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Nothing forces you to get out on a walk like I owning a dog. This thread is encourages you to share the naturals that you find along the way! Feel free to contribute past naturals you found if they are truly remarkable and warrant sharing, but otherwise, let's keep it to our future findings! Please post a photo of how, and if possible, where you you found it. When you have finished your build, let's see pictures of the finished product! Bonus points if your dog is in any/all of the photos!
I'll start. There arent many trees I'd feel comfortable poaching in my immediate neighborhood, but this morning on a normal walk, I noticed a grove of eucalyptus off in the distance, and so I headed there hoping to find some wind fall. Eucalyptus is so hard, that it will often break off perfectly good green wood after a wind storm. I found three potentials, and broke away what I didn't need.
I decided to set the wide forked one up with some 45° tabs I cut from heavy leather I usually make strops out of, and I made some pseudo tapers from 1632 GZK tube with about 1/3 of the draw being doubled. The results are a very fast 1/4" very precisely placed, or a slow but accurate 5/16 that tears cans instead of ripping through cleanly. The wide gap and the comfortable shooting position made this easy to be very precise with!
The most symmetrical of the 3 ended up being a solid predictable shooter, but I think I will add tabs to the set up after these bands break, and I'll probably file in grooves for the tie in to ensure it doesn't slip in the field - but it did fine with these wide tapered 3/8" chuckers. This is a great natural, and can be comfortably hammered, pinched, or supporter. Very versatile.
The narrow forked one was by far the weirdest, haha. It did work, but it would take some getting used to because the forks are slightly twisted compared to each other, and the front and back of the forks aren't uniform or predictable, so shooting was very tough, and that was only after my third time banding it trying to find the happy medium. It's workable, and so I'll hold onto it, but I doubt I'll set it up again without first solving some of the issues. It's photod with the bands that were on it, but they started slipping while I was shooting and so I encouraged them the rest of the way off.
Ended up that the one I was least least expecting to work, the oddly shaped wide fork with the tabs ended up being my favorite to shoot. The shape is perfect for left hand side hold, and you can almost hammer grip it and rest it on your knuckle, or hold in a supported grip.
I'll start. There arent many trees I'd feel comfortable poaching in my immediate neighborhood, but this morning on a normal walk, I noticed a grove of eucalyptus off in the distance, and so I headed there hoping to find some wind fall. Eucalyptus is so hard, that it will often break off perfectly good green wood after a wind storm. I found three potentials, and broke away what I didn't need.
I decided to set the wide forked one up with some 45° tabs I cut from heavy leather I usually make strops out of, and I made some pseudo tapers from 1632 GZK tube with about 1/3 of the draw being doubled. The results are a very fast 1/4" very precisely placed, or a slow but accurate 5/16 that tears cans instead of ripping through cleanly. The wide gap and the comfortable shooting position made this easy to be very precise with!
The most symmetrical of the 3 ended up being a solid predictable shooter, but I think I will add tabs to the set up after these bands break, and I'll probably file in grooves for the tie in to ensure it doesn't slip in the field - but it did fine with these wide tapered 3/8" chuckers. This is a great natural, and can be comfortably hammered, pinched, or supporter. Very versatile.
The narrow forked one was by far the weirdest, haha. It did work, but it would take some getting used to because the forks are slightly twisted compared to each other, and the front and back of the forks aren't uniform or predictable, so shooting was very tough, and that was only after my third time banding it trying to find the happy medium. It's workable, and so I'll hold onto it, but I doubt I'll set it up again without first solving some of the issues. It's photod with the bands that were on it, but they started slipping while I was shooting and so I encouraged them the rest of the way off.
Ended up that the one I was least least expecting to work, the oddly shaped wide fork with the tabs ended up being my favorite to shoot. The shape is perfect for left hand side hold, and you can almost hammer grip it and rest it on your knuckle, or hold in a supported grip.
