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For this week's survival skills video I'm going back to my roots! I'll show you how to build a primitive bow and arrows from a living tree in just 24 hours! For this survival bow I'm using serviceberry and force drying it over a fire to dry the wood enough to make a good selfbow. As the bow dries, I lower it down near the coals to fire harden the bow's belly. Some tree species will develop drying cracks if force dried but serviceberry handles it very well. The primitive arrows are made from ocean spray and force dried over the fire in the same way. I used stinging nettle to bushcraft a natural cordage bow string but didn't make it quite stout enough. It broke four times before I moved on to making a string of elk sinew. A sinew bow string is much stronger for the diameter. I'll have to give the nettle another try in the near future. The arrows were fletched with turkey feathers. I only used only natural materials and a hatchet and knife for the entire build. Gear L
