Challenge Accepted! Now I need some help with primitive plant based string...

[oscar3b]

Hey everyone!  I have a long story to tell so I'm going to apologize in advance.  For starters I haven't posted on here in a long time and it is good to be back.  I had been laying off of bows for some time because I got a new job that needed as much of my time as I could to learn as much as I can.  I have come to the realization that I now need the stress relief more than ever and have been getting back into making some shavings.

As I've done that I've had people asking for me to teach them and so I've been teaching some friends from church who are dating.  The funny part for me is that "bow classes" were the girlfriend's idea of the two of them.  Though both are outdoorsy, she is the real outdoors person of the two.  She is the one who bushcrafts and likes the survival camping stuff.  She even took a month this summer to road trip with a friend and camped the entire way stopping wherever to hike into the woods and live using her backpack, hammock, and knife (and gun I think). 

Anyways as we were working the other day she issued me a challenge.  Since I made bow making look "so easy" with all of my bow tools (farrier's rasp, hatchet, and shinto lol) she challenged me to make a bow as if I'd been lost in the woods and had only my knife.  With the challenge I can only use things I find outside in the woods around my house to make the bow and maintain my only tool which happened to be a Condor Bushlore.  That was the knife I had on me that day and since that is what I started with, that is the only knife I can use. I have figured out primitive sharpening quite well (shaving sharp well actually), I have the sapling chosen and down (which I wish I had taken pictures of as it is pretty cool to say I cut down a tree with only a knife), and the stave split and reduced to bow dimensions. 

In hindsight I should have chosen a better sapling as this one had several knots under the bark which I didn't realize were there until after the debarking, and it may or may not survive.  Oh well though.  I chose white oak (I'm pretty sure, lol) because it is supposed to be forgiving, and since I am this far I might as well keep at it.  The staves were free anyway so why not. 

I have one limb bending and the other on the way.  Now I am thinking primitive string since it may take me a little while to gather the materials and get the thing made.  I have no sinew and with the rules I think I will have to make a plant based string for now.  Would anyone have any suggestions for plants that make good bowstrings?  I've searched on YouTube but I don't see much about bowstrings and so I'm not sure if the strings they make would be strong enough to hold up.  I've seen people use poplar inner bark and I do have lots of poplar on my property. I also have some cat tail and it seems stringy enough to strip out and probably use.  Any other advice for string materials? 

Also I do have a knot per limb at almost exactly mid limb.  I will get picks up of that ASAP but with knots, I just need to leave that area stiff right?  There's already so much wood around the knot I think I could keep the belly flat and it still would not bend in those spots but is that a safe assumption as long as it doesn't seem to bend by the knot?  Should I leave belly wood around that area as well for safety?

Here are pics of what I have so far.  This bow won't be the prettiest but if this was a survival situation I really wouldn't have much choice anyways right?

[oscar3b]

It is not allowing me to post pics for some reason.  I will get pics up ASAP though.

[turtle]

I dont have a lot of experience with making cordage, but have made it from dogbane and also milkweed but have never used it on a bow. Stinging nettle is supposed to make strong cordage as well. Would rawhide from a road killed critter be acceptable?

[mikekeswick]

Nettle is good but the trick is retting it properly. What do you have around you?
I've just made an ash bow with only a small axe. The axe was a rusty mess that had been left to rust for years, I cleaned it back up to shiny and made a new shaft for it. I'm also going to make a natural string just because it doesn't feel right making a modern material string for it.
I generally allow extra width around knots and don't keep them intentionally stiff, maybe a fraction less bend than if they weren't there but only a shade.

[SLIMBOB]

I have tried lots of plant fibers, and find none of them serviceable for a bow string for anything that will last for long.  Maybe others have found some things that are better.  For something primitive and temporary, yucca leaves strip out for serviceable cordage and it is plentiful where I am.  Nettle is decent.  Stronger but harder to find and process.

[oscar3b]

I have a friend who just gave me some Yucca leaves so hopefully that will work, even for a short time. What does Nettle look like? Also when you say it has to be retted what does that mean? Is that like drying?

[loon]

Please use an external site for pictures...

maybe postimage.org

Or imgur.com/upload

Agave is good too apparently.

Flax and hemp should be among the best? Or not... nativetech.org/cordage/

[Dakota Kid]

I've had good luck with the inner bark from tulip poplar tree, well I was able to make a functional string anyway. The trick once again is proper retting. I tried just using water at first but things were progressing way to slowly. I added a little soda ash (1/2 cup to 5 gal) and it did the trick. Changing the water every two days had it finished in two weeks. I hung the now clean fibers to dry and bagged them up. Still have quite a bit left actually. 

The bowstring was heavily oiled/greased then waxed. The fibers were dry and so was the resulting string. It wouldn't have lasted long without re-hydration of some kind.

I have to ask, would using discarded/littered fishing line break the rules of your challenge? If not, check hot fishing spots for balls of braided line left by careless anglers. Also birds nests might provide some treasure in the form of usable cordage of some type. Good luck, it can be done. Have fun.

[Badger]

   I have been trying to figure out how to ret Australian flax, nice 4 foot long fibers but the leaf seems to sit in water forever before it deteriorates. 

[oscar3b]

Wow thanks for the advice. What is soda ash?

[nclonghunter]

Oscar3b,
   I have made two bow strings from two ply dogbane and they both failed in a 50-55 lb bow. Cordage can be easily made but to make quality tight cordage is not easily done. As I always heard a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Same is true of cordage. Get one spot in the length and it will fail. A friend on FB just posted that he made a three ply string on his bow and it is shooting. I just recently collected some new dogbane and will try a three ply.

This is my thoughts on a survival situation; I would first go after food from plants and animals. To get meat I would use a Paiute deadfall which I can make the cordage needed (low strength) from many plants. I would target the most common critters that feed along the creeks which will be raccoon and possums. Also plant cordage should not cause a targeted animal to chew on your trap trigger like a piece of leather or rawhide. You may need to turn over rocks and logs to find bait. Crayfish would be excellent. Once you have trapped a critter you will have food to eat, a hide to make a bow drill fire to cook with and make a good bow string. The intestines (not organs) can be used for addition trapping. You may even save a little sinew to make arrows.

Having said all that I would use a two ply rawhide bow string. Cut two pieces at least a quarter inch wide for the entire length, then counter twist those two together. If you have some rawhide available then set a live trap out and bait it. Once you catch that critter let your challenger see it and then release it using what you have..Good Luck

[Dakota Kid]

Soda ash is sodium carbonate, as apposed to baking soda which is sodium bicarbonate. They sell it in the laundry detergent section as super washing soda. You can also put a box of baking soda on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 degrees for a half hour/ 45 minutes. Afterwards you should notice that the inhaled dust kinda stings the nose and the taste is more like soap than salt. Those are the signs that the transformation is complete. If you have any borax, it would probably work as a substitute.

I also add it to the water when I simmer a skull for a euro mount, cuts the time in half.

[Dakota Kid]

As the gentleman from NC stated rawhide would be far less likely to fail.  The string I made was twisted and doubled over twice, so it was four ply in the end. The single strand I started with was quite thin, maybe 5 or 6 fibers thick. It took quite a bit of time to make as well, seeing as how the single strand had to be over 24' long to get a 6' four ply. 

[Swamp Thang]

We have some plants down here that I can prep and send great Tinsley strength
Pm me if interested