Nature & craft
Wilderness bow-making course
Survival, bushcraft and bow making – three days in a wilderness camp.
Three days outdoors, in a wilderness camp, without modern aids. With axe and knife you make your own bow from a piece of tree wood, make the string and arrows by hand, and shoot it in yourself on the last day. You sleep in a tent or under the shelter and cook on the fire.
And since we live outdoors anyway, you learn what you need there: drilling fire without lighter or matches, and the small tricks that make camp life easier. In the evenings by the campfire we tell each other the stories of the day, of wilderness life – and of what bow and arrow meant to people in the past.
The schedule
- Day 1 — Arrive in camp, choose a stave and rough it into shape with the axe.
- Day 2 — Tillering: remove wood from the limbs until the bow bends evenly. Twist the string.
- Day 3 — Finishing, making arrows, first shot.
Along the way we learn other survival skills. For example drilling fire, or how to purify drinking water with natural means.
The evenings belong to the campfire: stories from the wilderness, about bow making and everything there is to tell about bow and arrow.
The essentials at a glance
- 3 days, weekend
- Adults; teenagers from 16 accompanied by an adult
- Wilderness camp near Bad Staffelstein / Uetzing — or at your place
- Group of 6 or more, 10 people at most
- €380 per person
- Tools provided. Bring: a handy sharp axe, a sharp knife, personal gear for three days outdoors
- No fixed dates — your group requests one
Materials, extra:
- Bow stave €40 (elm or hazel)
- String €10
- Arrow €5 each
- Food from the campfire kitchen €60
- plus travel: €0.50 per kilometre driven (there and back). Within 50 km for each course day, further away once there and back.
As a small business owner under § 19 UStG (German VAT Act), I do not charge VAT.
Overnight stay
In your own tent or under the shelter, right in the camp.
If you prefer to sleep in a bed for personal reasons: there are guesthouses nearby — then you spend the days and evenings outdoors and the nights indoors. Just let me know beforehand.
No fixed date: you choose one
The wilderness bow-making course is not in a calendar. It takes place when a group comes together – friends, family, a club, a team. From 6 people, 10 at most: that leaves enough time for every bow, and the camp doesn't get crowded. You tell me when it suits you and whether you come to the camp or I come to you, and we agree a date.
On your own or as a pair?
Then add yourself to the waiting list below. As soon as enough people have gathered, I write to everyone and we find a weekend together.
The difference from the workshop course
The same craft, a different setting: the bow-making course takes place in the workshop, with vise and bandsaw at the workbench – finished sooner, but without the outdoors. The wilderness bow-making course is the version with tent, fire and pure hand work: three days of wilderness life, and the bow is made in the middle of it.
Where bow and arrow come from
Bow and arrow are among the oldest tools of humankind — bow hunting is over 30,000 years old and documented on every continent. Success depended not only on shooting technique but on the making: a bow that draws unevenly doesn't hit. Today nobody hunts with a wooden bow any more, but the fascination remains — in the calm, even movement of instinctive shooting as much as in the making itself.
Wow! Was für ein Wochenende!!! Christian versteht es, die Menschen bei guter Laune zu halten. Seine Erklärungen sind professionel und verständlich zugleich. Aber vorsicht: Er infiziert die Menschen mit seinem Virus: Leidenschaft zum Bogenbau! An Christian: Ich danke dir für das überaus lehrreiche, inspirierende und einfach nur tolle Wochenende. Viele Grüße aus Luxemburg... und bis bald!
Nature & craft: wilderness bow-making course
