you can also dip it in waterproof glue to keep it together.the string should be 4 to 6 inches shorter than the overall length of the bow unstrung try to avoid stretchy cord as this will steal power from the bow.i used a leftover endless loop type string {made from nylon net twine} that didnt pan out { too flexible} on a 50 lb oak bow i made last winter.for the draw weight your going to get here you can use a couple of strands of the jute twine twisted together.


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Image Notes1. jeez i wish i wuznt such a bad photographer.

Image Notes1. mmmmmm hockey tape. very abundant here in canada look better if you justglue or varnish the rope

Step 7:Uh-ohwhen i strung the bow i heard a sickening crunch and got to do my homer simpson impression yet again.

so what happened?i didnt grade the piles before i selected the bundles and all the skinnier ones ended up together.so i had to cut off the busted end and pull that bundle out untill the end was in proportion to the restthen retied it .as you can see the string is now too long for this bow but it worked well enough to try it outit draws 20 lbs or so {maybe a bit less its hard to tell}.

Image Notes1. D~OH2. mmmmm Nice Graceful Curve


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Step 8:Ammo and improvementsif you have any sticks that are really straight when you start save them for arrows.i didnt have any straight ones so i made an arrow from a 30"length of 3/8 dowel with duct tape fletchings and a .38 cal cartridge case pressed on the end for a pointit will fire real arrows but the ones i bought for the 50lb oak bow are too stiff for this bow for them to be perfectly accurate.well i hope you enjoyed this i know i did.as for improvements and embellishments here are a couple of ideas to try1 for a stronger bow use heavier pieces of bamboo but not too heavy,or you can cut off the smaller sections of the bamboo and have the bundles farther apart and usemore backing sticks

2 wrap everything real tight

3 use a better grade cord for the bindings than i did{this stuff smells like tar and was probably recycled ships cable} speaking of recycling you can twist up your own twif you want using the rope maker i submitted last winter {recycled cord recycled instructable lol} http://www.instructables.com/id/E2NCEWBMVFEZBF90AX/4 if you cant get bamboo or rivercane try willow shoots or the suckers {small shoots} of any hardwood tree.

even a bundle of dowels will work. or warped arrows even.WARNINGS1 do not point this at anyone or anything that you might damage you could put someones eye out or kill a family pet so dont.

2 if you need to use it for survival go ahead i know some good recipes for squirrell.as for hunting well id check the regulations in you area first as minimum draw weight requirements would restrict this one {here the regs are 35lb and up for small gamand 45 lbs and up for big game.{not to say you cant make a legal hunting bow this way just that this one isnt heavy enough}

3 also bamboo splinters easily if cracked and the splinters are sharp if you need to cut it good sharp pruning shears would be best and sand down the ends

thanks for lookinglenny

Image Notes1. wasted hockey tape from previous D`oh

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Comments

50 comments Add Comment view all 81 commen

handyman22 says: Oct 5, 2009. 6:04 AM REPhey i was just wondering if you could give an opinion, I have tr ied to make a bow and am going to attempt to make a type like yours also, but i was justwondering what kind of rope/string i should use for the launcher rope, people say nylon string is the best suited for a bow, but do you have any otherrecommendations? i would like to have a str ing that can increase the range and accuracy. thanks

son of s8an says: Jan 29, 2011. 11:34 PM REPHemp string will last for a long time...

but it is sometimes hard to get it , depending where you are

lennyb says: Oct 8, 2009. 8:33 AM REPi just used twine for this one.for a more powerfull bow dacron string or any good strong string that doesnt stretch much.

nutsandbolts_64 says: May 3, 2010. 6:54 AM REPyou can make a lot of atl-atls with all those bamboo sticks. how much bamboo do you get out of one pack anyway?

lennyb says: May 3, 2010. 2:29 PM REPusually 10 sticks or so.the bamboo the dollar store has this year is shorter though and thinner.not worth trying just now.if it were straighter it would make decent darts but its kind of twisty.i bought some 4 foot x3/8 dowels to make some atl atl darts.i fletched them with duct tape {later crow feathers} and made points from 308 fmj bullets soldered into cut off cartridges .looks smooth and sticks into archery targets nicely{when i can hit em}

nutsandbolts_64 says: May 4, 2010. 2:35 AM REPlol, ok thanks.

octo137 says: Mar 13, 2010. 4:29 AM REPyou could get a long thick one piece of bamboo and just string it i made one and some arrows in about 5 minutes, and it draws around 50 lbs.

