Creating a 'Bow' (as in bow and arrow)

I have not done it, but when I was shopping for drawknifes recently I ran into a wealth of information on the topic. Bottom line is that 1) there are several forums devoted to this topic and you will be best off finding one to get access to that wealth of experience. 2) there are lots of styles of bow and you will need to choose accordingly. 3) the wood you choose matters. Probably more then any other application you will need to pay attention to grain.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/tag/bow/by/date/page/1

Looks like there are several with some interesting links. This looks like a fun project.
best wishes

I would recommend checking out tradgang. It is a website that is dedicated to traditional archery. There is a subsection called the bowyers bench where folks chat about this quite a bit. There are build alongs that take you from selecting the wood to the final product. I even learned how to make a bowstring to go witht the bow I made for my daughter.

I have not made a laminated bow, which is likely the most useful.

I made solid wood bows from Serviceberry, and Chokecherry and arrows of Willow with Turkey Vulture fletchings. These were attempts to make bows as Native Americans did using local materials for Boy Scout summer camp (Order of the arrow and Indian Lore merit badge). They were more about the look rather than function. They did work, but did not have the greatest range, you would really have to be good at stalking your prey.

It would be fun to do these again, now that I have more woodworking experience.

I made a couple using oak. Made a cross bow also. I found a forum called bowyers useful.

You need to consider what type of bow… "authentic" could be an American Indian bow, a traditional English lownbow, various European and Asian styles, recurve, reflex, you name it. Also a bow should be sized to the shooter.

Couldn't be too hard to do. I remember I made a nice bow at the age of eleven with the help from someone who supervised. But I did all of the work. I remember every time I took the bow over to ask if what I shaved with a spokeshave or rasp was enough, the answer kept being "Not enough! Keep working!" The bow turned out very nice though. As I recall it was Lemonwood with an Osage Orange grip. Good memories!

Planeman