Did you ever notice...

[DuBois]

I swear, I debarked some buckthorn this year and every time I did I took a big crap. HMMM...could have been the bark?
Never would have thought of that before making bows. I think it's cool the things we learn we wouldn't have if not for bow making.

[campx]

http://www.thegoddesstree.com/trees/Hawthorn.htm

I just found a beauty of of a hawthorn tree;  I can probably cut at least a 60 inch chunk out of it, 4 inches diameter.  Pretty rare around here.  Better leave an offering tothe little people before I cut it though.......

[D. Tiller]

A tree that produces nuts or fruit
will make a bow that is good to shoot.


Or is it,
A bow that is good to shot is produced by a nut or fruit?

Definitely the last statement!!!

[JackCrafty]

 

[Don Case]

It is with enough butter

[JackCrafty]

Yes!  Yes it is!   

[toomanyknots]

One thing I have always thought about is the nature (or rather tendency) of osage orange and english yew to be knotty and twisted sometimes. I know not every osage tree is like that, and I only know what I hear about english yew, but it seems like it is not uncommon to hear accounts of both trees being knotty and twisted, etc. As well as osage and black locust both being ripe with thorns. What I am getting at, is I have thought a couple times if maybe man has been using these woods so much over time, whether for bow wood, or other purposes, that these woods have evolved through natural selection to be twisted and knotty and thorny, etc. Think about it, if there was a type of osage orange growing  back in the day that had a tendency to grow perfectly straight with no twist or knots, it would be the first to get turned into a bow, or war club, or anything else for that matter. Although I know osage will typically just sprout shoots after being cut and grow right back, so this might just be a bunch of bs.

[Jim Davis]

One thing I have always thought about is the nature (or rather tendency) of osage orange and english yew to be knotty and twisted sometimes. I know not every osage tree is like that, and I only know what I hear about english yew, but it seems like it is not uncommon to hear accounts of both trees being knotty and twisted, etc. As well as osage and black locust both being ripe with thorns. What I am getting at, is I have thought a couple times if maybe man has been using these woods so much over time, whether for bow wood, or other purposes, that these woods have evolved through natural selection to be twisted and knotty and thorny, etc. Think about it, if there was a type of osage orange growing  back in the day that had a tendency to grow perfectly straight with no twist or knots, it would be the first to get turned into a bow, or war club, or anything else for that matter. Although I know osage will typically just sprout shoots after being cut and grow right back, so this might just be a bunch of bs.

Darn smart trees, eh! Who'd a thunk trees would be a smart as all the other creatures that decided to change because conditions changed. Just goes to show, we shouldn't take so much for "granite" as vinemaplebows said in the first post. That was a pretty igneous comment actually. Wonder if he meant we shouldn't take things for shale, or limestone, or another igneous possibility, obsidian...

[Jim Davis]

Oh nutz.  I  just realized my post didn't have near the cleveritude I  thought it did. Granite isn't the least bit igneous. It's conglomerate... That actually seems to be appropriate for this thread.

[vinemaplebows]

Well, it went a bit deeper in thought than I was thinking, BUT.... It would seem to come from the femenine side. We first look, then we stare, we then decide if she would make a good date, then we try to shape her into what we feel is sexy...(you know how that works out at times ) We stroke her, bend her against her will, and last we finish her as beatifully as possible.....she then becomes our date for the hunt of a lifetime.....and she hates it when we look at others in the forest.....(picture a slap to the back of your head )  as we check others out.

We really hate it when she breaks up with us. :embarassed:.....be very, very carefull at full draw she is not far from giving you the shaft......yep tons in common with women!

[Carson (CMB)]

One thing I have always thought about is the nature (or rather tendency) of osage orange and english yew to be knotty and twisted sometimes. I know not every osage tree is like that, and I only know what I hear about english yew, but it seems like it is not uncommon to hear accounts of both trees being knotty and twisted, etc. As well as osage and black locust both being ripe with thorns. What I am getting at, is I have thought a couple times if maybe man has been using these woods so much over time, whether for bow wood, or other purposes, that these woods have evolved through natural selection to be twisted and knotty and thorny, etc. Think about it, if there was a type of osage orange growing  back in the day that had a tendency to grow perfectly straight with no twist or knots, it would be the first to get turned into a bow, or war club, or anything else for that matter. Although I know osage will typically just sprout shoots after being cut and grow right back, so this might just be a bunch of bs.

I have wondered that same thing tmk.  "Survival of the twistedest"   

[bowsandroses]

Black hawk pass the pipe around. Wow! This is some good $h!+ man

[seminolewind]

Black hawk pass the pipe around. Wow! This is some good $h!+ man

I had to switch to peyote...that pipe wasn't doing it for me.

[Jodocus]

I love blackthorn (prunus spinosa) for bows, really has all you can ask from bowwood. But even though the thorns look harmless, not even real thorns, just pointy twigs, I get badly scratched each time I'm snatching one out of the hedges. And the worst is, these scratches heal very slowly To me that has really become a part of what it is as a bowwood.

[Wylden Freeborne]

Yew has been called the tree of life and whilst there is ongoing research into taxol i think it comes from the fact that it looks almost flesh like when the bark is ripped down to heart wood.

Well, the Yew tree probably got it's tree of life title from the multiple uses it bore as well as it being Yggdrasil, the tree Odin hung himself form for nine days to receive the gift of runes, the ability to communicate through time, really. The word yggdrasil can be traced to be derived from the word for yew and the word for pillar, holding up heaven form the earth. We do know it was carried from the gaels to Egypt as a gift, possibly by druidic cultures, and is possibly the basis for the word Jew (yew/jew) as it was a holy tree in Egypt along the Nile and ther ewere many jews in high royalty in the Egyptian courts, often being holy men and magicians.

We are often taught to ignore pagan or heathen traditions as being somewhat Luciferian or replete of any real life meaning, but truth s, there is rarely a spiritual practice in earth based cultures that is not based on real life survival and thriving from the land. The term "medicine bow" is one that is roughly translatable in nearly any culture that is shamanistic.

Am I a nerd?