Questions about a teaching opportunity

[Goose Gossett]

I have a few questions/challenges/need help.  There is potential that I will have an opportunity to teach 75-100 kids in middle school 7th-9th grade all about the bow.  The time frame is an hour each day for a week.  I made PVC pipe bows for younger kids (4th-6th) and even some schedule 40 pipe bows for older kids.  There is prep work that I can do beforehand making the construction process quicker with the PVC but these kids will have the choice to take home and work on whatever.  So the questions are...

1. What is the cheapest quickest material/way to make a shootable wood bow for young teenagers?
2. What would be the easiest to tiller wood bow? (Even if there was some quick sawing that I could do but 75-100 is quite a few)
3. Has anyone ever done that many bows other than OJAM rattan bows?  That's the only time I remember seeing a mass production of wood bows for inexperienced students.

I'm just throwing this out there to get some feedback.  If it does happen it would be this fall and I want to have an idea of what to look for.  Thanks tradgangers!

Goose

[red hill]

My guess would be hickory, Goose. Perhaps a sawmill in your area could provide the lumber. If you could get them cut into an appropriate width you may be able to rough cut the bows to profile.
But, brother, them's a lot of bows!

[macbow]

That is a lot to take on at once.
Might have a chance with a pyramid style where little tillering would be needed.

[DVSHUNTER]

Attain is about your only option for wood bows. That's just a lot of kids and not a lot of time.  Pvc bows can be made cheap and poundage increased my adding a wooden dowel rod in the handle section thus making the limbs shorter. I would focus on teaching about the bow and make the final two.days about building a quick one they can shoot in one day. Let em paint em like native Americans too to tie in the lessons to practical use. Lots of bow cultures decorate their bows.

[John Scifres]

I've made 80 rattan bows in a day but that was a good 8 hours with 8-10 guys.

If you have help and get them mostly tillered, hickory could work but it is tough to get that much bow-worthy hickory unless you back it and then you have a lot more work.

I'd go with rattan.