Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: richpierce on December 31, 2007, 02:40:51 pm
-
We have a lot of woody honeysuckle in hedges here and I found the shoots work well as arrows. The wood is white, fairly hard, has almost no apparent grain, and the shoots seasoned well. They are tough and have good spine. I harvested a trunk that was 6' long and 1 and 3/4" thick at the butt end and 1 and a half " at the small end. I have not made sapling bows before but want to experiment. Suggestions?
"D" bow with flay belly?
"D" bow with decrowned back and round belly?
Other ideas?
-
i donno if it will work... Back when i lived in N.C we used Honeysuckle to make friction fire and if u know anything about friction fire you know that you use soft wood.
-
I dunno, The Honeysuckle In my front yard is kinda soft. When it dries out it starts to get like rolled up cardboard.
-
I don't wanna upset you Rich but could it be you've mis-identified the wood?
Honeysuckle around here is a vine and there ain't a 3" piece thats straight. Never heard of a honeysuckle tree....
Been wrong before though.
-
I googled some pics of a honeysuckle tree so I stand corrected. :o
Split the stave you got and sinew back that sucker. I bet it'll shoot then. Sinew's magic I hear!
-
Amur/Tatarian honeysuckles are large woody alien shrubs that seem to have pretty tough wood and are extremely invasive.They all need to be all be cut down and used for something :) I've made a few arrows from it, and they work well for that. You'd just have to try it and see.
-
You guys are right. I made a quicky hatchet bow from a large trunk that was decrowned, roughed to bow shape and quickly dried indoors (did not check). The bow was D style, 68", 1.75" wide at the middle. It drew to 35 pounds at 26", took a wicked set, started dropping in weight to 25 pounds, then popped a splinter off the decrowned back. It would have been a rabbit or frog killer at best, made for 25 pounds it might have stood up.