spenfisher12 says: Sep 24, 2009. 11:50 AM REPI would tie a loop in each and put it in the middle and reverse it over all the bamboo

lennyb says: Sep 26, 2009. 6:38 PM REPthat would work well

sharlston says: May 15, 2009. 10:23 AM REPwhat is the range of this?

lennyb says: May 16, 2009. 5:23 AM REPi would say with practice that you should be able to hit a rabbit sized target at 20 metres. of course the closer you are the easier it would get.

sharlston says: Aug 2, 2009. 11:47 AM REPwhat about if you shot it in the air at about a 130 degree angle how far would it go?

lennyb says: Aug 2, 2009. 6:12 PM REPnever tried it but id guess 80 metres or so
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popomaster says: Oct 1, 2008. 3:32 PM REPso just to clarify, when you said to tie off the thinnest ends of all the sticks, do you mean the thinnest sticks? or the thinnest ends. I just don't want it to breaalso, should the ends of the bow be all thin ends of the sticks? or should i make the ends, thin, fat, thin, fat, etc. please reply soon. thank you

lennyb says: Oct 1, 2008. 4:16 PM REPgenerally i have the thinnest ends towards the ends of the bow and the butts in the middle(for the sticks that extend to the ends) the ones in the middlethat dont go to the ends i alternate the tips. i broke bows like this several times before i got one to stay together and that broke eventually . it may be thi was using an inferior grade of bamboo but dont expect it to last as long as a properly made wooden one{even they break too i broke my favorite red olongbow just yesterday}. the good thing about this type bow is how little money you have to spend to get a shootable bow. enjoy and please feel free towrite a version of your build as an instructable.

superdave5481 says:Oct 26, 2008. 5:20 AM REP

I had a thought while reading your instructible. Why not use some fishing poles. The ones made of fiberglass might be better. People throw awqayfishing poles all the time. I have a hard time getting rid of them as I am a packrat. I might even try it after my try at making a laminated bamboo one

sharlston says: May 15, 2009. 10:25 AM REPif u cant find some go to the piund shop or if your in the america the dollar store and get the 3 metre ones and open them up and put the thickestogetther

sharlston says: May 15, 2009. 11:14 AM REPi mean pound not piund sorry

lennyb says: Oct 26, 2008. 3:12 PM REPsure fishing poles should work. so will fibreglass rods like those driveway markers. even old arrow shafts could be lashed together to make abundle bow . i think several tearling hardwood saplings might work too but i havent tried it ... yet. if you make one from fishing poles take somepictures and post it

wonton says: May 18, 2010. 5:38 AM REPdriveway markers!!! did i just hear that from another instructables member about making a bow and arrow. this instructable reminds me ofmy past so much. i once made a bow out of a single driveway marker and some string and as an arrow i used a bamboo tomato stake likeyou did but with 2 big nails duct taped to the tip. my brother killed a bunny and a tiny bird with it. haha. my mom almost kicked our asses.but it was worth it. that was our first experience in archery

lennyb says: May 18, 2010. 2:27 PM REPi have seen references too driveway markers on other websites and instructables.its not an original idea of mine.i wanted to try it out this year but all the driveway markers i could find were steel or iron rod.and the bamboo in the garden centres this year is even worse than when i made the bow in this instructable so no go there.guess im gonna hafta go scootin in the woods for a nice maple sapling or 2

Thundertydus says: Apr 15, 2009. 9:19 PM REPI Have the same type of bamboo as you do at my 5 minute away rona, i have a hunting license and have been hunting with a rifle, but i wanto try killing small animals with a bow (You never know when theirs an unexpected zombie apocolypse and then whos prepared when youhave no ammo?) and im wondering how many rods i should use? Or if i should use something else entirely

superdave5481 says: Apr 16, 2009. 6:02 AM REPDepending of the diameter of the material you would use more or less. My experience tells me that the bamboo reeds will fail after aperiod of tine by breaking near the area that is receiving the most bending stress. It might be best to have 3 to 4 going to each limb of thbow. If you want a really strong bow go to this website: bowstick archery. they have answers and material. by the way, a bow that breakwhile being drawn back is fairly dangerous to you. Be carefull. It is better to make a laminated bow from hickory backed with bamboo. Ywould be happier with the results, trust me. Some of the reeds that are avaliable are going to be brittle and more prone to failure. Goodluck!!!

