another green survival bow

[Pat B]

I went out this morning and found a nice hickory sapling. Brought it back home and began reducing it with my throwing hawk. I used a small hatchet to start the split. I found it easier(relatively speaking) to scrape the bark and cambium layer off with a sheath knife. The stave is reduced to near bow dimensions and will rest next to my wood stove for a while.  Here are a few pics of my progress so far.

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[Kegan]

This is ging to be fun .

Besides the dead line and the need to use green wood, the only limitations on the tools and string are our own skills- correct?

[Pat B]

yep!

[Kegan]

yep!

Sweet. I've got a couple ideas I want to try....

[koan]

I got some sapling hhb, think I will give that a try.....Brian

[michbowguy]

this is the start of our survival type bow.
my friend jamie thomas and i  began our hunt for a straight ironwood sappling,and he found his right off the bat!

inbetween some pics there are video links, click on them to see!



and he began to chop it down after roughly sizing it up just under his actual height...



shortly after i found mine, not as nice as his but it will do just fine,and i also cut it down to start to make a bow from it...



these are some of the "tools" we used, along with a piece of cord for a tape measure,and his small camp hatchet...

the bows quickly began to take shape...



http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x74/michbowguy/?action=view&current=jamiesselfbow018.flv



after we removed the bark we used the cordage to find the bows center,and then marking the handle section...





then we grabbed some coal from the firepit and began to roughly mark out the handle section and the tips..



then a little heavier wood removal and j.thomas was ready to get it bending....






man, his bow is realy comming along!
this is HIS FIRST BOW!!!!!

that is why im doing most of the picture taking, ok ill throw in a shameless pic for myself...





whoa! i have to take off more mid limb and outer limb before i do that again!!! lol.

ok lets try this...



still needs more taken off, but its going to come in heavier than i thought.
this green iron wood snaps back into place real good....maybe i should not have used the term "snap" huh? hahaha

ok, im done for today, its unstrung and thick and still green.
about 30-40 minutes of bow working time so far....

now back to j. thomas....

hes doing fine isnt he!!!!
that wood is awesome!!!



a little more shavin...
http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x74/michbowguy/?action=view&current=jamiesselfbow019.flv

and finaly he wanted to realy "push" the envelope!!!

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x74/michbowguy/?action=view&current=jamiesselfbow020.flv

then off to his garage to wipe on a little fat.



total work time is just around 50 min, from living tree to wipe down!!!!

enjoy
jamie b.
jamie t.http://http://http://

[koan]

Cool!..Ah, Pat...might as well start a new thread and peg it to the top...this is about to get crazy ....Brian

[Shooter_G22]

Well Gents,


   i got rained out of work today  

so i figured it would be perfect to do the survival bow...   i was able to get one made... but i think the hardest thing was keeping my integrety while working on the bow ...   its kinda hard working on a "Survival Bow"  in the comforts of you own home... with all those extra tools just begging and calling your name to be used on you project at hand...lol...  but i was able to keep focused on what i knew had to be done... 

so this is what i used....
-  0ne k-bar... (pre sharpened)
-  one bundle of milspec 550 paracord (black)
-  one osage tree limb... sapling...  (salvaged from tree pile to be turned to wood chips..)


the morning started with me waiting for the right time to go out and grab the treelimb that  i had grabed from a wood pile forma constrution site last friday evening...   the one i chose to make the survival bow from is actually very fresh and still had the roots on it... it had a thicker base sapling around maybe 2" diameter" and came up maybe 60" or so and then turned into a y splite with two limbs it was the left limb that i chose to do the survival bow with... becuase it was the one i had availiable the other limb had been left behind in the twisted mess of trees on friday i had to chop it with a matchette to get this sapling free for the pile of twisted tree's...

soo i have a sapling in hand with enough wood to make two bows... but i go for the limb for the survivale bow becuse it has a diameter of maybe 1.25" at the base of the Y and maybe .75" at the far top end of the limb...

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[mullet]

  I did it. Trying to decide if I have enough time to jump in also.

[Shooter_G22]

ok i have several pictures...   so  i'll do my best to try and explain as i go...  here is another view of the limb befor i started...  well what i have here is limb that was cut @ the Y of the sapling one big swift chop from friday from the machette to seperate the limb from rubbage and then several cuts with the k-bar to separate from base of sapling...

