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Bushbasics - Bow making course |
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Written by Martyn Wills
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Page 1 of 2  It was an excellent course. Chris and Terry took us from roughly split ash staves on Saturday morning to shooting six-foot flatbows on Sunday afternoon and through all the stages in-between.
Bushbasics weekend Bowmaking course
I have recently been on a weekend bowmaking course with Bushbasics in Surrey.
The course runs from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, though the Friday consisted of little more than settling into camp and getting to know everyone (and dinner). Drinks and meals were all provided – Chris Jones, who runs Bushbasics with Terry Lechem, even produced a giant chocolate bar one evening which was happily devoured by everyone round the fire.
It was an excellent course. Chris and Terry took us from roughly split ash staves on Saturday morning to shooting six-foot flatbows on Sunday afternoon and through all the stages in-between.
 Bushbasics have a private 200-acre site in Surrey - a mix of predominately Oak, Beech, Birch and Hazel. The atmosphere throughout the weekend was structured but informal; we were allowed free-range of the site and to forage and harvest anything that took our fancy, so long as we were sensible and responsible about it. I ended up with a bunch of tinder fungus in my pack and a load of hazel for some other little projects of mine. Chris and Terry were a fount of information and were happy to talk about any aspect of Bushcraft we wanted, while gently keeping us on track with making our bows. A fire was kept going all the time and Terry's 'Want a brew?' cry was a regular relief for hands cramped on axe handles.
On the Saturday we spent most of the day using axes to rough shape the staves to a floor-tillering stage. Those who had not used axes before were taken through safe use and Chris and Terry seemed to have eyes in the back of their heads when the axes were being used. I asked Chris about his reasoning for using axes and he explained that some courses only work with knives, but this means adding an extra day to the course as well as being much more exhausting work. He also pointed out that he would much rather teach people how to use an axe safely in the first place rather than see them leave the course and head out into the woods on their own with an axe and no knowledge of how to use it properly.
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 On the Saturday evening we sat round the campfire making bowstrings and arrows and talking about other Bushcraft skills. Every time I asked about something, like fire pistons for example, one of them seemed to miraculously produce it from their pockets.
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| Sunday was tillering day. It was quite a change of pace from the frenetic axe work of the first day to slow down and tiller gradually with rasps and spoke shaves. We also spent some time finishing our arrows - made from cedar shafts. By 3pm all bows and arrows were made - we had a range of poundages - from 20lbs to about 42lbs and we went off into the woods and shot at things (non-living) to our hearts content (and until my left-forearm started bleeding!) before breaking camp and heading home. |
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