bow wood

[dixieangler]

I think I might back one of them (after made into a bow) with Yucca leaf fibers using pine pitch (tar) rather than sinew with hide glue and then see if I can overcoat it with vegetable (plant) oil (rather than wrap it with animal intestines or snake skin). I will probably not back the other one and just overcoat with vegetable (plant) oil.

I could wax coat it instead but I just don't want to seal the wood with anything like varnish because I would not be able to heat treat and reshape the bow later on if I needed to.

[dixieangler]

After researching bow woods, I think I am down to two or maybe three for the area where I live. Mulberry is my best bet and probably more common (I hesitate to say "common" since I still haven't found one yet). Second is probably Ironwood although it grows in hammocks which we do have but will take some thorough searching to find it (and properly identify it) and I am not enthusiastic about going all the way back (deep) into a nearby hammock I know. Thirdly is Osage Orange and I would probably stand a better chance of seeing a blue moon than finding it here.

http://www.eattheweeds.com/www.EatTheWe ... press.html

http://www.eattheweeds.com/www.EatTheWe ... try_1.html

http://www.eattheweeds.com/www.EatTheWe ... range.html

[dixieangler]

Hey! I didn't know this was out there.

https://www.createspace.com/208761

The book Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills costs about the same as this one DVD on primitive archery but has a lot more primitive skills in it than just primitive archery. It is the compiling of the Naked Into The Wilderness series of books so you get a lot of skills rather than just one in the series. However the DVD probably goes into more depth than the book. From the photo of John, it looks like he is testing for the even draw taper of both ends (tillering).

This is just one of the skills that the McPherson's include in their instruction to the U.S. Military Special Operations Survival Instructors in their on-going relationship with them.

I didn't know about the Special Ops either.

http://www.prairiewolf.net/

[dixieangler]

John McPherson has a question board and is answering a lot of my questions. Its nice being able to talk to John directly.

http://www.prairiewolf.net/question_board.cfm

[Kingoftheflock]

i saw a special on the the history channel about the huns, and their so called legendary bow the reflex bow. it said something about thin pieces of wood layered on top of each other glued by some kind of glue with animal bone in it. apparently thats what made the huns as good as conquering as they were.

[dixieangler]

The Huns used laminated bows (layered wood laminated together) to beat everybody but when it rained, they got killed. LOL The Asiatic Composite Bow is a laminated bow and can shoot an arrow over a half mile. Up until the time this bow was developed, the English solid Oak Longbow was the standard as far as I know. But unlike the English Longbow, the Huns did not want to shoot the ACB in rainy weather as the laminated layers would separate because they used animal glue. A battle cannot be called off because of rain and its not a good thing to have your bow fall apart in the rain during a battle. LOL As far as I know, modern laminated bows use modern glues and are sealed to prevent this from happening.

http://www.customflix.com/208827

This bow has a long history and was used by many different peoples in the Far, Middle, and Near East and was developed there probably by nomadic peoples, hence the name Asiatic.

A composite bow is a bow made from disparate materials laminated together, usually applied under tension. Different materials are used in order to take advantage of the properties of each material.

This article describes mainly the traditional Asiatic composite bow, which normally uses horn on the belly and sinew on the back of a wooden core. Sinew and horn will store more energy than wood for the same length of bow. The strength can be made similar to that of all-wood bows, with similar draw-length and therefore a similar or greater amount of energy delivered to the arrow from a much shorter bow. Some Mongolian composite bows are known to have been able to produce a draw weight of nearly 160 lb (72.5 kg).

If you want to see what is involved in making one of these things before you think about actually making one, it looks to be a long and involved process:

http://www.primitiveways.com/pt-composite_bow.html

[dixieangler]

After talking to John, I think I will try to collect a willow, maple, and oak stave because these are the most common woods available to me. Already have some likely candidates and will cut them in the middle of winter when the sap is low. I look for better performance out of the oak than the others. I will probably shape the staves while green without heat treating before working them into bows. This method involves strapping the green stave against a straight rigid surface (back facing the surface) using small spacer blocks for shaping (recurve ears, blocks about eight inches from the ends) while keeping the ends sealed (like with plastic bags) to prevent splitting while it cures (dries out or seasons). The ends and the middle of the stave are strapped with the blocks in place.

I will not use yucca fibers for backing (not enough stretch), most likely I will have to use nylon. I will probably use hide glue to back the bow as the right pine pitch consistency would be hard to achieve if it would work at all. Probably will grease and paste wax the finished bows for protection.

[LDS]

Lemonwood (still not sure if this is a citrus lemon or not),

No- it is not citrus lemon. It is also called Degame, and was native to cuba and maybe parts of Central America. I have been told it is available as an introduced species in South Florida.

I have two lemonwood bows hanging on the rack behind me. Both were made BEFORE the boogieman took over Cuba. The access to good lemonwood ended with the Cuban embargo. It was the preferred wood for medium priced bows until that time. The wood was so dense one did not have to follow growth rings to ensure stability.

I also have a good stickbow made from white oak. Very little string follow. I have been shooting it for about 10 years.

I made one from persimon back in '97. I dried it for a year but still made it as a whitewood bow using the debarked outer layer as the back. It made a good bow, but I had to go nearly microscopic on limb thickness trying to scrape it down to #45 pull.

We have osage here in plenty. Farmers used to buy it as fence post material, not knowing it would sprout as a cutting. We have nice stright rows of osage with old rusty fence tacked to them.

My last greenwood bow was an osage limb "rescued" from one of those fence rows a year or so back.