An elder blowgun/tube

[ekalavya]

I was walking around and found a stick from an elderberry bush (sambucchus nigra)
and took it home with me.
The tool i removed the inner soft pith is on the photo together with a possible projectile.
The tube is only an ellbow long ... so nothing serious but it was quite easy to work out.
(a toy , to mess around .... nothing more)

The bast is from loose bark i also found some day when walking around.
Wouldn't be the newspaper wrapping , the stick would have been broken already.

I used wallpaper paste, because the powder is quite easy mixed with water and an easy
almost instant glue, which serves the purpose.

[YosemiteBen]

got to start somewhere I suppose. long as it works!

[Zuma]

Humm I wonder about Sunflower or corn stalk?
A brocolli would make a short one lol
Zuma

[ekalavya]

elder is quite good bow wood ... and especially the germans like it ....

always first fortify by wrapping and other means ....
as for sunflower and corn stalk i do not know ....

maybe the diameter would be too large , maybe you have to fill it first with wax ....
wood shavings from a slicer .... thin wood strips could also be used for the wrappings ....

there's not even a need for drilling as a blowgun / tube can be made by wrapping only ...
a large paper tube and the inner filled with wax but not completly and the outside is bast
, wood and other wrapping

two large sticks of the length of the tube could be used as stabilizers and the whole tube
made of smaller section put and wrapped together ...

[Zuma]

LOL I thought it was a blowgun for senior citizens.
You mean Elder
Zuma

[bowandarrow473]

The Elderberry we have in the U.S. Comes in two types, red and black. In my opinion, black is the better of the two for blowguns, I have never seen red elderberry big enough to make a blowgun. The type of elderberry they have in Europe is a different type as well I think, it's harder, stronger and more elastic then what we have in the U.S. that said, I am guilty of trying to make an elderberry bow, it was black elderberry. And in Florida, the stuff gets to around 1 1/4 inches in diameter so I found a nice straight piece and attempted 54inch shortie out of it. It snapped triumphantly.

[ekalavya]

it seems no native speaker calls elderberry just elder.

Woods with a lot of inner pith might be more suitable to be hollowed out.
Might be impractical for longer tubes but for toy sized tubes it seems to be a quick alternative.

Don't know if any US or state law defines toy sized tube or shooting toys or something.
Never heard of a so called US toy law.

[the barkman]

Heh,  a friend of mine uses a mtn bike handle bar and two inch bicycle spoke pieces with paper as fletching.   He's scary accurate to about thirty feet.     That elderberry wood is poisonous btw- might want to cover the mouth end with beezwax or something...

[Jodocus]

Nice 
I'm using jerusalem artichoke as spindels trying (with no success yet ) to make hand drill fire lately. Seeing this I think they might make good blowguns... I'll give it shot if I get around to it.

[jbnizzle]

In the old.days ,reports of. chilldren being poisoned by putting there mouth on greenblow guns out of elderberry.
I also.saw a video of the Tule California People. Making bows out of elderberry out there.

[crooketarrow]

  When I was a kid granddady use to make use popers. Barrel from the elder berry and the poper from a flowering dog wood. That was the gun. Makes spit balls burn.