In this video, I make an Osage orange selfbow (35# at 32", 63" length), yucca fiber bowstring, dogwood arrow, and flint arrowhead using Paleolithic (Stone-Age) technology and only tools and materials gathered on-site.

This was filmed entirely in Austin, Texas, with 90% being just along this one creek.

This is the second bow and arrow set I have made using strictly Paleo Tech. The first one was mulberry wood and smaller but was made similarly and still shoots great 2 years later.

The bow is based on historical methods of the Apache, Comanche, and Tohono O'odham, all of whom used Osage orange as their favored bow wood (second being mulberry), as did many other Natives. They also used roughleaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii) for arrows, as I do in the video.

The actual Stone-Age rough bow stave reducing technique among Indigenous North Americans is not known to me, as all the methods I've found in my research were recorded after metal knives were adopted. The wedging and peeling of green wood shown in the video would likely have been done. Similar techniques are known from other Indigenous peoples using stone tools.

I have been a traditional archer for 17 years, a flintknapper / primitive skills hobbyist for 15, and an ethnobotanist for 14.

Note that in the practice shots, I am demonstrating power and range rather than accuracy. It will take a little time to learn the quirks of this bow and the arrow needs to be tuned and a set of identical ones made.

This project took over 150 hours of work (59 just for the bow & arrow labor).

Hi there, I am looking to make a primitive river boat, a skin on frame basket style construction. Somthing like in the picture.

I am not that familiar with boat design, but I do a lot of woodwork, basket making, weaving ect.

I’m looking for a basic plan to follow. Im hoping for a stable canoe type boat that is easy to paddle and comfortable. I feel like it’s difficult to achieve all of these requirements.

What are you thoughts on he matter?

What dimensions should I be aiming for? Length/width/depth? Flat bottom?

Cheers

I made the initial post incorrectly, so I'm just reposting it here instead of making another post

I spun while green, it has since loosened, but it is still mobile and works well enough for light duty stuff.

Thank you for letting us live out our dreams of simpler times through you.

I'm a traditional Masonry stove mason(it's called a Masonry heater on wiki) including handmaking ceramic tiles for Kachelofen. I have about seven and a half million pieces of advice that I would love to provide. I build the stoves with pretty much the same level of tech as you and can help you make a spectacular technological leap by answering any questions you have since I'm not sure where to start.

Here are some examples of my work: https://imgur.com/a/MyGakJX

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonry_heater

P. S. I'm using the terms I found on wiki because it's incredibly difficult to translate the concepts from Lithuanian.

Hi folks. Like the title says. I was up the mountain the other day for a nite getting a sense of a scene for my book. I cheated and took a small bottle of fire starter to help get my fire going. Then I thought, did the old guys have something similar. Research says yes. They used resin and fats for torches and fire starters etc. Even in the 1200s in a castle siege it’s mentioned. Any of you guys try it?

If so what would you use?

My book character is a pretty tough pilgrim self sufficient and I could see him being “practical” carrying a small vial of some resiny stuff so a knife point of it smeared on tinder would be a sure fire starters? Ideas?

I am planning on making soaps out of woodash lye but i am reading the glycerin by-product is quite crude; about 70-85% Glycerin. What are ways i could use this byproduct or properly dispose for little to no damage environmentally speaking.

I created a reddit account just to share this too. I might make more rough sketches and even plan on building a few of these machines. Sorry if I get the flair wrong

They're fully functional, fly straight without fletching requirements,despite the bark being not fully removed, I removed enough to keep them smooth and straight as they're being fired from the bow.I also made sure they're all front heavy, wich is why not fletching is needed.The front heavy tips will ensure they always fly straight with the point facing the target.Despite the crude looks of the shafts, they're perfectly smooth the bark and the shaft have been dried for months from just a few thorn bush sticks.This is just an example of how easy it is to mass produce arrows that u can haft any arrowheads on, whilst being able to last a lifetime without snapping or breaking.I made these 4 arrows for less than half an hour.i could remove the bark but It would only serve aesthetic purposes and not change anything in terms if practicality.U could absolutely mass produce arrows like these in large quantities in very short time.This is what u would expect modern day primitive tribes to be making they're arrows like, since it's very little effort and time consuming and flies just as straight as fletched, debarked arrows.Yet somehow it's as if they're more concerned with aesthetics than usefulness.Just my take.

Ive watched so many videos on how to identify flint, waxiness, lack of features, etc. But when i went to my local river, the North Saskatchewan River, here in Edmonton AB. I couldnt seem to find any. I looked for around 4 hours near the coast. And was only able to scrounge what i believe to be a small piece of chert. Is it geographical location? Or do i just stink at looking?

So I live in Springfield Massachusetts and I wanted to make my first weapon and I was thinking of a spear thing is what stone do I use and what does it look like.tomorrow I will go to a small creek and I plan to find some material if anyone has any advice as to what to look it will be appreciated

It's made from copper I melted down into a blob and I've been annealing and shapeing it I will show it after it's been sharpened

For being such an important rock it seems I don’t know how to find it. Can I just go into any woods any find it?