Bow

Bow and arrow

Ken FOLLET, World without end, London : Macmillan, 2008, pag. 17:
"[Merthin] was proud of it. It was small, of course: to bend a a full-size, sixfoot bow took all the strenght of a grown man. Merthin's was four foot long, and slender, but in other respects it was just like the standard English longbow...".

      English longbow 6 ft, 2m, from Wikipedia                                           Typical  Middle Ages arrows           

Ken FOLLET, World without end, London : Macmillan, 2008, pag. 18:
"...inexpensive practice bows made of ash or hazel."   
"A bowyer gave it to me."

A bowyer is an artisan who makes and/or sells bows. They used to be very important when bows and arrows were used as weapons, like during the Middle Ages, but the introduction of  gunpower reduced their importance.
Traditionally bowyers are divided in two groups:

1. Self bowyers usually makes bows,made of only one type of wood, for themseves. An expert craftsman can build a bow from a piece of wood in around five or ten hours but, but working in groups, he can  produce one in less than two hours. This is quite important because in the medieval England were required  thousands of bows for the country's army archers.
2. Composite bowyers were common in Turkey and in Mongolia. A composite bows requires a very skilled craftsman and it's made of horns, wood and sinew(tendon). They usually are smaller than the only-wood ones but more efficient. In fact " In the 16th century one such Turkish flight bow set the record for the longest shot, 846 metres (925 yards), a record that stood until the 20th century and the application of modern material science.  <sup>[1]
   
   
   [1] Wikipedia</sup>