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How to Make a Stone Bow

The stone bow was a common sporting weapon in Europe from the Renaissance to the Victorian era. An offshoot of the crossbow, the stone bow fires stones or balls as an alternative to pointed bolts. Because several factors restricted its power, the stone bow was intended only as a sporting weapon used for target practice or shooting small game. If you have some basic carpentry skills, you can build one yourself using simple tools and readily-available materials.

Things You'll Need

2-foot length of 2-by-4 wooden plank
1 1/2-foot by 1-inch by 1/4-inch length ash or other springy wood
Bowstring
Pull saw
Leather
Needle
Thread
Drill
Decking screws
Pencil
Compass
Sandpaper
Small spring cramp

Instructions

- 1
  Lay the length of 2-by-4 plank down horizontally in front of you. Measure 1 inch down from the top-right-hand corner and mark it. Draw a horizontal line 16 inches from this mark toward the other end of the plank.
- 2
  Set the compass to 4 inches width. Measure 4 inches from the end of the line and position the point of the compass here. Draw an arc down from the end of the line downward to the bottom of the plank. Continue the sweep of the compass off the edge of the wood and round until the pencil comes up again onto the wood. Continue to draw until the line reaches the left-hand end of the plank.
- 3
  Retract the compass by 1 inch and draw down another arc above the first. Cut along these lines to produce a piece of straight wood with an arc at one end. Sand the angles of the long edges of the wood.
- 4
  Place the length of ash flush against the small face of the 2-foot plank at the end of the arc. Position it so that the two pieces of wood form a T shape, with the center of the length of ash flush with the face of plank.
- 5
  Screw the length of ash in place with four decking screws. Drill two holes in each end of the length of ash, one above the other. Loop and tie a length of bowstring into the one of the holes. Pull the limbs until they bend to a reasonable tension, then loop the other end of string through the hole in the opposite end of the ash.
- 6
  Add another string through the other pair of holes. In the center of the two strings sew a strip of leather between the two strings. This forms the pouch for firing the stones. Tie a U shape of bow string to each string, running around the back of the leather pouch. Join the two U shapes together with many twists of thread.
- 7
  Screw a small spring cramp onto the stock of the bow just behind where the pouch will come to when fully drawn. Clamp the U shape of bowstring into it when the bow is drawn. Use this as the trigger mechanism.

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