Stonehill Primitive Bows

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Close up of six different self bows laying on the ground.

About me

I live in Germany in a small village in Bavaria. Born in 1957, I came late to archery and bowery in 2005 while building toy-bows for my two sons. This was so much fun, that I decided to make another one for me.

Well, I got the virus.

To make it short, I begun excessively to make more and more bows, meanwhile several hundreds.

Simon working in his workshop with bandsaw and drawknife.

I got lot of information from books (thanks to Tim Baker and all others for the TBBs!), museums and from the internet. The forum paleoplanet was my first resource, later I found the great site primitive archer. There are some sites from master bowyers all over the world I visit from time to time. Here is a selection.

My interest is on every ‘primitive bow’, self-bow or composite bow. I have no interest in fiberglass bows. I made bows out of a lot of different woods and in many different designs.

Sometimes I think over why doing all this stuff? No one really needs that much bows, but to tell the truth the thing is it is still interesting, lessons to be learnt about wood, the right work, about math and physics also chemistry, and of course history and and and … and checking out the improvements of the newer bow.

I know this will never stop. The more I get in, the more I know I’m still a learner.

I’m very thankful my wife and my family accepted my obsession. A special great thanks goes to my son Andi, without his professional help this site wouldn’t exist! Thanks for all your patience!

December 2015