Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: TenkaraGrasshopper on August 28, 2017, 04:34:32 pm
-
Has anyone ever built a bow using rattan? :BB
I am curious to see if anyone has actually built on as I am considering it. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
-
They make great little bows for youngers, you can use rattan or bamboo. It's just the outside is actually your belly instead of your back:) have fun.
-
You can definitely get hunting weight bows from it. Mike Stocklin has had luck heat treating, recurving, and making sinew backed Lakota style horse bows from it with draw weights up around 70 lbs at 14" of draw on a 40" nock to nock bow.
-
Thanks guys now I need to find a reasonable source for the rattan.
-
Sean Webb up in Iowa used to build adult sized/draw weight bows out of rattan. The stuff is pretty amazing ...
-
Yes rattan is a usable material. Bows can be made a lot shorter then with wood, because it's bendy. And they should be made a lot wider towards the tips, because it's bendy. You can make a bow for 0,8m draw with as little as 1,5m ttt-length (including a stiff handle section and some static recurves. Bending can be done with a heat gun in no time, and you can do such horrible stuff as tillering with a spokeshave on the back of the bow ....
The disadvantages are glueing on handles is tricky, because it's so fibrous. If things go wrong, you only glue on the handle to one layer of fibres, and then they just split of ... so adding any kind of safety-wraping will be a good idea. It's hard to get the surface pretty ... and wooden bows often have better cast.
Still ... I find it is a joy to work it.