Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Primitive Skills => Topic started by: Boots on July 02, 2010, 07:35:49 pm
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anyone have any experience making or using bow strings out of yucca fiber? thanks
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Yes they are very strong and make a good bowstring and you don't have to worry about the weather! You have to strip the fibers out of the leaves of the plant. Read it in the book that Jim Hamm put out about native american bows and arrows! Kenny
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Alan(Woodland Roamer) just posted a great locust woodland style bow with a yucca string. Check it out in the "BOWS" section.
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yucca is very strong and makes a good string. When I'm doing pump test at work which is very boring, I twist them up. The neck knife I made for Pappy is hanging from a yucca string.
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How do you prepare the yucca to make cordage. Do you use it green or do you have to wret(sp) it first.
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Pat, I use it green. I hold it flat and run it back and forth over the edge of a board or table to loosen it up. Then I pull the threads out like you would with backstrap sinew.
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I usually do it like Eddie said. If you want really good clean fiber, you can boil it for a little while and every bit of the green gunk will come off and leave just the clean white fiber. Seems to strengthen it a little, too. Yucca fiber isn't as strong as dogbane or milkweed, (at least the variety we have here isn't,) but it makes good cordage.
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The Yucca Fibers from the Texas Yuccas are so tough that you can litterally take one...and some sand...wet it...add the sand...and saw through a Board with it...the Native Indians here used to use it (if you strip it right you keep the leaf point with the Fibers to make a sewing kit) for sewing Braintan...and other Hides to make clothes...and themselves when injured...so I have read and been told....... ;)
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thanks guy's I have an endless supply around the house. I'll see what I can do with it..
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sounds like I need to do some collecting next time I am in Eastern New Mexico visiting the wifes relatives.
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JustinNC, it grows all over NC. We have the mountain variety, Yucca filimentosa (bear grass) and in coastal areas probably what we called Spanish bayonets, with a real sharp point on each leaf tip.
Alan(woodland roamer) had a yucca string on his latest Eastern Woodland style bow. I got to see it and talk to Alan at the camp-o-rama two weekends ago. He scrapes the yucca leaves green to expose the fibers and prefers a yucca bow string over rawhide or sinew because it isn't affected by moisture like the animal fibers are.
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I pound the yucca between two small logs, then just scrape the pulp off the fiber. There is a lot more fiber in there than you would think.
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The best way to get good clean fiber is to wet pound and scrape it like Justin said, but it's a bit labor-intensive. I have a small deer scapula that I have scraped a lot of it with, works like a charm.
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Pat I used to see it a lot when I did wetland/stream locating. Used to see it around a lot of old home sites....a site out past you in Sylva comes to mind. Now I mostly just see it in yards.
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like said its a great fiber. also makes a great soap. dig up the root smash it , wet and rub between your hands. its loaded with saponins. love to use it when camping. flowers are edible too and delicious. my knowledge is with filimentosa so check variety before using. peace
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The flowers are good, but you have to get them, while they are still fairly new. As they age, they start to get bitter. When I lived in the Virgin Island's some of the resturaunts in the used them in their salads. I have read about the N.A.'s using the thorn and string attatched as a needle and thread. You can shave the thorn down to a smaller diameter.
Wayne
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Natives also used yucca to make paintbrushes with....take a leaf and cut it at an angle and chew the last 1/2-3/4" an inch of the big end....fray with fingers and let dry....we painted with them in art class and they work like store bought paint brushes...different size leaves for different size brushes and are reusable. They make great fan brushes!!. ( make sure u chew till the green stuff is out and just the white fibers are left on the end)