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[Shooter_G22]

here is a pic of the limb with just a little bark removed so that i could show that even though i didnt chop this one down and i grabed it from a wood pile it is still very green...  so i debarked a little and took pic of the green-ness in the bark 

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[michbowguy]

sure you do mullet!
get in on it!!!

i may finish this one and start another...as this one will make a heavy weight hunting bow! 55-65#

what i was gunning for was a 30-40# lb d style bow...but this sappling looked soooo nice!

my interpretation is pretty much a branch with already bow like dimensions, just "fine tuned" and hunting without too much time involved.

plus, id like to start to finish the bow in an hour...ill start smaller, build a fire and heat treat it ,add color and a string, and then make a couple of arrows.

ill just give this one away when im done and start another and post.
jamie b

[michbowguy]

man i sure do like the looks of osage, that stuff is purrrdy!

honestly i have only seen finished bows of sage...never even touched a sage tree!

and could not find the tree that dropped all the "little green brain balls" all over the road!

so sometime soon id like to get a sappling of sage or a sliver,or a sproutlet to make a "d" bow out of.

jamie

[devilfishsix]

well i used the hazel from this picture to make my first d bow and now im using the thicker branch to make another first i removed albark but now i got to split it ill post pics as i go, great work guys what did i start lol

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[Shooter_G22]

i made the bow as simple as i could with the whole "survival mode" mind... i didnt want to use anything that i would not have with me in a survival situation... but i know if i'm walking into the woods i always have my k-bar and some paracord... actually i always have my hydropack/daypack that is a suvival pack...  but that is for another thread... but from now on i think i'm going to add a basic bow and arrow making kit to my survival pack/hydropack...  becuase the whole time i was thinking when i ws making this bow is that the nocks for the string would be th most dificult and it did prove to be true...  i took most of the time spent on the bow was on the nocks i use alot of cuation in this area didnt want to cut to deep and becuase the k-bar is fairly big knife and i keep it very sharp any little slip up here and i would for sure cut myself...   soo i sued a little cuation here and took my time with it...  but the whole time i was thinking if i had to make a bow in a survival situation i would want to make it quick and functional as fast as posible to arm my self and be able to have something handy if need be.. but my whole thinking is i could make a bow easily enough with k-abar ans paracord  but i would have to make arrow as well and then i was thinking the nock on the arrow would probably be the most dificult i know how i used to make them when i was a kid... i used to put a butter knife on moma's natural gas burning stove until red hot and then burn the notch on shaft with the red hot knife... i did it this way cuase with trial and error i learned if i cut a slit with my pocket knife then the string would end up spliting the arrow and if i burned it it would harding the wood and make a nice notch or nock...

but anyhow back to the bow...
i worked quick and simple with most of the time on the nocks carful to not slip and cut myself and not to mention ruin the bow...   with nocks cut and in place i put the string on it and did a few final carves to get a basic tiller nothing real fancy just enough to be comfotable with saying they are even enough for a survival bow... i didnt clock my efforts but id have to say in between 1hr to 1 1/2 hr tops...  maybe a little less...

i went out with a puchased cedar arrow and with a leather glove on the bow hand to rest the arrow on i shot the bow about 20 times or so... not very impresed  with its acuracy but it shot and i got a ful 28" draw from it and i didnt measure the bow but i know unstrung it comes up to my chin and i am 5'9" tall or 69" tall soo my guess would be about 60" or soo i will measure it laer... i dont know what the pull is on it yet dont have a scale but i might pick one up this weekend...  
after shooting it i i unstrung it and it stayed in the curved position taking alot of set it had some curviture to begen with soo the curve just increased...



i finished the bow with an extra piece of osage limb split and carved it down thin with about a 3/8's flat surface that i scraped on the concret to get it to shape and flate at the top for an arrow rest and then wraped it with the extra paracord for a paracord handle...

and then i bent the bow back to try and straighting it as much as posible...

now here is where i improvised...   and i dont feel that i cheated becuase... in a survival mode it could easily be done with a camp fire....  but for this purpose i used a propane burner i went ahead and heated the belly a little bit to help it from staying bent after destringing it...  but this is something that my consciance told me i better post it...  but i keep it about the same distance and did it the same way i would have done it if i was out in the wood in survival mode and over a camp fire... but i can honestly say that this is my survival bow...

i havent shot it after putting on the cord handle or the heat to the belly soo if in survival i know i could have probably had a functional bow strung and survival tillered in about 40-50 minutes give or take...
and one with a rest and paracord handle with heat to the belly giving i had a fire going allready in aboout 1 hr or soo...

not to bad in my opinion...

here is the pic...

i will try and get the true specs at a later time...  measurement and weight... and i know that as soon as i have some of the boy on the team come over we are going to do this as a project from start to finish in the woods in a true survival mode with of coarse food and there issued gear at hand...





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