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dogbane bowstring

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madcrow:
I'm not Richard, but here are a couple of ways that I have dont it.  Start at the big end and scrape it with a knife til the bark comes off.  The other and easier way is to pinch the big end til pop and starts cracking.  Crack it all the way down the stalk, then break the inner stalk off the fibers.  Once I get a couple of dozen stalks worth in a pile, I hold it between my hands and work them back and forth like I am warming them up.  Lots of the outer bark will come right off.  The majority of the rest will come off when you twist it into cordage.

richardzane:
Heya David,

I've tried it a couple ways. the first way actually worked the best. was actually looking for basket making material -- didn't know what dogbane was!
1st)) found the stalks and cut through at the base and discovered the fibers and thought.."dang..these are tough fibers"... cut stalks brought em home.
i simply started at the end an peeled off strips saving only the longest ones(didn't scrape) once i had set aside bunches I rolled the bunches on my leg
and simply twisted the fibers between my fingers to get the chaff off. Some of the chaff is likely still twisted in the bowstring. doesn't seem to affect it.
the positive : long fibers, all sized nicely not alot of fraying.

2nd)) method,  as Madcrow said  sand or scrape off the red stuff as clean as you can, crack the stalk at the base.  and split it all the way to the tip into 1/4 sections( it almost does it naturally) hold the 4 sections splayed together at the base between your thumb and pointer .(You'll be seein the inside of the stalk) snap off the four pieces about 3 inches down peel it back off of the strings and discard. go down another 3 inches and repeat. if you hold the four pieces side by side closely this goes pretty fast. The nice thing about this is you get ALL the fibers from a stalk. the negative ,is that you have a lot of frayed and shorter sections all mixed in and it can be messier and harder to twist an even string.

some people roll two cords and let them twist together.So far I like to twist hard every inch of the way. this makes a really tight cord. i haven't tried a flemish twist end yet.
i was more concerned about twisting a consistent sized string. hope that helps some? I could show some more process pics?

huntertrapper:
Thats great info man especially about it being tick repellant. My dog gets infested with them. I've heard of making strings with milkweed as well.

richardzane:
seems the weakest places on a good d.b. string will be nock areas.(bow or arrow)
String'll need to be thicker than a 15 strand  3 ply commercial  50 twist.  Arrow nocks have to be cut wider and smoothed inside.
this would likely be a good place for an inset nock, but haven't tried that yet.

Just harvested a bundle of d.b. stalks to make more strings for replacements. I'll share some pics.
My challenge in all this is making use of the natural materials in the area i live, as much as possible anyway.

madcrow:
~m still working on stalks i harvested three years ago.  I ended up with just shy of a thousand. 

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