Bolt Bows

Bolt Bows Bolt Bows produces handcrafted archery products, with a modern twist. Traditional craft to create the new!

24/05/2026

If you’re looking for a top-quality horsebow…
This is it!

17/05/2026

Half way through tillering and it’s time for heat treatment 🔥

This cheap terrace heater does it in about 10 minutes what would take 45 minutes with the conventional heat gun. (Used for stripping paint)

The point of heat treatment is to make the belly of the bow a little harder and less elastic, which enhances the performance of the bow.

It also increases poundage somewhat, especially if you induce more reflex like I’m doing here.

Heat treatment works great on most woods, but it can also make the wood too brittle, so it doesn’t come without risk.

I made sure to put the wood at appropriate distance to let the heat sink into the wood. Sometimes I see videos of people putting the heat gun right up to the wood, which only heats the surface, but not the wood below.

At the end you can see the nice dark brown color the wood gets after a good session. 👌

What do you think? Worth the risk?

12/05/2026

First brace and further tillering. 🏹

The aim is to get 90% of the tiller right at this stage.

Before I pull the bow further it has to have a nice equal bend along the limbs to prevent weak spots from damaging,
which could potentially destroy the whole bow.

The exact shape I’m looking for is not something I can describe, but it’s based on years of experience and a certain amount of ‘guesstimating’

Drop questions in the comments!

04/05/2026

Bowyers ASMR!

Rounding off the edges to prevent splinters from rising when the bow is bent.

Tool used: Flat sole spokeshave

02/05/2026

The second stage of tillering, “long string tillering,”

Where the bow is drawn bit by bit to see the bending of it.

Stiff spots are marked on the inside (belly) of the bow to remove a few shavings of wood there.

After a few shavings have been taken off, the bow must be bent a couple of times to adjust to its new ‘tiller.’

After this rough tiller is satisfactory, the bow is braced for the first time.

Which you can see in the next part!

Follow for more…

30/04/2026

THE Nr. 1 rule in bow making:

Create an even thickness taper.

No matter the shape of the wood, it had to have an even, fluent thickness taper.

Patience is required, craftsmanship helps a lot.

Working with sharp, appropriate tools increases the likelihood of succes by a stretch!

The tillering process is started with so called “floor tillering”. Bending the bow against the floor and getting making the limbs of equal strength and shape.

25/04/2026

One of my favourite workouts 🪵

21/04/2026

Can anyone guess why that clamp was on sideways? 😉 comment below 👇

Steam bending is always a bit of a ‘make or break’ moment for bow building.

Luckily for me, laburnum wood bends quite easily with added heat. Although preparations are absolutely key.

Absolutely no time should be lost between removing the steam and the bending.
Relatively thin wood like this (16mm) will cool off quite quickly and lose its plasticity.

Also the wood should be heated thoroughly, but never too long, as that will force moisture out and make the wood brittle.

The steaming time was 35 minutes.

Follow for more bowyers advice, or just because you enjoy seeing it 😉

20/04/2026

Preparing the laburnum bow stave for steam bending recurves!

My recurve checklist:

- Minimum thickness for a sturdy recurve
- No extra thickness (thinner the better)
- Even thickness (key!! 🔑 )
- Some extra width
- A good fit in the mold
- Enough moisture in the wood

Follow for the next part! ✅

What an amazing weekend at the 3D Middachten!Unfortunately I fell sick last year and I had to miss this one, so this yea...
14/10/2025

What an amazing weekend at the 3D Middachten!
Unfortunately I fell sick last year and I had to miss this one, so this year was a first for me!

The Dutch Bowhunting Clan put up two beautiful 28-target-courses with a lot of challenging and interesting shots.
The whole tournament was very well organised!

For my lovely Silke it was her first 3D ever and man did she shoot well! With virtually no practice under her belt she was able to hit almost every target and beat quite a lot of (not to be named 😉) veterans of this game. You know who you are 😘

Furthermore Sjef was able to live up to his widely known reputation as the eternal 4th place, but still shot incredibly well, considering he also virtually never shoots a trad bow!

Thank you Simon, Leo, Sjef, Silke, Stefan for a great weekend with lots of banter and laughs.

And of course a special thanks to my brother Lucas, who promptly decided to entertain us all by showing up in a LotR Ranger costume 👌😂

Last year at Kings of Archery inspired me to give barebow a try.Last year I shot recurve with pretty much no prep. I co...
14/11/2023

Last year at Kings of Archery inspired me to give barebow a try.
Last year I shot recurve with pretty much no prep. I could hardly sleep and shook on my legs while I stepped on the line. This year I felt so calm and confident I almost couldn’t believe it. But the best thing is: I know how I got there.
On Sunday I messed up two shots and dropped down 12 places in the rankings. Fought back 7, but it wasn’t enough for the finals. (Ended 13th).
Congrats to the ultimate joker Joran Drent 🥇, 🥈 and Ollie Hicks 🥉.
A big thank you to all the cool (new) people I met and the organisers of !

📸 by

Adres

Landgoed Middachten 3
De Steeg
6994 JC

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