Making a bow from scratch. First task.

The first task is to make a tool with which you can cut a bow stave. For all intents and purposes you are more destitute than Robinson Crusoe. You have nothing but your brain and your body. Make a chopper and tell us how you did it.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A Crude but Effective Chopper


The preceding picture is of two choppers. My chopper is a quartzite river cobble taken from a local river. It was broken with another rock and yielded an edge that actually cut a sapling. The black chopper is a real artifact. Compared to a steel axe it is crude but is much better than my river cobble chopper. The object is to cut wood and they both will do this.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The first task, make a chopper.

Before you can make your bow you need to make a tool with which you can cut your bow stave. I am reminded of an old Don Crabtree film. He was digging obsidian at Glass Buttes, Oregon. The first thing he did was to make a chopper from obsidian. Then he used his chopper to cut a limb from a juniper tree. He then fashioned a digging stck from the limb using his chopper. What would you do using the materials you have in your locale?