Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26444332-20151226222621/@comment-27718380-20151228001017

Draugluin the werewolf wrote: Heartgold1234 wrote:

Draugluin the werewolf wrote: no really they would just get a vaguely bendy stick and clap something together, if they were a professional hunter they might go to the bowyer but most domestic bows were homemade (although they generally took a long time to make if they were intended for anything else than something to entertain your child during the hours when you weren't forcing them to work

They weren't. If you pick up a long stick, and put grooves and string on it it snaps. If they even knew which wood to pick, which they wouldn't, it'd take days of searching to find the right stick and even then it'd be the wrong shape and knobbly. You'd need to buy the main bow off of a carpenter and at this point you may aswell have gone to the bowyer for the amount it's costing you.

that's simply not so :P if you had the knwoledge of woodcraft sufficient to need a bow then undoubtebly you would know to use yew or similar materialsthe bow was a domestic item or "peasants weapon" in practically every country in the world except Wales and England because the vast variety of bows were peaces of flexible wood with a farly available string (string making wasn't exactly a rare skill nor was basic carpentry) You say 'except Wales and England'. While carpentry was not a rare skill, it certainly wasn't common. And this wasn't basic, it required tools. As I have said, you wouldn't just make your own if you knew what was best for you. Most often the family would have one or two and if the lads were sent off to war they'd take them. Only if one of them actually broke would they replace it, and sometimes the army itself would supply the bows if needed.