Hello, I am a foreigner living in Taiwan who is an apprentice for an aboriginal bow maker. I am looking to find some good Hickory, Osage, Persimmon and preferably Yew staves. I am happy to make a trade for Taiwanese Orange Jessamine (Murraya paniculata) wood or cured high mountain dwarf bamboo arrow shafts. I am also happy to ### pieces of yew for the right price or if you are a really ambitious primitive archer and you have some elk horn lying around that is usable for a horn bow I would be more than excited to ######## or trade. Please note, Orange Jessamine is a very unique wood that in INCREDIBLY dense and is never straight grained. This is really the only wood we have available naturally to work with here and I am trying to branch into other woods. Although it is competent and beautiful, it has many notable defects due to the nature of its growth (always snaky and twisted) and its weight and is therefor limited in its uses as a bow wood. Aboriginal Taiwanese bows are long and of low draw weight and not very efficient, although I have used this wood to make heavier poundage bows that work well (albeit have a lot of hand shock). The arrow shafts are collected by members of the tribe I visit from certain isolated high mountain regions in and above cloud-line around Taiwan and are cured for over a year before use. They are thin, light, and durable. The only issue with them is some segments may be weaker than others between knuckles causing the odd few to wobble during flight. I would ask my instructor to try and separate these out. Any interest?