lennyb says: Apr 16, 2009. 9:40 AM REPagreed but the skill level and time required to make a properly made bow are way beyond most peoples skill / will ingness level. a bo

like this takes 10 minutes and is not suggested as serious archery tackle. also i wouldnt try tp get more than a few months out of oneof these bows. as for safety a breaking bow can mess you up bad if you dont have it backed or wrapped to keep it from exploding. thbamboo bows tend to break much more gracefully unless you over draw them by a huge amount. usually a failure will just crunch annot rebound but if you panic and release the arrow you may get yourself in the hand if you have overdrawn. also watch out for thesplinters as bamboo can be sharp when my oak board bow snapped off the rawhide backing kept it from fragmenting it just cracked clean at a hinge that had formed a day or two earlier.

superdave5481 says: Apr 17, 2009. 4:34 AM REPYou are right! It does take considerable skill to make a laminated bow. And if all you are after is a little use you will be sucessfulwith the reed bow. And just a couple weeks ago I had split some large sized bamboo and was sliced on the finger as if cut by arazor. Eye protection, perhaps even sunglasses, would be advisable. You can even make your own bowstring with dacron fishinstring and wax. There are some great tutorials to be found on youtube. good luck with your endeavors and be careful of thedangers.
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popomaster says: Oct 4, 2008. 8:40 AM REPok, thankyou. im thinking about making a short bow with this.

marsrover says: Feb 3, 2009. 10:39 AM REPok step one should be go to a bamboo clump (mines acrosst the street at a older ladys house she lets me get all i want) then take the saw blade of your knand make a ring arround the bamboo then snap it over your knee i wil l be posting how to do the rest very soon (within the feburary month) again use verythick bamboo and you won't have to do all the tapeing and using tiny sticks

lennyb says: Feb 3, 2009. 6:24 PM REPmust be nice to have wild boo nearby i live in the north and we dont have any here. its dollar store , walmart or nothing

Fredward Sr. says: Apr 21, 2009. 5:02 PM REPYes o so true

the gizmoman says: Nov 21, 2008. 5:35 PM REPi found a cool web sight on homemade bows (including laminated bamboo backed bows ) http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/index.html

lennyb says: Nov 23, 2008. 11:53 AM REPi have seen that site before lots of good info. thanks for reminding me.

sowrdsman94 says: Oct 12, 2008. 3:37 PM REPokay uuuummm i didnt get a word of it can't u just make a video i got really confused about all of this.

ctoonsfan2 says: Jun 30, 2008. 10:01 AM REPwhere do i get the bambo at

spylock says: May 10, 2008. 7:38 PM REPThey are actually pretty good bows.

Wolfsire says: Oct 1, 2007. 10:39 AM REPFWIW, I made two bundle bows this weekend. I bought 3 packs each of 25 3?? bamboo garden stakes from a garden center. At $1.99 each, not a bad de

sorted them largest to smallest. All but about 5 had the wide ends about twice as large as the small. Very few were straight. I took the 10 straightest from thlarge side to save for arrows. (Still working on those and only 5 have survived.) While sorting, I set aside those that were cracked and I flex tested them.About a quarter broke along the way. Some of the lager ones had pin holes, so I figured they had been previously heat treated so I did not do that. Whilesorting them my hands turned green. Yuck, so I cleaned all but the smallest with wipes. That turned out to take forever. The die just kept coming off. Then picked 13 of the best based on size and straightness. I used a clothes iron to heat and straighten them. Four broke in the process, but I had plenty forreplacements. 13 was a determined number. 7 in a bundle give a tight hex: one in the middle surrounded by six. 13 gives you six rods of two pieces joinedtogether with varying lengths, plus one at 3??. I duck taped the longest with 6?? overlap and increased the overlap from there by about 1-2?? for each others. Before I finished that, I figured I??d try the version in this instructable. 18 pre-sorted. 6 thin ends for tips, woven wide ends and an overlay of 6. Boand covered in duck tape. It was pretty weak and cracked on one side. Turned out 2 of 6 broke. Still shot, though. Back to the other one. I was not sure howit would affect the bow, but for each rod, I taped the small ends together, so the thick ends would go to the tips of the bow. I did not want the handle to be twide. Recall I was using the largest of 3 bags. I taped the wide end of the rods, each about 1-2?? closer in from the last working in from the bow tips. It enup 5??6?? Then I wrapped the tape in hemp twine and put a leather handle and cordage backing on it. The cordage slipped off one side, requiring a fix it in place, but over all it turned into a very nice bow. I do not know the poundage. I??d guess 40-50 lbs based on my experience with my crossbow. I tookapart the other one and re-assembled it almost the same way: doubled up overlapping rods, thick ends toward tips. I used more than 13, probably closer totwenty. I even used two that broke from the first version for the shorted rods. I didn??t bother straightening any. I did not stick with the hex, but just keptputting on shorter ones in places that looked right. My increments were 0.5-1??. I had more overlap on the longest rod. The bow is 5??. Again covered twhole think in duck tape (brown tape with black bands, so it looks fair). It also turned out very well. It feels the same weight as the other one, but the

poundage is much higher. I can pull it to full draw, but I cannot hold it there. 60 lbs? Not bad for some crooked sticks and duct tape. Now I just need to finissome arrows.

