Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Wow, a rattan bow, never heard of that. He sells a horsebow for $99 that looks really nice.

Thanks for the info!

Never seen this many rattan bows all in one place. It makes sense in theory...solid bamboo. One of the best backing materials, so a whole bow couldn't hurt. Wonder how they hold up, long-term...I'd be concerned about splinters rising. Might be worth having it rawhide backed. How long have you been shooting yours?

Did you stain it, by the way?

I've had mine for a few days from a year now. The only thing I've modified on it is the color, for cosmetic and sealent purposes. I asked the vendor about a life expectancy for the bow and he claims agood friend of his bought one from him and after about 8 years is still using it and hasn't reported any problems. About splinters, the belly of the bow is quite smooth and solid, so far no flaws. The back has potentail to fray out quite a bit, but after a touch of smoothing, stain and sealent I can't remember any recent shedding from the bow.

They really do seem like good hardy bows. I was a bit wary of the material at first, since I had never come across rattan bows before, but I love mine.

Sorry Greg, I didn't see that you had asked if I had stained it at the end of your reply. Yes, I did.

Very good looking kit and a lovely environment to Ranger in. Future posts of encampments there perhaps?

Aaaah, okay! Yeah, I totally should have recognized one of their bows. Bows of the Risen Son sell at my local renaissance festival, and a ton of folks around here own their stuff. I guess I didn't realize it was one of theirs because of the stain job you did on it, and because it looks like you smoothed it out a lot. Their off-the-shelf those rattan bows are extremely rough, from what I've seen. I've considered getting one for a while, since they seem fairly resilient, they're somewhat inexpensive, and they're nice and small - perfect for attaching to a pack or quiver the way you've done it - but there seems to be some negative feeling about them (or about rattan as a bow material in general) amongst local archers with whom I've discussed the subject, so I've held off. Still, I may have to give one a shot sometime. They actually used to make yew longbows, and other bows from authentic European materials, but it seems they've stopped doing so over the last several years. Shame, that.

The reason I thought it might be PVC is that is shares a very similar cross-section to a lot of the PVC bows I've been seeing around online lately - and it can be very difficult to tell what material they're made from, in many cases.

Anyway, once again, the garb looks great! It seems very complete, to be honest. And I thought I recognized the hood, haha! Looks good! I've linked to my original post on the pattern below, but it's only a rough approximation. Looks like you did a great job without one! One word of warning though: I've discovered that, when shooting, the split in the side of mine can sometimes catch the bowstring, whipping the hood up in front of my face, and totally screwing up my shot. It was an issue I completely did not anticipate when making the hood, but now I think I'll be omitting it on my next version. I don't know if it'll happen for you, but it did with mine, so just a heads-up.

http://ranger.budgetauthenticity.org/fo ... =25&t=1344

Whoops! Looks like I may have actually deleted the picture of the pattern I had on Photobucket, so now it's not showing up. I'll try to re-upload it at some point in the near future when I'm at my home computer (I'm at work just now).

Stormraven wrote:Very good looking kit and a lovely environment to Ranger in. Future posts of encampments there perhaps?

Thank you! And I'm not so sure of camping there any time soon. That area seems to be a good crossroad for much of the wildlife in our area, more importantly, predators. I've found the tracks of quite a few animals, especially on those paths. Including Bobcat, Mountain Lion and more recently, wolf of all things. Apparently our conservation department released some back into the area over the last winter. I've never seen one of those wolves in person, but have found the tracks and one that passed away. Also a good span of the "Lamine River" area used to be a haven for bald eagles, and to this day quite a few still inhabit those areas. More particularly that cliff is a good spot to see one or two grace the sky. I'm not sure where they nest, but I feel it better to leave them as undisturbed as possible. It is a beautiful area, but I have found many a better camping spot, with much less threatening wildlife.

Thank you again Manveruon for your compliments, and the warning of the slit in the cowl. I haven't been able to shoot my bow for a bit recently, we've been getting a lot of rainfall since that bright, beautiful day. But soon enough I will see how it goes.

But yeah, the bow has definitely preformed well enough for me. After the transaction it ended up costing around $75, I think. So for the price I paid for it I feel like it was a steal. Now that I see their full selection of bows, I am really looking at that horse bow they have.

If the back's fuzzy, Manveruon, like you say, finding a bowyer to back it with rawhide (or perhaps backing it with linen on our own) might be an easy approach to fixing that for longevity's sake. Sealing it may have a similar effect...particularly if you use a thick acrylic spray or brush-on glaze, though you won't get the arrow speed bonus rawhide tends to lend the limbs.

At $100, I'm pretty much committed...this'll be a fun project, and if it works out, I'll finally have a viable solution for my ongoing case of small-bow syndrome.

Say, what's the draw weight on that bow anyway?

The draw weight was said to be 40 lbs. I do want to back it, and didn't know I could do so with rawhide, so I may give that a shot just for some extra oomph.

Beautiful country there. I have property in Carter County, Missouri nearer to Arkansas. Makes me want to get back for a trek.

I agree, Stormraven. The only thing I believe it is missing are mountains!

This is a beautiful kit! I really like what you've got going on there.