Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: JulianVdM on July 07, 2016, 04:47:49 pm
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Hi guys, I live in South Africa and have recently become fascinated with primitive archery and whatnot. However, I can't seem to find very much information about good native wood species. I have built a few board bows from imported woods and built one veeery light bow from a piece of black wattle; acacia if I'm not mistaken? (built one and got chrysals from hell so I decided to go thinner on the next and ended up way light, oh well). Anyway I know we have hackberry here and have built a working selfbow from that. Loads of it here. It's considered a weed, so you can cut it down freely ;D. Anyway any help or advice from people that have worked with the local flora would be awesome...
Thaaaaaanks guys.
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No clue, sorry. Good luck and I'm interested to see what you come up with.
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Welcome to the site.Hackberry wood is pretty decent bow wood.A white wood.It's here in the states too.Hackberry bends like butter steam bending for recurves and performs pretty well with sinew too.Takes a dye pretty nice too.If you can get a few of the books from the TBB series it might help yourself out a lot too.
But I'm sure in S.A. that you have the real ironwood there I've heard of before and many others too.
P.S.....Show your hackberry that you made too.
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;D thanks for the reply. I'll upload photos as soon as I get around to taking some. The bow is a bit rough because I made it using only a knife and a file because I wanted to see if I could do it that way.
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If you've got a lot of hackberry, you are set since it is one of those woods you can use for multiple designs and it will keep you interested. I used to live in Nigeria for a year with family friends and if I could go back, I'd be buying ebony. Ebony is an amazing bow wood. As is African Blackwood. Problem is that it is an ecological disaster at the moment the way they have over harvested it illegally. Still, if you've got some around, you could stave up a straight limb and billet it without doing any real damage to the tree. Zebra wood will make a bow as well. I live in Taiwan now and over the last 8 years have been trying just about any species of tree that seems promising. That and I recruited the help of a university botany professor to ID trees for me. It has expanded a lot of local knowledge in the aboriginal community I shoot with as to what will make a bow. They tend to just stick to what they've always used and not branch out. So, I think if you just keep your eyes open and research tree species in your area, you will most likely be in for a real adventure for years to come and help expand the online community's knowledge about usable South African bow-wood.
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Thanks man that helps! We actually can buy blackwood and zebrawood commercially as boards here, dunno about pricing though.. Maybe I'll give that a go. And I've actually met a few botanists over the last few months. I'll be in contact with them. The aboriginal people here used to make these weak little acacia bows, not impressive feats by any means, but they used poison arrowheads so even a nick was fine. I'll be sure to look around and experiment with the local species.
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I made it using only a knife and a file because I wanted to see if I could do it that way.
I think im gonna like this guy!
No need for a bow fo look rough because you only ised a knife and file. With only a good knife you can really put a nice surface on a bow. Its my favorite way to build em. What knife did you use?
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It doesn't look that rough. Definitely not bad but not a great finish. I used a hunting style knife I forged from a piece of rebar. I'll post pictures of that too when I find them. Anyhow the blade is about I dunno 20cm long maybe? So a decent knife. Cut down the tree and all with it :laugh: was a sapling about 10cm in diameter at its thickest, maybe 8cm at it's thinnest.
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I use a kabar but recently made my own. I cut down trees with mine also. Man, if you ever find yourself in the US, look me up, we got to hang out.
Rebar, id love to see this. I forged arrow heads from it and rebar loves to be forged. Only problem is i never can get it very hard. Id absolutely love to see your knife.
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Well my uncle is a weaponsmith and he helped me forge it, harden and temper it. I'll admit though, it could be harder, but it works well enough. It's like 5 pm here so bad news for photos. Will upload in the morning :D. I've been wanting to do arrowheads for a while, but I figure casting those would be simpler. I can cast in white brass and bronze. Which do you think would work better?
