Home Grown Hunting Equipment for 2006/07 (UPDATE - Nov. 5th, 2006)

[adkmountainken]

awesome job!!! love this thread!

[cjones]

Great thread! Keep it up.

[Osagetree]

Last night I decided to take the quiver all apart. I was not happy with the small inside diameter.
So, I un-wound all the reed and boy was it a long twisted mess. As an experiment I soaked it in the tub all night in hopes I could re-use it. And, when I got up this morning I re-wrapped the reed, making the inside of the quiver a little larger.
You can see in the picture, the dark green is the reed that soaked all night and is still wet, the light green is what I soaked and twisted today. It should even out when dried completly.

The quiver should hold 4 to 5 arrows.

 

Going to go and try to finish off the top,,, I got another idea!

[vermonster13]

Great thread that keeps getting better.

[Osagetree]

Got back out to the shop and thought the quiver looked like something was missing. Got to playing around with it and ended up adding some vertical reeds.

It was not to hard as I used a small pick to fish the reed over and under every two runs of the horizontal twine.

 

Finished pattern

 

I hope to finish up the top end tomorrow

[mcowie]

I know it's been said before, but this thread is great!

Your an inspiration to us all.  I went out yesterday an picked a mess of raspberrys and stained half a dozen hew shafts.  They came our quite nice, thanks for the idea.

[mqqse]

___________________(speechless)!

[Osagetree]

While I am letting the last of my reeds soak, I went and tied off the top with the verticle reeds around the last run or two of cattail twine.

 

To finish off and stiffen up the top, I cut some rivercane to size and with large enough hole to run the twine through....

 

Close up, before I tie it all in.

 

[Huntrdfk]

What a great, great buildalong Joe, thanks.

David

[boatman]

This is great,  nice attention to detail also!!  

[Osagetree]

After running the cattail through the ricercane, I teid it off to each of the willow shoots so  the cane would stay put in between the vertical willow shoots.

 

After the cane was tied in place, I wrapped the top with reed that was not twisted but left flat, and by going around a couple of the horizontal twine runs to sinch it all together.

 

Then I cut off the willow shoots flush to the top. I intend to wrap this again when it dries out a bit more,,, just to make it neater looking.


 

Okay I got to finish up a strap so I can carry this thing, but I am almost done.

But first,,, I got to see what my new rivercane arrows look like sitting inside this cattail quiver!


Be right back!

[cdi3d]

I think this is my favorite thread ever - WOW            - So inspirational - Are you adopting?  Keep going!

Mike

[Osagetree]

Well, the quiver is almost complete, except for the straps. The rivercane arrows are almost complete, exept for the broadheads. Now I need to get started on a bow. I'll give everything more attention later.

Here is the cattail quiver and 6 rivercane arrows.

 

 

Well lets see,,, I have now got myself, for no cost to me at all;
Fletching
Arrow shafts
Bow backing
Bow wood
Quiver

[blacktailchaser]

this a sweet topic nice job joseph.i wish i could copy all this with out the other stuff.just the how too.john

[Emmons]

Increditable, that's all I can say.

[TimBow2]

great thread...........

[Stickbow98]

I've heard of someone being a "natural" at building things, but this is taking the term to a whole new level!!        

[skeaterbait]

That was pretty cool, when do we see the kill????  

[Osagetree]

Still got a way's to go!

October is the plan.

Check back I will be stripping Osage bark and white wood soon!

[Osagetree]

I split the staves out like anyone does,,, wedges and pounding tools.

This is osage that was cut and split in Feb. 2005

 

 

I selected the osage stave on the left from the logs above for this project. Also to allow for a margin of error, I am also going to make a locust selfbow.

You all are watching as I create all this gear in hopes to see a harvest this fall,,, I want a back up as we go just incase I miss the draw weight or goof one up badly.

The locust on the right was cut in 2005 within a week of the osage being cut. These staves are not the best,,, but neither am I! They are over 70" at this point.

 

These are the tools I will be using to cut up these not so perfect examples of rough bow staves. Trying to remain as traditional or in my case primitive as possible these will be my only tools durring this build,,, oops I did forget to mention the sand paper! You may also notice the blacksnake skin lying there for backing and the whitetail antler from a earlier harvest of mine that I will use for tip overlay's.

 

Please let me warn you again,,, you are watching as I go along. I never can tell how much time in a week I'll be able to build and post. I may never use a specific bow patern or style. I may goof up or use some questionable tactics to get the job done. But, I will try my best!

Thanks for all the very nice comments so far, but everyone should disregard any personal resistance to reply with critical criticism. This criticism will only make me more detirmined to complete the goal I set for myself and my homegrown hunting gear.

Besides, the moral to this thread is, you don't have to spend alot of money to have fun and feed the family. It's not about the right way or wrong way, but about making with your own hands and natures materials,,, simple, but effective hunting tools and gear.