Super cool yet hilarious at the same time with the written dialogue! I bet some tourists would pay a premium for a stone age haircut. My 2yr old daughter watched some with me and when I asked 'do you want to cut your hair with stones like that' she said 'No, I want to go trick or treating' LOL
Bamboo does tension extremely well but compression quite poorly. because of this it needs to be a particularly strong strain of bamboo. There are many different types of bamboo and not all of them are good for bow making.
For folks that are willing to use more modern materials in combo, you can increase the strength, durability, and poundage of the bow by adhering a layer of fiberglass cloth to the front and back, either with Titebond III wood glue or G flex epoxy. Also, in Asia, they first soak the bamboo in borax solution to deal with insects and mold. And if you do equal parts borax and boric acid, you turn it into flame resistant material as well. But it would need to be soaked for awhile in that. To dry it out, on sunny days, put something very dark or preferably black on the ground and put the bamboo on top of it, but lifted up on either end by other materials so that there is some air space between the black material and most of the bamboo. The solar heat collected will help to dry it out faster.
Sorry for the long wait in replying, I was teaching. When I'm not rushed I usually only need to dry the bamboo for about 2 to 3 months. It dries much faster because of the structure of the bamboo.
I'm currently looking into good bamboo to make a self bow from. You discussed length and thickness with some detail, but what diameter ranges would be ideal for doing this? I'm not sure what the size of the center hole was in the video, so even with knowing the thickness I'm not quite sure how large around the bamboo should be.
I'm always looking for something that is no less than 3.5 inches diameter at the least, but preferably 4.5 inches. It really depends on the quality of the bamboo, which varies considerably. I have a patch that i collect from with 2.5-3 inch diameter that works great, and one in the 7 inch range that is pretty poor. I would say start with 4.5 or wider but try whatever you have access to.
Thank you so much! I have been inspired by the book "braiding sweat grass" to try and become more in touch with the resources around me. Like you said knowledge is being lost. I am happy to report that you have successfully passed on this technique and I have now woven the first of many baskets. All my raw materials came from the windfall of recent Hurricane Fiona. It feels great to be able to be productive even when there is no electrical power. And it feels fantastic to connect to the plants around me. BTW. Your most incredible tip was about always pulling on the thicker side to keep the split in the middle. That cracked the code for me. Thank you!
Hey Matt, you were one of my instructors at the tracker school, and Flint knapping. I will always look at you and your skill level as epic! I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us. There will always be haters, but you know the people who know you will always look highly at you, and value all the great knowledge which you share with the world. You're awesome brother!
Could you go into detail on how to build that bow string for starter? What kind of wood is good to use and which kinds should be avoided. I’m interested in learning this skill
I used a peice of eugenia for the fire bow. The cord i'm using in this video is store bought, but primitively i usually use sensivera leaf fibers or buckskin. I usually scrape off the green part of the leaves to expose the fibers and then reverse wrap them into a chord about at thick as my pinky.
As far as the spindle and fireboard, I look for a non poisonous wood that i can make a dent in with my fingernail. If my nail just crushes the wood it's too soft. If you can't make a dent it's too hard. When we went to hawaii, we used portia tree or hau mostly.
Cool thanks for the quick answers. I’m currently off island but I’ll be back in 2 weeks and I’ll give it a shot. Sure would be epic to build a primitive fire starting kit 🔥🤙🏻
What a mature introspection. I could tell by the way you were hyper focused on what people would think towards the end that it was an inner struggle about yourself. I came to find out what you had to say about it because I am that way too and I feel that with the state of the planet we will increasingly need to have inner resilience through all the changes it will go through in the next decade. Being as supportive of ourselves as we are of others is the way to be of most service to the world. I agree, it's not only based on how we have been made to feel about ourselves but also can be an ego thing where we feel that self-abasement is how to humble ourselves. I don't want to do that anymore either. I was honored to be able to watch your experience. May we move forward with self-love and care. <3
yeah, no. you talked how your skills wouldve been enough to see your through to the end but that is not true in the slightest. your downfall was gonna always be not bringing a fire starter. you were gonna spend too much time and energy into trying to start a fire the old fashion way that you wouldnt be able to do anything else. the amount of food you would need to keep that going wouldve been what did you in had you not tapped out early.
just because your skill level with it would have made it so, doesn't mean that other people don't have the skill level. i like how you claim that you're not judging, but then proceed to tell me about how much more you know about the situation than me. I'm glad i pissed you off with my comments....you are proving me right.
Nicely done and a quick bow.hey Matt did you spend some time at roots school in Vermont ? Also looks like your a long time student of Tom brown tracker school..