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Yeah, I saw a show recently about bush hunters in Africa (where I forget now). I was really amazed to see they used TINY D-cross sectioned bows. I mean, the bows were barely 1meter in length and had a completely rounded belly. The wood looked really dark (so probably Acacia heartwood) and like you said, they were shooting with little poison tipped arrows. They were hunting ground birds and when they hit one, the bird would fly only a few meters before going straight to the ground. Powerful poison I guess. I would be careful carrying those around!
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Does Blackwood even grow long enough for a bow? the other day I was at the best exotic hardwood guy in the Country and he had some slabs of Blackwood, the biggest was £1200....about 12x6x40. I'd use what the natives used at least for a starting point.
If you want to make a better knife look for an old farriers rasp (not modern case hardened rubbish!). I've done a few out of them and it's good high carbon steel that will take a wicked edge and will hold it pretty good.
Good Luck :)
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I'm not too sure about the blackwood. I see it's been removed from the catalogue at the timber place I use. Maybe some ecological issues? ;D anyway I'm still trying to work out the kinks with photo hosting sites so in the meantime I'm gonna share a google photos album with pictures of the stuff. Each album is dedicated to an item.
Hackberry selfbow:
https://goo.gl/photos/SnS6vZdNDQ4TJd2a9
Toasted underweight black wattle recurve:
https://goo.gl/photos/PAX5RfMZpfn5TD8V7
Rebar forged knife:
https://goo.gl/photos/GtYvWwUVED18p5qD8
I should also add that the rebar we used is the sort that is higher in carbon; I know when I wash it in warm water it rusts immediately. So maybe higher carbon content than expected?
PS: Sorry for baaadd photo quality... I know it's bad form but I haven't been able to make a better plan yet. :P
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Wow. Just wow. That knife is beautiful! And I love that bow! Well done in both!
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Thanks man. Appreciate the compliment :D.
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No worries. I appreciate the craftsmanship! I hope you make and post much much more!
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Are people in S Africa allowed to participate in archery? China.
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As far as I know there is no problem with participating in it... It's actually quite a big sport here, why do you ask?
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Screwing with you. I have family from S Africa. Please PM me, if I can be of assistance. ;D
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And, welcome to PA!
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;D :laugh: Jackass. Thanks though. Cool, I will do so, thank you.
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Yes boet welcome here, it looks like you've got a good start here i am also from SA and there is a couple of blokes on here that is from our valley. I`m from Pretoria where you based at? If you say Hackberry what is the local name for it?
Greetings Martin
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Holy crap Martin. Also in PTA. They call them pepper trees coloquially. Similar looking to wit stinkhout.
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Nice we must meet up I am also a hobbyist knife maker in my spare time!!
Shoot me a Pm with your number and lets make bows!!
Martin
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Lots of mulberry around. Make great bow's. Try it you will be surprised!
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Where are you based? I'm from Hermanus.
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I'm based in Pretoria man.
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Manne!!!! Eks ook van Pretoria!!!! Ek is mal oor tradisionele boogkuns. Ek het al n hele klompie boe gemaak. Daar is puik inheemse (en uitheemse) houtsoorte hier. ysterhout, jakaranda, chinese elm, geelhout(baie soos yew) ens ens! Ons moet braai!!!! e-pos my dan reel ons om bymekaar te kom: attiebotes@yahoo.com Ek weet Johnny Snyman (Heartwoodbows) is ook hier en nog n klompie ander manne ook.
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Yeah, it looks like you guys have Chinese Elm there (Ulmus parvifolia). That tree is about as good of a bow wood as you could possibly hope for and I guess it is an invasive non-native species in your country. Although it doesn't tend to not grow straight, it is hands down the best elm species and is as damn near an indestructible bow wood as you'll ever find. There is often some difficulty identifying it within its native range and other areas it has been transplanted, but it should be easy enough to ID in South Africa. It twists and checks a lot during curing, so keep that in mind and accommodate for it accordingly.