These past couple of weeks I've really been working hard at getting a set of arrows and a bow done from start to finish. I started off hacking away at a sweet gum stave it turned out all twisted. I sent it to the burn pile where my previous broken bows were reduced to ashes. There was a crepe myrtle stave, which was my last dry stave. I went at it working as much as I had time for. I feel like the tiller is still a little off so I might work on that tomorrow. I stained it with a mixture of hickory nut husks, coffee grounds, and ash bark to give it the reddish color. Let me know what y'all think!
I cheated on the bowstring. My brother is into
yoyoing so we used his yoyo string machine to make a glorified string that was four times the width of a normal yoyo string. I'll work on a natural agave string tomorrow or try to shoot a squirrel.
Next on the to-do list was arrows. I've been working on arrows a little bit here and there but mostly I'd just make one until I lost it and then make another. When I first got interested in bows(last summer) I also got interested in knapping and made a few arrowheads here and there... nothing great but pointy nonetheless. Last Wednesday I brought my knapping material to school and knapped between classes. It helped that my lab partner and I decided to skip that morning's lab. I've only ever used glass since down here in central Florida I don't have access to rocks and glass looks so pretty when knapped.
The one on the left wasn't used since it didn't fit in any of the arrows well....and I lost it.
I used just pine pitch to haft the heads on the shaft.
I reckon I need to kill a coon now so I can make a quiver to put these arrows in.
