Ozbow

G'day

Now that my kids are getting a bit older my wife has been hauled back into the Scouting movement and is now the Cub Leader for our local Scout group.
She's been looking for projects for the cubs to work on - wanting something a little different to the usual paper machie and sticks jobs. Given my involvement in archery and the bows I've been making she was asking about bowmaking for Cubs.

So. I just wanted to bounce a few questions off the readers here.

Would a bowmaking project be a little too ambitious for a Cub group given that they're about 8-11 years old?
If it is in any way feasible, what would you recommend as a type of bow to construct? It needs to be fairly easy to construct but utilising a fair amount of grunt work (I'm thinking lots of sanding here). Minimal reliance on power tools. Fairly cheap materials. Being actually able to shoot with them would be a pleasant bonus but failing that they could be just decorative. No more than about 10# pull I'd think.

Personally I'm leaning toward the "Too ambitious for their age group" camp.
However, If it were feasible, I was thinking a very simple board bow - possibly made from Bamboo flooring. Working handle - shoot off the hand. Paper or linen backed if necessary. I was thinking that I'd just cut a number of staves - say about 20-25mm wide. And prepare a bunch of templates to glue onto the back with the lines to sand down to pre-marked on the back; and get the cubs to sand or plane down to those lines. Smooth or round all edges. Make some simple nock overlays for them to glue on and get them to cut a simple string groove. Basic strings made from something strong enough - not sure what. And arrow shafts made from basic dowelling with simple fletches. 1-2 arrows each.

I was wondering what the more experienced bowmakers think.

Any thoughts?

I agree mate, board bows would be the way to go. Cheap and fairly simple to construct.

Ben

it really depends on the size of the group i think, theres no reason you couldnt with enough supervision. but it would have to be something super simple, you would prolly have to tiller them 9/10th of the way and just let em finish sand them.

but it would have to be something super simple, you would prolly have to tiller them 9/10th of the way and just let em finish sand them.

I agree and perhaps for a little extra you could also put some tip overlays on and some leather for the handle and then make a couple of arrows.

Jeff

I was a leader at the time my son was a Cub-Scout. (8 years ago)
To introduce Archery to the the different age groups I used long Bamboo garden stakes to build a number of Bows. Four stakes were used for each bow, by sliding each stake a little bit (6" to 8") beyond the end of another or even further depending on the poundage required. The cub-scouts used or learnt their lashing techniques to build each bow. The thinest stakes were used to make the arrows, and boy they were rough, but they did the job at hand. There was no need for fletching at the time for that was another lesson later on for those that showed interest. The main task at the time was for the lashing and knot lessons, and the fun of the final result of shooting a bow and arrow..........Bill

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I think I'll spend a bit of time this w/e looking to see what materials are available and possibly making a trial piece.

Probably will be a bamboo pyramid bow. I'll do a trial to see just how fiddly it is and what sort of weight it comes out as.

Thanks again.

This link might be very helpful http://www.bowyersedge.com/kidsbows.html When I first heard of Rattan kids bows in the mid to late 90's I tried rattan for a grown up's bow and it shot quite well and was surprisingly durable

regards Jacko