Rattan r/d Bow

[hoosierf]

Ok BJrogg now you got me started. Here’s a favorite and a fast shooter.

Somewhere around 60” +/- TT
About 50# @28”
Rattan Wood
Buffalo tips
Half circle birch branch rest (a favorite)
Cane handle wrap

You guys might start thinking I’m a pyromaniac but i burnt the tips and belly a ton on this one because they were twisting under the load and it worked. They stay in line now. Rattan is not that easy to get but for my money it’s the easiest bow wood (palm) to tiller and they are durable as all heck. I left the skin on which I’ve not seen before and i think it gives it a cool look.

[Badger]

  Beautiful job on that one. Most I have seen took excessive set but they were not heat treated at all. There is a good source of Rattan at Franks cane and rush

[hoosierf]

Thanks. Here’s the unbraced profile. Set was not too bad. I call it an r/d because i did put deflex right out of the fades, but i wish i hadn’t. It might have a better profile unbraced.

[Badger]

  Not bad at all, as light as rattan is I imagine it does shoot well.

[Springbuck]

  There was a french guy over on Paleoplanet.net that made some really great-looking stuff from rattan.  Can't remember his handle, darn it.

[k-hat]

That's pretty.  Seems like I remember reading about rattan bows, and they recommended splitting them down the middle and letting the split side be the back.  Have you tried it that way?  Just curious.

[hoosierf]

No i haven’t tried a flat back but i have read about it. I have another stave. I’ll have to try it.

[sleek]

  There was a french guy over on Paleoplanet.net that made some really great-looking stuff from rattan.  Can't remember his handle, darn it.

FrenchCrow or something like that?

[Springbuck]

That's the guy, Sleek!  Thanks.  He did some cool work with bamboo-backed bamboo, like a deflexed "horsebow" type of thing with long siyahs and string bridges, and it looked like a screamer.

[Bckskin2]

WOW!

[Springbuck]

Hoosier, did you even work the belly?  I can't tell from pics.  That looks like a killer.

I'm looking for a wicker Ottoman or something at the thrift store, with some 3/4"-1" rattan to make some lash-on recurves.  One of these days.

[JW_Halverson]

Mike Stocklin in Faith, SD used to make murderous rattan horsebows.  He used the sawed side out, put the classic Sioux 5 curve to them with heat, then sinew backed them.  My favorite was 36" long tip to tip, pulled in excess of 70# at a 14 inch draw!  He drew it to 18!  I laughed and said if he could make an arrow stout enough he could brain-pan buffalo with blunts with that bow.

[hoosierf]

Yep, i worked the belly just like any other wood. I steemed in the recurves and deflex. It’s a riot to shoot. The stuff is practically unbreakable.  I started with a 1 1/2” fighting stick i found online.

[Marc St Louis]

Nice work.  Not something you see every day

[upstatenybowyer]

Cool.