Bow Making Bushcraft Weekend Course – Learn to Craft Your Own Wooden Bow

Course Overview

Join our immersive bow making weekend course designed to give you the skills, confidence, and knowledge to craft your very own wooden bow using traditional hand tools in a beautiful woodland setting.

Your course runs from late morning Friday through to mid afternoon Sunday.

Whether you are a complete beginner or have dipped you toe in bow crafting before, this course offers foundational training that is accessible, practical, and deeply rewarding. Over three days, you will be guided step-by-step through the art of bow making. The experiential process of selecting the right woods, designing, shaping, tillering, stringing, and shooting a handmade bow has its origins deeply intertwined with the story of our species and offers as much relevance today as it has through the ages.

What You’ll Learn

• Material Selection & Identification
  Learn how to identify different tree species suitable for bow making, how to source, prepare and handle both green and seasoned woods, and also what to avoid when selecting timber to work with.

• Traditional Hand Tool Use & Techniques
  Gain literal hands-on experience with traditional hand tools such as axes, drawknives, spoke shaves, rasps. Learn which tool is best for each step of the process and why. Gain an overview of alternative tools and techniques available to the bow maker.

• Designing Your Bow
  Understand how to custom design a wooden bow based on your height, hand and eye dominance, and draw strength. You will learn about longbows, flatbows, and Mesolithic designs.

• Tillering: The Bow Maker’s Art
  Master the essential  bow crafter’s skill of tillering—shaping your bow so it bends evenly, efficiently, and safely. This is the heart of bow making.

• Finishing & Bow Stringing
  Understand how to finish your bow using various tools and abrasives. Craft your own bowstring suited to your bow using synthetic fibres—an empowering and transferable skill.

• Shooting & Bow Care
  You will be guided in how to stand, nock an arrow, aim, draw and release so that your new bow is appropriately worked in for the first time. You will learn how to shoot your bow safely and effectively. Learn about oils and protective treatments for aftercare to ensure the longevity of your wooden bow.

A Fully Immersive Woodland Experience

The course takes place in an outdoor woodland classroom from a basecamp setting—an inspiring location surrounded by the very materials you’ll be working with.

You are encouraged to camp out in the forest for the full bushcraft experience. While the course is self-catered, you will have time to prepare breakfasts and evening meals over a campfire, and simple lunches can be prepared during the crafting sessions. Prefer a softer stay? Local accommodation options are always available if you need recomendations please let us know.

Course Details

• Duration: 3 Days

• Location: Woodland venues in association with Howl Bushcraft (England), Wild Walk Bushcraft (Northern Ireland) and Living By Nature (Netherlands)

• Instructor: Adam Logan, expert bowyer with over 15 years of experience teaching traditional bow making techniques on residential woodland courses.

Why Take This Course?

People attend a.woodsman bow making weekends for many reasons:

• To explore heritage craft, wilderness self-reliance and bushcraft skills

• To hand craft functional gear for re-enactment or traditional archery

• To gain or re gain a sense of connection with nature through ancestral handcrafts

• To learn hand tool skills and woodworking fundamentals

• To spend quality time outdoors with like-minded makers

Whether you are here to make your first bow or deepen your craft, you will leave with a working wooden bow, new embodied skills, and a renewed sense of connection with yourself and your woodland environment.

What Makes This Course Both Accesible and Empowering?

• No prior experience needed

• All tools and materials provided

• Supportive group learning environment

• Experienced instruction & personal guidance throughout the process

• Emphasis on skills and techniques that work, you wont find anecdotal teaching here

• Opportunity to wild camp and cook over open fire

• Finish with a bow you have made yourself

Ready to Start Your Bow Making Journey?

Spaces are limited to 12 participants to ensure high quality instruction and individual attention is provided throughout your experience.
Reserve your place today and learn how to craft, finish, and shoot your very own wooden bow.

If you would like a bespoke delivery of this course for a group size of 5 – 12 participants please get in touch to arrange dates and locations available.

Testimonial

I attended one of Adam’s bow making courses in Ireland and couldn’t recommend it highly enough. He has a fantastic warm, easy teaching style and a quiet confidence that only comes from years of hands on experience. His real in depth knowledge shines through. Adam’s leadership abilities and soft skills are an education in themselves. You go away with a piece of art, a wooden bow crafted by your own hands in a  style dating back thousands of years, and the knowledge to make more. The value of this alone outstrips the cost of the course. Not to mention, axe, knife and cordage skills. Do yourself or someone else a favour, just book onto a course.

Brian – Mountain Ways Ireland.