I recently returned from a vacation in Hawaii and although it is of course a tropical paradise, I was feeling a little antsy about not doing any bow building for 2 weeks. Fortunately for me, it turns out Hawaii is home to a wild rose called Ulei, which the old Hawaiians used for building bows. They were predominantly used for rodent hunting, so were typically very small bows of light poundage. Ulei is a pretty shrub, occasionally growing as a small tree.
I harvested some Ulei and made a little bow as an experiment. It's 44" NTN and pulls 12 pounds at 22" draw. I whittled it in an afternoon with nothing but a pocket knife, then let it dry in the sun for 10 days. The tiller leaves something to be desired, but I wanted the bow to be crude to see just how much abuse this wood can take. The stave had about 2 inches of natural deflex, and took on an additional inch or so of set during tillering.
Here is the 22" full draw:
Next I drew it 29", expecting it to break, which didn't happen. In the below three part photo, the top image is resting before draw, the middle is at 29" draw, and the bottom is unstrung immediately after the long draw. It took an additional 1/2" or so of set.
I am pretty impressed and am looking forward to making a heavier bow with this stuff someday.
