A great weekend

[razorback]

I had a great time this past weekend. I returned to the Connecticut Summer Camp I came over to work at in 1990. They have a volunteer work weekend every November and I go when ever I can. This year we cleared an old ski hill that had ben over grown with birch saplings. They like to try and keep it clear to aintain a meadow area on the camp. i had worked on this project many years before and thought it would be great to do it again. Well it ended up being one of the hardest weekends work I have done in a long time, but we got a lot done and everyone was happy.
As I started clearing thickets off shoots out from around the bigger stuff I realized that i was in a gold mine. I started putting shoots aside and this is what I ended up with.

 

 

There are about 50 or so shoots in great condition, better than anything i have found around here. I also grabbed a stave that I think is beech and split it. It got a big twist when I split it but I will be able to take care of that. I hope to get 4 bows out of it. I want to make one that I can return to the camp so they can include it in their educational programs. I think a set of arrows and a bow made from the wood from the camp would be real cool.

 

Well I have my winter projects started and will hopefuly get a good bow out of it all and even get my daughter started on her first bow.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

Sounds like a great weekend.

 I was thinking about getting my saw out and getting ready for some osage cutting.

[xstatic1971]

That would be a very cool gift to offer them.  Nice....

Craig

[snag]

Razorback, how do you straighten those shoots? I have some ocean spray seasoning to make arrows out of. I have them secured between 2X4's to keep them straight. But I am sure they will need some additional coaxing.

[razorback]

Snag.
I will bundle them together in groups of about 10 and let dry. I will, about every week, undo the bundle and hand straighten them to keep them somewhat straight. Once I take the bark off, I will heat the bent parts over a candle until the wood is just bearable to hold and then straighten it. I will start at one end and move my way down the arrow. I will keep doing this until they are near perfectly straight and I have sized them to finished dimensions.
There have been some threads on how to do this several times on here. I am new to this way of making arrows, but others, like PatB are much more accomplished. Maybe they will chime in.