Aklash, The hunchback says: Apr 6, 2008. 11:24 AM REPdont cover in ductape as ductape dampans the force that the bow can fire arrows at. i know that sounds like it was translated from a different languagebut it is not and i am simply having difficulty making my typing not sound really strange

Wolfsire says: Apr 7, 2008. 8:07 AM REPThanks. I though that might be the case.
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lennyb says: Oct 2, 2007. 4:03 PM REPhey if you took pictures of the build i wont be put out if you post it on instructables. hey i may try it your way too. be nice to get more power for the dollaya that green preservative is very messy i hope its not too toxic.

Wolfsire says: Oct 9, 2007. 11:04 PM REPlarge crossbow is a fiberglass bundle bow with a barrel. Bows are bundle bows, although it is hard to tell with all of them as they are covered.

lennyb says: Nov 7, 2007. 3:03 PM REPnice looking stuff you ought to do another crossbow and post it. id love to see it

Wolfsire says: Nov 8, 2007. 12:21 PM REPThanks. BTW, I actually weighed the draw of the two bows. The long-strung one was 40# at 29" and the short fully 70# at 20"!

Wolfsire says: Oct 2, 2007. 4:48 PM REPOh yeah, I forgot to mention this. I tested the design with with bamboo skewers first. I got a 16 inch little bundle bow and a bunch of 12 inch skewerarrows with duck tape fletching. Fun lit tle thing to shoot at cardboard.

Wolfsire says: Oct 2, 2007. 4:36 PM REPOne of these days, I get savy enough to put pictures on the computer. I'll see what I can do. BTW, my hands are still killing me from wrapping all thtwine as tight as possible. Isn't that green dye what makes for green tomatoes? ;-)

elliot81 says: Nov 4, 2007. 11:01 PM REPthat looks awesome, you'd have a hard time snapping it compared the usual '1 stick' bows

Meeethril_MailleNerdsays: Sep 21, 2007. 10:08 PM REP

I tried it @ home, and it work fairly well (i had to make a few adjustments though) Thx for the idea i've been waiting forever to find a bow that i could make cheap. :)

gunmanx says: Sep 16, 2007. 9:40 PM REPgah! i hav the same type of bamboo as yours and it doesent bend~

lennyb says: Sep 18, 2007. 5:40 PM REPmight be a differnt species

gunmanx says: Sep 21, 2007. 3:48 PM REPno man i even went to the 99c store and bought the same kind and it doesent work and i even tried different kinds and they all dont freakin bend!

Legend says: Aug 16, 2007. 1:36 AM REPCool instructable, nicely made arrow too. Thanks for the tips - I had given up the bamboo bow as a lost cause. The first bamboo bow I made had exactlyyour problem - the ends bent far too much and the middle section hardly bent at all. That's cos I had one thick piece of bamboo and two thin ones at the enI had started to make a bow like yours, but I couldn't get the wrappings tight enough, what knot did you use? I suppose if I wrapped it around and around liyou did it wouldn't really matter. I just gave up bamboo bows and make proper ones instead - 'far easier!!' I've seen in a book an expert bowyer's bamboocane bow. He used sections of three canes I think. To solve your 'hinge' problem, you should use smaller bunches of canes and layer them more frequentlso the transverse from loads to little is smooth. Also, you don't want too few on the t ips because then you'll get too much bending then and the rest of thebow isn't doing any work. You also dont want too many on the tips because that's extra weight where you want it least. Its all very confusing and doesn't acas a solid piece of wood, which it's so hard to configure. I'll be making a wood-bow instructable shortly Again, great instructable, thanks for sharing it.
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lennyb says: Aug 24, 2007. 4:08 AM REPi made another one from better canes and it worked better {no hinges}. its true that a stick or board bow is more predictable but certainly not as quick. afor knots i found it hard to tie the bundles tight enough also and for the real crit ical ones i used good ole hockey tape{insert gasp from the purists here}thanks for reading and thanks for your advice.

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