Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: lebhuntfish on April 03, 2016, 11:08:05 pm
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A while ago my two niece's asked for a bow. I kinda put them off for a while because they are pretty rambunctious and ruff with the little kit bow their dad bought them.
A couple weeks ago while at OJAM they were giving away rattan bows to all the kids. I talked to one of the guys that helps run OJAM about the left over bows. He said that they were pretty much indestructible and showed me how to tiller them the right way. All they had done was cut them in half notch out pin knocks and kinda rough out a handle. Then they just strung them up with some nylon rope. They pretty much just bent in the handle. So I decided to purchase two of them from him for just 10 bucks.
The other day I pulled them out and tillered them down with just my belt sander. Believe it or not they are pretty tuff. I managed to get them to a good even tiller in just a couple of hours. The first one I weighed was almost 40lbs at at 28in. I was surprised at the amount of strength they had. I worked on them until they were right at 15@20. I found they were pretty much indestructible, I could pull them to my ear with any trouble and they didn't feel bad doing it. The other thing is they guy told me once they start taking set just string them up the other way and shoot them like that. So I did, the weight pretty much stayed the same and I could still draw them to my ear and not hurt them.
I thought they were kinda ugly so throwing caution to the wind I took my torch and "colored the cut side and burnt diagonal lines on the other. I roughly sanded it to 120 grit and wrapped the handle with some leather lacing. I sprayed a coat of shalac on the whole thing then when it dried I sanded it to 220. Then put 4 more coats of spray shalac on them. I repepoused a couple of old red b50 strings and served them. Then I tied a double knocking point so the arrows would stay in place with some bright yellow string I had.
All in all it was a fun little project and the best part is my girls loved them. I don't have any pictures of them shooting but we spent about an hour just having fun.
If you want a fun project for the kiddos try rattan. I may try to make me one as well. Thanks for looking!
Patrick
(http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w668/lebhuntfish1/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-03/20160328_173814_zpso9kxjaco.jpg) (http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/lebhuntfish1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-03/20160328_173814_zpso9kxjaco.jpg.html)
(http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w668/lebhuntfish1/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-03/20160328_173901_zpshzfu4oc8.jpg) (http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/lebhuntfish1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-03/20160328_173901_zpshzfu4oc8.jpg.html)
Ellie on the left and Kate on the right.
(http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w668/lebhuntfish1/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-04/20160403_170707_zpsmnuf7adx.jpg) (http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/lebhuntfish1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-04/20160403_170707_zpsmnuf7adx.jpg.html)
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Nice work Patrick. Look like they are enjoying their new bows.
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Look sweet, Pat. Girls and bows!
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Good stuff right there, actually the best stuff.....the smiles say everything ya need to know
rich
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Nicely done. Nothing beats kids and bows.
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Those really turned out nice Patrick.
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Those look pretty cool, and I think the girls might like them too!
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Nice job Patrick. Those are really nice kid's bows. I will have to try that for my grandkids.
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Thanks a bunch fellas! The girls sure do love them.
Patrick
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Nice bows but those smiles are special, lebhuntfish. :)Jawge
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Sweet !
Good job , and yes that is the good stuff right there!
I need to buy me a truck load of Rattan.
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Thanks!
II done some searching for rattan. Most of the websites I found that sold them was in a foreign language. However I did find a distributor out of California. They were about 10 dollars for about a 3in round piece long enough for a bow. But you can get 2 for sure. Cheapest staves I ever seen! :laugh:
Patrick
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I don't wonder but what these would make pretty good fishing bows... Maybe even rig up a Penobscot style with rattan to bring up the weight a little bit. :) Hmmmm...... ???
OneBow
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Looks like you made those kids happy.Nice job.
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Thanks Ed!
You know Eric, that might just work.
Dang it, now I have another bow that I want to make.
Patrick
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Nice work!
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Thanks buddy!
Patrick
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Patrick those look killer man! Beautiful family too. Haha can you recite the words to Frozen yet? Thanks to my little girl I know most of the movie word for word lol ridiculous.!
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Any chance you can describe some more details about how these are done, I happen to have access to plenty of rattan and think this would be fun to make a few beater/loaner bows. You say you split it in half, rough out the handle, hack in some pin nocks, what else? Do you round off the flat side where it was split, is there a particular cross section shape to go for? I see you said you tillered it with a belt sander so am I right in assuming the tillering on these is more or less about sanding the thickness taper so it bends right? I've never made a bow before but this sounds like it would be kinda easy especially considering the lower expectations of the finished product as opposed to trying to make a "real" finished selfbow, if you know what I mean.
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I've even seen someone make Turkish-like bows out of rattan... with static recurves.