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River Cane Bow String

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swamp monkey:
Has anyone ever tried making a bow string from North American river cane?  I saw a PA post for a bow from New Guinea that had a bamboo string and I saw sketch of one from a Choctaw bow Page 96 of Hamm and Allely's Encycl. of NABA&Q.

How to craft? I am curious how to do this as a matter of creation.  I have tried to split cane evenly to make a blowgun and it never worked well.  Even after being straightened the grain always took the knife off to one side.  So I wonder if breaking the nodes with a hammer or scoring them would help.   Any experience or ideas floating around out there?  Before too long I will have to experiment and would benefit from your insight. 

How to unstring? Second,  How would you unstring a bamboo string?  Allely's illustration looks to me like there is a fancy loop or multilayer loop of sorts on both ends with the larger loop on the end you would unstring.  The wrap nocks make it appear that the push pull method of stringing may not be practical but I could be wrong.    I would love to find out what some of you know about this subject.

Oh and notice those fancy woven bands of cane.  how would that be done?  I have never made woven objects with a strict diameter in mind.  I really want to make this bow!

swamp monkey:
no progress figuring out how to make those cane bands pictured below.  But I made some progress with the string idea.  I took a section of cane that broke while heat bending (a defect lay hidden beneath) I pounded on the nodes with a hammer and moved out to the internode area.  I was able to separate out a section that I think I could finish cutting out with a knife and sand down to a string like consistency.  This holds promise.   :o  I will try this on a larger piece of cane and keep ya'll informed of any findings.

Notice the string in Allely's drawing has a loose loop on the top nock.  At first I figured that was a result of time and unraveling, but on further thought I think it is a loop to keep the string on the bow when unstrung.  I think the section of cane on the bottom nock is used to keep the string on that end.  If figure this bow string was made like caning a chair, with hot water when they tied the knots.  So there is no tying and untying.  I also do not see a cane string wrapping up nicely somewhere when unstrung.  So the lower knock has a cane segment to keep the string on and the top knot has two loops for strung and unstrung.  Ingenious!  Now if I can manage to make a length long enough. . .

swamp monkey:
I understand that fly rod makers split bamboo.  Does anyone know how this is done?

Pat B:
The Cherokee used split river cane to make baskets and some would hold water for cooking. Maybe you could find info about splitting cane by doing a search on Cherokee basket making.

gstoneberg:
I can post some close-ups of that bamboo string on the New Guinea bow if you'd like.  I definitely agree that the knot appears to have been tied when the cane was wet and on the bow I have I didn't see a provision for unstringing it.  I think the bow is made from palm, it looks a lot like the black palm I've seen pictures of here.  Anyway, if more pictures would help I'll post them.

George

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