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Yeah!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I decided that I can start tillering my stick of guayaba today. I skinned it this morning with a sharp pocket knife. It was very wet underneath. I thought tillering it would help the drying process as long as I don't string it. I don't want it to take a 'set'. It is not to final shape but it is starting to look like a bow. It is almost 5 feet long. I no longer have many of my traditional American gun building tools. So I made my 30 inch long machete veerrry sharp and began hacking away. It is capable of a surprising accuracy. I will have to use it in a more orecise manner from here away. I also intend to test strength much sooner than with the very expensive walnut stave. With that one I proved one can get carried away removing material with a long plane.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The guayaba bow broke on the first pull with an arrow in it. I did not even get the chance to release the arrow. I had flexed the bow multiple times with a long string to check my tillering and to check the weight of pull. It was pulling to about 25 pounds. I was informed by my friend that he did not tell me guayaba, but another tree. I cant seem to get that name into my head, but he had pointed out the tree. I will try to get a stick of it. I think having been defeated twice I must now continue until I succeed.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Yeah!keep at it,guy....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Today I went looking for sticks to make a bow from. The Bowyer's Bible says almost any hardwood can be used. I found a row of hardwood trees near the house and teir owner. He told me to take what I need. So I cut one nice strsight limb. I got two sticks nearly as tall as me. They are fairly straight With only small surface knots. I brought them home and skinned them. Two more oppertunities to get it right. El León


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I'm rooting for ya!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Okay, I just found out today that the new sticks I have are eucaliptus. Very fragrant when I skinned them. In a website about yew, eucaliptus was mentioned, although I don't know if it was connected to bow making. Anyway I am making one 5 ft. and the other 6 ft. That way each inch of fiber doesn't bend as much to draw the arrow to full length. I sharpened up my machete to shape and basically tiller them. I know the ideal is to let them dry for a year or two. Could the Indians afford to do that? I know from the last attempt stress relieving the wood while wet caused it to bend some, but it bent the right way. The 25 year dried walnut stave also bent when stress relieved dry, but not to my advantage. So...go figure. I did not know the machete to be so handy and accurate. More to come.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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*sounds of popcorn being munched*.....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Well, I broke the six footer today. I Was thinning the limbs some more and wanted to just see how even was the bend. So I formed ends on it a put a loose string on it, it not being ready string it to shoot yet. I put the bow on one side of a porch post and strung it on the other side. I began pulling and it looked pretty even so I pulled it a bit farther and then: crack! So I will continue with the five footer and be more careful. I did see on the internet this morning that Eucaliptus is borderline for a bow. If the wood is too thick the compression of the grain cause it to break. Only low powered bows can be made from it. The five footer is the part of the limb closer to the trunk and is wider. This should help with the strength of the grain and resist breaking. So it was said on the website.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I now have a bow that flings arrows. I read yesterday that with osage orange the sap wood is worthless and can actually contribute to breakage. So this morning I got out my sharp machete an peeled off the sap wood on the five footer. I carefully cleaned the vestiges of sap wood off with thin pocket knife. At that point the limbs were much thinner. So I adjusted the thickness here and there while trying limbs for uniformity of bend. It was pulling about 20 pounds. Being the type of wood it is the limbs don't unload real fast. I am not getting the speed I want, but it shoots. It is not real dry yet so maybe it will get faster as it drys. The 3 footer that is left over from the broken walnut stave flings arrows faster than my new one. I have figured out a trigger bar for a bow gun. I can buy bolts to shoot. It was most unfortunate that it had a flaw that broke, because the piece that is left is flexing more, much more, now than it had to when it was longer.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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*Scratches head* Umm,ok?


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I set the bow out in the sunshine a while to complete the drying process. When I decided to shoot later, I snapped off three inches on one end. So I cut a like amount off the other end and recut groves to hold the string loops. When I attempted a full draw there were two, count them, loud cracks. Then I was standing there with a two foot length of the center of the bow in my left hand, and there were two pieces each a foot and a half long on the ground with the string. Scratch eucaliptus for bows. So I strung up the little 3 foot walnut bow. It continues to fling arrows even faster, go figure. I then bought and downloaded the Traditional Bowyer's Bible from Amazon to my tablet. I read for a while. Tomorrow I may go to the lumber yard for a piece of 1 x 3 of whatever I can find with straight grain. I am gaining a lot of experience if nothing else.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
I am gaining a lot of experience if nothing else.


You have that right! Keep it up. Trial and error until eventually you will find the right combination.

I have several other projects in the works at this time, but you have inspired me to design and eventually build my own crossbow.
I have lots of hickory, and other hardwoods all around me.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I sure wish I could get to you house, Ran, I woul buy a piece of hickory from you.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Yuck, PROOFREAD, León


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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LOL I just assumed that you had been sipping the fermented juice of the yucca plant.

I have some ash planks that have been sitting, drying, under a shed for something like 10 years. I wonder how that would do for a bow?


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I've heard Ash works well....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Yes, BT, Ash is listed with walnut, hickory and a few other hardwoods. I don't know that these trees grow down here.The trees are more of the tropical variety. I can get pine, which some bowyers used. one has to leave the limbs wider and thinner To get power without breakage. This may be the way I have to go. My trouble so far with native woods is that I was using limbs instead of trunks. The marginal woods need to have wide thin tillers, and I did not have the width, thus breakage. And I was dead wrong about using heartwood on the eucliptus. I would not only have to get the landowner's permission to cut down a tree, but also written permission from the government. That is not a nighmare I want to experience.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Ran, is your ash heart wood, or is the sap wood still integral?


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I had to take the tree down for some reason that I now forget. A guy I know has a portable sawmill so we just threw the logs on it and sliced them into planks 2 to 4 inches thick. The wider planks that were cut out of the full diameter of the log contain heartwood while the lessor width of the planks that were cut from along the sides of the log do not.

I currently have over a dozen trees here that I marked for cutting down. Most are oaks, both red and white, but there are also hickory, beech, tulip popular, black cherry, and one black walnut. The largest oak only has a base diameter of about 18". Most are only 12", or less, at the base. The oaks will become firewood, but the others will probably be cut for lumber for my own use.

Some years ago I made a woodstrip and epoxy canoe out of tulip popular with oak gunnels. It turned out pretty well.

Currently I am building a small, 12'x20' cabin, but it is nearing completion. I'm an old man and tire quickly, so I don't do much work at one time and so my projects go sloo-oowly. When the cabin is done, in another week or two, I can move on to other projects - such as my crossbow idea.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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