Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Little John on November 17, 2010, 09:14:07 pm
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After seeing the hunting post of Josaih Huston and his salt cedar bow killed deer I got to thinking that we have tons of it here in the desedt south west and it would be fun to try a bow from It. Does any one have experience with this wood or know what designs would work best with this material? Kenneth
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Salt Cedar(Tamarisk) is an invasive tree and in it's native habitat saw use as bow (and likely arrow) wood as well.
The ancient Scythians used it for the wooden portion of their complex composites.
There are also large numbers of excavated Scythian bows that were complex wooden laminates only. I wouldn't be surprised if testing showed that these bows were also made from Salt Cedar.
Those who make arrows from it mention it being pretty light but perhaps it has some of the qualities of lighter woods such as Juniper or Elm.
You can see some of the research done on these bows over on Paleoplanet in the blog of the member named "redhawk"
I'd certainly be experimenting if it was close at hand.
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Kenneth, I've made a few arrows with salt cedar but not a bow. Give it a shot. Something to do at camp. ;)
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Yea I am keeping my eyes open for a good piece. It might get harder to find as they are eradicating it with tamarisk beetles along the major rivers as they are non native, take over, use tremendous amounts of water, and fill the soil with salt till hardly nothing else can grow, they have no value as wild life habitat. I am thinking maybe a split inhalf pole bow, probably with sinue. Kenneth
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Hey there. Ive used tamarisk as arrow wood but havent ventured to try it as bow wood. The arrows turn out extremely tough and stiff, it outlasted my POC arrows and my arroweed arrows. If you go to the arrows section I posted some plains style arrows, they are made out of salt cedar. Be careful they tend to split if cut in the summer so youn should get some bow wood this month or next month to prevent splitting. Hope this helps
Cesar