I'm good friends with Brad and Sara. I met them at trackerschool back when i was taking classes. I've actually been teaching at tracker for the last twelve years or so.
Is that a San Mei III Cold Steel SRK? Mine's kraton handle started to defogeicate, so I replaced it with a couple of slabs of dyamondwood. It looks better, and more important it handles better. hosting.photobucket.com/albums/n259/vigunfighter/P1060037.jpg
While not 'natural', a typical spoon can be flattened and filed into shape to make a very usable broadhead. [URL=photobucket.com/u/vigunfighter/p/bcfceae3-5104-4485-8322-4c7aa1bae7e3][IMG]hosting.photobucket.com/albums/n259/vigunfighter/P1010756.jpg?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds[/IMG][/URL]
While I haven't had any luck finding churt/flint/obsidian or other knap-able stone, I did find some 'Heinekinite' which makes reasonable points... hosting.photobucket.com/albums/n259/vigunfighter/P1050383.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds
Nice. Shoots pretty fast. I'm on St Thomas. After taking a bow making class at Dirt Time 2010, I came home and looked for suitable wood. I didn't really care for bamboo. But I did find that Maho is excellent for the Whole Thing! It makes a great self bow. The bark makes good cordage for bow strings, and if you look for a good size branch that is growing horizontally, it will have sucker-like branches growing straight up, vertically that make good arrow shafts. The one thing I'm not finding is rocks suitable for knapping. I've seen people fire treat certain corals which will give you the concordial fracturing needed for knapping, but I haven't tried it. It would be great to find some obsidian At some point my wife and I will have to head on over to spend some time with you guys.
Here is my Maho self bow. A little on the light side at around 35 pounds. I'm very happy with the tillering. The stave came from one of the trees in the background. hosting.photobucket.com/albums/n259/vigunfighter/bow7.jpg
I wonder if we're thinking of the same wood. The tree that I know as Maho does not have the strength to make a decent bow. Can you send a picture of a live tree.
@@caribbeanearthskills5865 Beach Maho two maho flowers The beach maho is a tree commonly found on the St. John shoreline and throughout the tropics. It has a distinctive heart-shaped leaf and produces attractive yellow flowers that later turn purple. The small green fruit of the maho is not edible, but a bush tea can be made from the leaf.
It was actually good to see you tap out because your mind was taking a walk off the map. Your attitude towards people that you know nothing about was toxic and you had this big stupid woe is me attitude about being judged then when they showed up to get you, you got standoffish about being judged. You definitely have issues and it was more than time for you get off the camera
No need for you to take it personally. Like I said on the show, there's no way for you to understand since you weren't there. But you're entitled to your opinion, even if its based in ignorance of the teality.
@@caribbeanearthskills5865 the same can be said about you. you cant see us but you assumed that the audience was gonna judge you and be overly harsh on you which came out of nowhere. like the commenter said and like you basically said and shown, you have issues.
Great work there! But I don’t know in terms of draw weight. The arrow’s speed kinda look like the bow ain’t powerful enough (more like 25-30 pound). Or it could be because you are using relatively lighter arrows? Just my thoughts.
The poundage is 45, but the arrow speed isn't great. I brought down the tips some and it picked up a good bit of arrow speed, but shorter limbs would likely help too.
I feel you'll make a better shorter bow if you compounded the bow by using two pieces of bamboo without any joints and glue or attach them on a piece of hardwood. You can use fire to make the bamboo curve outward.
It's a one sided machete. Im very careful to keep my chopping strokes very parallel to the surface I'm working, and that keeps me from removing too much material at a time.
I going to start doing a bambo bow(Japanese style) after 10 years of studying and wathing vids,I have a peace of land with bambo growing on it...the fire cure its a must right? Gonna fallow tour channel for tips TY
Glad you enjoy, I dont post them often but I have a number of videos brewing. The fire cure is essential to help keep insects out, but i suppose that could be done another way. I also feel like the fire cure helps strengthen the wood, but there are people I respect who disagree on that point.
Informational and cute. Thanks for posting. I had a hex-weave basket made at a Akha Hill Tribe in central SE Asia. It was strips of bamboo, 1" wide and 2 mm thick, very precise, tight weave - the size of a cooking pot. No see-thru spaces, and smooth to the touch. It was stolen, but I still remember it fondly. Have set up a sturdy jig outside, where strips for baskets can be fabricated. It's new, so haven't used it yet. Probably use lengths of strawberry guava, which grows aggressively here in Puna, Hawaii. Will also make bundled drum sticks, which I used to make, in Thailand, from 7 lengths of bamboo (each a bit smaller diameter than a chopstick).
