I have been bending a bunch wood this last week. This started with a project making a new head-bow for a cradleboard (dikinaagan) for a friend. Having leftover hickory, I decided to bend up a few lacrosse sticks (bagaadawaan). It has been a very long time since I had made sticks, and my hatred of making them was well formed in my days of bending ash for sticks up at Grand Portage. Living a little further south, I cut hickory for my projects. Wow… Working green hickory has changed my feelings about making sticks. With things going well, I went to the woods and cut another small tree. I now have the head-bow done and eleven sticks roughed out.
Same is true with cutting and bending green chokecherry for cherry stone hammers. Just takes a second to pop out and bend.
The doc. film “Happy People” has two great sections on making skies from pine. Selecting the right tree, wedges, thinning, bending with hot water using a form, and tempering the wood with fire. Simple great stuff.
Ike –
Can’t wait to play with those sticks at GP!!
JP