Any traditional, or home made bow archers here?

Reason I ask, I have 2 Osage Orange ( bois d'arc) trees I am either going to cut down, or trim back. Had a fella in Florida that bought a couple limbs 6-7 years ago (only cost was shipping).

If any of you are interested and know what kind of limb is needed, your welcome to it. If you're into it, it, it would be a really neat project to use the same type wood the Indians also used for bows and clubs. Anyway, just throwing it out there, otherwise I will burn, or dump them them.

From Lewis and Clark writings,


""Indian peoples knew and valued this tree for its primary utility in their lifeways: its oak-strong, hickory-tough wood made powerful, reliable hunting bows. Early French explorers and traders translated its Indian name into bois d'arc,–"wood for a bow," which was easily anglicized into "bodark." Lewis was told, he wrote to Jefferson, "so much do the savages esteem the wood of this tree for the purpose of making their bows, that they travel many hundred miles in quest of it." That quest could be protracted exponentially by the time and effort needed to find a straight-grained, knot-free part of a trunk long enough to make a few useful weapons. Indigenous to the Arkansas River bottoms that are now in parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and northern Texas, it was prized not only by the Osage people but also by the Comanches, Kiowas, Pawnees, Omahas, Seminoles, and many others. The Scottish naturalist John Bradbury (1768-1823), who studied American flora along the Missouri in 1810, found bows as well as war clubs made of bois d'arc among the Arikaras.4 In the early 1830s, the peripatetic Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied saw one growing on the grounds of the utopian village of New Harmony in Indiana.5""

http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/2523

They don't burn too well. Make great fence posts as well. Resist rot for extremely long periods of time. Might try posting this on the traditional section on TBH. A lot of traditional archers post there. Self bowyer's included.

Cool you posted this... I was coming to the bow section to see if there was anything on traditional. I used to shoot compound, but recently had a buddy make a bow for my son. It shoots very well and I'd love to get real good and help my son get there too. I used to be pretty good with compound, and understand there is quite a difference in traditional but I can't wait to get started.

Would love to hear thoughts on ancor points. Jaw or directly under eye. Differences from compound?

Saw some decent videos on youtube under traditional archery as well.

Yes sir, I saw your thread, outstanding bow for your son!

I only shot traditional for about a year (Fred Bear bow), this was around 1979-80 iirc, it was the cheapest option for me at the time to give archery a go. Only thing I recall really, was my anchor point. I used a tab and pulled back and set my index finger at the crack of my lip, the rest seemed to be instinct and practicing consistency.

If you can find the video, or dvd of Fred Bears shooting style, may get some great pointers.

Thanks Passthru, didn't think of that. Osage orange has a lot of uses, that is for sure. The last 2 I mailed off, was to a guy on the tractor forum I was on a lot, go figure

Very little Osage is actually of good enough grade to make a self bow. You need to know what is needed before bothering to cut any. It isn't as simple as just whacking off a limb. Also, it needs to be cured/dried properly before it is shaped and tillered. Good of you to offer, though.

But yes, there are a few us still shooting traditional equipment. 46 years for me.

Wow those arrows are AMAZING!!! Even more excited now thanks for posting

Guys like flintknapper are the real deal. The rest of us are riding with training wheels. My hat is off to those guys and gals.

No doubt about it. Those are impressive sir.

I'll say, very nice set up FN.

Here is also a neat, quick read on Indian archery tech. Many arrows where hollow reed material and points where made out of many available materials. I also read somewhere that that many Indians had switched to traded steel blades real early.

http://archaeology.uiowa.edu/american-indian-archery-technology-0

Interesting thing: My grandfather was a missionary for many years in S America, before that, he was on a crew that went into the jungles looking for medicinal plants. They had met a remote tribe of some sort, that still used Bow and arrow, used the same way for centuries. He traded for 2 sets, they where much longer than I would have expected for thick jungle. Bows where about 5'6"-6' and the arrow shafts consisted of 2 separate shafts bonded together with tiny black chert obsidian looking heads, the arrows where at least 4-5' long alone. I need to see if my mother can find out what happened to them, haven't thought about them in years and would love to get a set if I could.

Yes sir, I am aware of all that, same can be said of the arrow material, if you also make those from "scratch". It is truly a labor of love to go all natural and much talent and knowledge required to do it correctly. I'd also bet many of the bows used by natives where much shorter than many think, the ones I have seen in the Smithsonian and other museums, are much shorter than my FB was.

The limbs I sent the bowyer (sp) in Florida, he picked out from photos, never asked what he was looking for, I was bitching about the tree on the other forum about cutting it and the thorns and he saw the post.

osage with horn backing. came from the tree its hanging on.[/URL]bowers pay good mpney for osage ,its hard to find in most states