Bow making
I began this week with nothing more than mild curiosity and finished it filled with the exhilaration that comes with the birth of a new passion. Now how often can one say that?
Half our group spent three long days with visiting instructor Peter Yencken, who taught us to make our own bows. We started on Wednesday with roughly cut planks of hickory that we immediately started shaping with a variety of tools. We scraped, sanded, and scraped some more, all of us busy as beavers building a dam. The real work came in taking just the right amount of wood from the width of the board to allow it to bend evenly and the ideal amount for an individual to shoot with it. Too much or uneven cutting would weaken or even break the bow; too little and the bow wouldn’t bend enough to shoot an arrow. Bowmaking is an art, an ancient art once practiced by most of our ancestors. Intermittently as we were working, Peter shared his own stories and knowledge of the history of bowmaking, some modern and historical videos on archery, and an introduction to the ethics and practice of bow hunting. Our gracious hosts in their workshop, Wes and Sharon Childers, gave us their own expert advice and personal stories of ethical hunting. We came to feel that we were part of something big, something important. By Thursday when I was able to string my bow, give it a final sanding and a fresh coat of oil, I was awed and amazed at its beauty. I felt powerful and accomplished, as if my ancestors were there with me, smiling and proud. On Friday I was once again in awe because it actually worked; I could actually shoot arrows with my bow! I can’t say that I’m a great shot at this point, but I’m definitely going to work at it. I don’t know whether I will ever use this bow for hunting, probably not. But somehow that’s not the point for me. I turned a plank of wood into a bow, a beautiful yet powerful tool, and I plan to make myself worthy of it by using it with skill and grace.
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