Main Discussion Area > Cave Men only "Oooga Booga"
River Cane Bow String
stickbender:
What about treating the split cane sections like sinew, and keep splitting them into smaller, and smaller sections till you have it down to cord size, or just peeling off the fiber sections, and then twisting it into a cord? I know they make sheets, and shirts, and such out of bamboo fiber. Supposed to very soft. Some are blended in with cotton, and other fibers. Just a thought. ;) As for fly rods, the instructions I have seen, the sections were sanded down to a triangle section, and then the sections were glued together, like making an arrow.
Wayne
jamie:
awesome thread. that string always interested me when i saw it in the bowyers bible. best of luck and keep us informed of progress.
swamp monkey:
--- Quote from: stickbender on February 27, 2011, 04:17:02 pm ---
What about treating the split cane sections like sinew, and keep splitting them into smaller, and smaller sections till you have it down to cord size, or just peeling off the fiber sections, and then twisting it into a cord? I know they make sheets, and shirts, and such out of bamboo fiber. Supposed to very soft. Some are blended in with cotton, and other fibers. Just a thought. ;) As for fly rods, the instructions I have seen, the sections were sanded down to a triangle section, and then the sections were glued together, like making an arrow.
Wayne
--- End quote ---
Wayne, The splitting is what I have trouble with, but when I get that down then I plan to experiment like a crazy man!
swamp monkey:
In the world of online posting immediacy seems to be the flavor of the day. However, I like the primitive archery because it seems to say, no we can slow down a bit. It has been a while since I started this thread but now I have some test results to report.
I traveled to my cane spot last week and set to work. I cut my cane from stalks I would use to make atlatl spears. 1/2" diameter on the small end at least, pulled off the leaves and found a work spot.
swamp monkey:
I used a arrow sized diameter culm growing on the bank as my upright for splitting. I used a smaller 1/4" segment to make the splits horizontally.
I started my four way split with two cuts on the big end. I placed the resulting quarters on each side of the splitting pieces. I will explain this more in detail on primitive archer's website and forward the link. The benefit of this is that it will have my pictures uploaded.
Anyhow, I was able to split quarter sections from 3-4 feet in length. This is light-years ahead of what I had previously done. Splitting green cane really helped.
However I knew I needed a longer split than this so I kept working it. Fortunately, each time the four split stopped it was always at a node and one quarter was still attached to the remaining stalk. This also happened at smaller diameter sections but not a predictable diameter. So i used my pocket knife to split off and whittle the remainder to get lengths proper for making a string.
I cannot stress how much better this worked compared to working seasoned cane! It was not a perfect equal four way split so I cannot thus far make four strings from one cane, BUT I can make a one string from one culm and that beats the zero I was sporting before.
I truly hope you do not have to make the string with green cane, as I was pressed for time and have to let the project sit for a while longer while I tend to family and work matters. My next step is to smooth down the string to a mostly round cross section. Then I have to learn how to make those woven cane bands- as they function as the nocks on that bow.
Any how that is my most recent excursion with splitting cane. I saved the smaller splits in case I can make a basket form them some day.
As Meriwether Lewis wrote many days to begin his journal entry, "We preceded on".
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version