The history of archery bows begins somewhere in the late Paleolithic period. It seems to have been used by a German population for the first time, in Europe and it was made of pine. The first type of bows had a main and a fore shaft with a flint point. The bows usage has been extended toward Egypt and further on time to Assyrians, Persians, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Hungarian and Parthian communities.
The invention of the fire guns has greatly influenced the decline of the bow as a war weapon. Despite being a widespread hobby and high class activity in England, Korea China and other countries, the archery bow hunting has been almost completely replaced by firearms. Nowadays, people use bows and arrows only in specific competitions and for hunting in some areas.
The first bowhunting club was founded in the ’60s in the U.S. and it was meant to promote quality and responsible chase and hunting practices. The commercial production of archery and bow equipment has started in the late ’30s with Bear Archery Company, the leader on the archery products market until nowadays. The bows have been diversified, from simple ones to archery recurve bows, from pine to fiberglass and so on.
Even if there is a wide variety of models and types of bows, the main elements of them are the two elastic limbs that have a string attached to them. The limbs actually store the mechanical energy produced by the archer when drawing the string. There are two main types of bows, the ones that use a mechanism to pull the string and the ones who use the users’ force to draw it.
Based on more detailed criteria, there are further classifications that can be done. For example, considering the limb shape when unstrung, there are simple straight bows and archery recurve bows. These lasts have some tips that curve away from the user when the bow is unstrung. Another criterion is the cross-section of the limb, which splits the bows into two categories: the classic longbow (flat, wide, D-shaped limbs) and the flatbow (flat, wide, rectangular limbs).
The compound bow is very popular in the archery and bow professional field. It is built to decrease the force a man is required to apply in order to fully draw the string and it gives more time to aim to the archer. The performances of this bow can go as far as 99% let-off. In the U.S. this is the most used bow at the moment.
The bows that use a mechanism to draw the string usually have a stock, like the crossbow. Archery bows have had an interesting evolution so far and innovation and creativity seem not to be over in this domain yet, even if the bow is no longer a defense mean, but an outdoor activities tool.