Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: koan on August 23, 2014, 12:28:12 pm
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Brother Auggie and I was sittin on the porch during a bad storm a few yrs ago and got to watch a white oak get struck by lightning. Well ofcourse the next day we had to go across my lake and collect what we could, lol... Ended up with 4 staves from about a 6-8" section. They are bout 65" long as i recall and at most 1 1/2" wide.. This wood is harder than a brick bat wich leads me to believe some of the old lore bout lightning struck trees for bow wood.... Has anyone here biult bows from lightning struck wood and if so any good advise to go with your experiance? These were the 1st staves gathered on my property so their kinda special to me. I gave one to Patb at the Classic this yr wich leaves one for me, one for Auggie, and one for my son.... Im thinkin bout a 62" x 1 1/8" bendy for mine but open to suggestion... Thanks for any input.... Brian
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Brian, an Eastern Woodland style would be appropriate for lightening struck white oak but I guess a Missouri style would too.
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Pat, i dont have any books to research those, lol... Ima hafta Google i spose ;D... Brian
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1 1/2" wide with a straight taper to 3/4" tips with side nocks. Leave the handle a little thick and narrow it a bit fir comfort.
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If you have any small pieces of that wood leftover, just little 1" to 2" chips or what-not, I can make you a trade for them.
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sounds like a nice bow in there,,
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Im hoping Brad, it seems more dense then usual. Dharma i will do my best to save ya some. Im gonna save a couple myself for knife scales ;)... Brian
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Wood like this would have been seen as having supernatural power from the lightning by most native American tribes. A tree of hardwood that was struck by lightning then turned into a bow would be a special bow for sure.
E
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I had a Hackberry tree struck by lightening about 6 years back.
The next day I cut it down and started roughing out staves, only to find, tiny fractures all throughout the wood,
"and by throughout the wood I mean in every growth ring layer"
The tiny fractures looked like checks from natural drying.
I proceeded as normal to attempt to make bows from this wood.
Once the bows were floor tillered and on the tiller tree, you could hear dozens of little ticks when the limbs flexed.
The tiny fractures continued to run the length of the limbs and split each time the bow limbs were flexed.
I was VERY disappointed, as you could imagine.
Seems that the lightening either
A. Instantly sucked all the moisture out of the wood, and caused the fractures, or
B. It Superheated the moisture and caused the wood grains to expand and crack due to internal pressures.
Maybe lightening has different effects on different woods, maybe it's the amount of voltage applied to the wood.
Too many unknown variables
I have made many bows from many other Hackberry trees since, and have never seen the tiny fractures in any of them.
I hope this is not the case for the wood you have, But I would check it closely for tiny fractures.
Good luck and I hope things turn out well for you.
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I have heard of that before Junkie... I see no signs of it in these staves so far...fingers crossed, lol.... Brian
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Don't fool with lightning killed wood! I had a big cherry log slabbed off for gunstock blanks, I wet the slabs down to keep them from checking. The next day I rolled the slabs over and found the water had run through the slabs via a zillion tiny fractures. The wood was useless.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/sawing%20wood/loaded.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ekrewson/media/sawing%20wood/loaded.jpg.html)
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If I remember my physics the temperature of a lightning bolt is a couple of thousand degrees and causes all the moisture in the tree to vapourise making the tree explode. That's why you shouldn't stand under trees in a storm, and I suspect would have some large effect on the cell structure of the wood?
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This dont sound to promising, lol. If i remember right i think this was a large limb from the tree but honestly...there were a few adult beverages involved during the collection of this stuff so its abit fuzzy, lol.... Brian
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If the wood is full of holes, it would be neat to see if you could pressure treat epoxy into all the pores. You could have a wood fiber epoxy infused bow.... unbreakable.
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I say carve them up and see what happens. ;D
What's the worse that can happen, gain some knowledge ?
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Sleek no epoxy for me! I want to at least cook a brat with mine. >:D
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Yes, a bow made from lightning-struck would, if it can be done, would be a very powerful weapon if one holds to certain beliefs about it. But if a bow cannot be made, the wood can be used to make charms and talismans you would put on your quiver, thus endowing the arrows in it with the power of lightning. Again, if you hold to certain beliefs. Some Native peoples carved the so-called "blood grooves" (aka straightening grooves) as zig-zag lines and these represented lightning. Lightning itself is depicted as zig-zag arrows.
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Im gonna give it a go. 1st a little research tho... I drive by the Greyson collection every day so im gonna swing thru there and see what they have in the way of native Mo. bows... Maybe get some ideas on a good design... Brian