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Bow & Archery tips

Totally just getting started here.  It's not a costume, but since it's a major accessory for the movie, we're going to carry a bit here.

Suggestion: check the authorized resellers in the Buy It section for swords and axes.  There are "in the style of items" over in Buy It/Weponds.

Until we get organized here, see our LOTR Costume yahoo archives

Movie notes

The bows used in the move were not real.  They were rubber. Legolas, and other "dry fired" there bows.  That means that they only pretend to shot the arrows.  The arrows are added later digitally.  Also makes it safer for whoever he's shooting towards.

What it might be in real life... these are specs

it looks like Legolas shoots a longbow with reflex bend through the handle. Or..and english longbow with recurve tips

== Tammy

Legolas shoots a long recurve and Aragorn shoots a flat longbow. Since they are men I would say that a working bow for them would be in the 60 - 80 pound range.

Be aware that most of these bows are made from laminated wood as 'self-wood' bows, like the kind Legolas appears to have, stack very heavily, i.e., have a faster buildup of the power needed to draw them the further back you pull the string. Also Legolas' bow appears to be round, which completely baffles me. Maybe I just haven't seen it from the right angle. Another thing that seems wrong is that neither men use shooting fingers. You would have to have a heck of a set of calluses for the string to not take the skin off your fingers at that weight. We can assume that Legolas and Aragorn do because they have been shooting bows all their lives, but Orlando and Viggo would have not had any fingertips left if those were real working bows at the appropriate drawweights.

== Morag

Decorate a bow like Legolas' Lothlorien Bow

Decorate a bow - step by step instructions for creating a clay texture

Ranger Bow from Scratch on a Budget

I used this site quite a bit:http://www.primitiveways.com/index.html . They have three or four articles just on bow making, and other associated articles. Of course, out there on the web are many sites that may help also.  (See below)

For this project I used a 7 ft stave of Carolina White Pine (which cost me about $2.50 at Home Depot) and two planing rasps with removable blades (about $10.00 together) and a knife. On one site I checked out, the bowyer made all his bows just with a butcher knife! It takes alot of elbow grease but was alot of fun to do.

The rasps are like a plane, as they carry the shavings away with each stroke. The ones I used have replicable blades that are angled like a razor, but some of the sites I have been to says that a good file will do the same thing, it is really a bit of trial and error

==Freerangecelt

Bow and Archery Links

• The original and still the best site for information on buying, making and shooting traditional bows. Howard Hill is the father of the renaissance of traditional archery
  • http://www.3riversarchery.com/
• some history
  • http://www.archeryhistory.com/longbows/longbowsmain.htm
  • http://www.bowmaker.net/
  • http://www.greatplains.pampa.com/
  • http://www.stickbow.com/massie/
  • http://ns1.bowsite.org/acb/Category.cfm?&DID=9&CATID=1
• long list of bowyers
  • http://www.women-outdoors.com/traditional/bowyers1.htm
• wide selection and second hand bows
  • www.oldbow.com/
• my favorite bowyer, they made my bow in 1992 when they were still Monarch Longbows in Missoula, sweet bow at 45 pounds draw weight.
  • http://www.aspenlongbow.com/
• some FAQs to give you an idea how to choose a traditional bow and how they compare to compound (mechanized pulley wheel bows (not really bows at all in my opinion))
  • http://www.monarch-bows.com/faq.html
• this site tells you how to make a self bow
  • http://www.stickbow.com/features/index.cfm?feature=selfbows

== Morag

• http://www.primitiveways.com/index.html
• http://thebowyersden.com/

Paper machee, clothes hangers and packing tape

Jedi Elf Queen has a technique written up on how to use simple supplies to make your own decorative elven bow

 http://www.jedielfqueen.com/elvenwarriors/weapons/weapons.htm

Just getting this section started...

Please feel free to contribute tips and pictures! 

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This page was last updated 11/24/09