longbow

This summer I worked on an island as part of a summer camp program, the island has no electricity or running water. I carved this bow out of a single piece of maple over a few weeks during the few moments of down time and when hanging out with the kids. It is about 7 ft long and can fire an arrow 70 yards. Pictured also is the next bow I'm working on with hopefully more power.

The string is a continuous loop of sewing thread
The two arrows on the left were made on the island by cutting a clear cedar log section, splitting with an axe and knife, carving, and finally a trimming plane to even out the surfaces. They were fleched with crow feather I found and with turkey feathers I was given the third arrow I made out of a scrap from one of my paddles and fleched with some goose feathers.

the grip and arrow rest is a piece of birch with the nub of a crook to the side wrapped in leather. I measured round the grip at various points, cut the leather slightly smaller, punched matching holes and sewed the two ends together. Then I slowly worked the thread pulling out all the slack and drawing the leather tight no gluing required.