# Just a crazy thought



## ceedub (Apr 22, 2013)

Has anyone here ever groomed or cultivated tree forks for use as a slingshot fork? What i mean by that is has anyone ever tied the forks together to get the width right or tied anything around the branches to allow the tree to grow around the banding for different designs or effects? I have seen in the past people braid or twist entire tree trunks as they grow and im curious if this has been tried by any or the craftsmen (or women) on this site? Im also aware that this could take years to get right but why not?


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

ive read how you can take a fresh fork, cut extra long, wrap/tie it to look symmetrical and just letting it dry naturally. pulling the forks into each other or placing something between them .


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## ceedub (Apr 22, 2013)

Imperial said:


> ive read how you can take a fresh fork, cut extra long, wrap/tie it to look symmetrical and just letting it dry naturally. pulling the forks into each other or placing something between them .


 thats kinda what im talking about but doing it while its still in the tree. If you took the time I bet you could come up with some pretty interesting forks.


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## M.J (Nov 1, 2010)

That takes dedication!

It's easier to just go for a walk in the woods with a folding saw.


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## ceedub (Apr 22, 2013)

M.J said:


> That takes dedication!
> It's easier to just go for a walk in the woods with a folding saw.


As true as that may be, your not going to find two branches twisted together like licorice in the woods with your folding saw.


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## Jaximus (Jun 1, 2013)

That's a really interesting idea, ceedub. It would definitely be worth the trouble to find someone with experience in shaping trees and talking to them about it before you actually started. It'll take years to know if you've done it right. That's kind of awesome.


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## TimR (May 22, 2011)

I planted an acorn last night.

Can't wait!


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## flipgun (Nov 14, 2012)

When I was a kid I read something on how in some tribes of Native Americans, when a boy was born his father would take a stone into the forest. There he would find or alter a fork with a smaller, more supple branches, put the stone in the fork and wrapped and bound the limbs about the stone and left it the branches would grow around the stone.When the boy was almost old enough to fight, they would harvest and cure his war club. I decided to do the same thing with beer bottles. Insert them into the crotch of the fork and bind the branches. in about a year? Perfect fork. Somewhere in Arkansas are about 20 trees with beer bottle imbedded in them.


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## melvin (Jan 11, 2011)

My father who was using a slingshot as a kid taught me that you can take a green fork,tie the ends together to whatever distance you liked and bake in the oven,low temps for a couple hours and it would stay I guess its kind of like steaming wood to bend it. Has to be green however to set properly, might even work in a microwave.

Melvin


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## Crac (Mar 3, 2013)

While one of my earliest thoughts for a bonsai might be similar. The key for us is giving the roots enough space and feeding the tree. Otherwise it might take 30 years to grow the handle.

You could use copper wire, (and IMO that would be the only thing to use) but people would nick the copper.

The other way is you can cultivate forks by: Nipping out the leader, thinning the major branch, removing the competition and dead heading.

This is what I've been doing... basically turning average? forks into good ones.

No new ideas here.

In terms of bending and setting, I think you might be limited... And much like bow making I think it takes weeks to do it right. So commercially I think around £700 or £800 (i.e. similar to a bow)


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## ceedub (Apr 22, 2013)

I never made the assumption that this was an original idea but didn't see any mention of it here. I think it has merit enough to try. As I expected though there are several good suggestions and notions being tossed around on this topic and thus answering my original inquiry.


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## SlingSheep (Apr 28, 2013)

I have also had that idea a few weeks ago, but haven't tried anything yet... with enough patience, I'm sure you can do cool things.

Here's just one thing I would like to try: Usually when you cut hazel, you do it just over the roots. It then makes dozens of new shoots, which seem to grow very fast - in lenght. I reckon if you cut each of them just a few mm over a pair of leaves, they would make a fork just at that pair of leaves. I would say it will take about 3-4 years before you can harvest, but then it will be dozens of forks. The two hazel bushes at my parents house make about 20-30 shoots each - each year.

Btw. the only slingshot I can recall from my childhood days was made from hazel and I loved it.


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

There was a fellow on here a while back named "Fish", who made and sold cattys. He posted a picture once of a stand of young ash trees he'd found. He had bound several of the forks to grow nicely cupped like a milbro. He said that he'd done it before to good results, and that in about two years he'd get some more nice ones. So, yes. It's a viable project if you want to wait for the fruit of your effort.


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## GHT (Jan 22, 2013)

I have heard that in 'ye olde' days, it was common practise to place an old cotton reel in the base of a fork and tie above , as in method described above, cant remember source.


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## bigron (Nov 29, 2012)

gamekeeper john has videos of him harvesting fresh forks then taping the tops of the forks after squeezing them to the position he wants them to be at after they dry then he just hangs them in his shop till they cure


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## ceedub (Apr 22, 2013)

Good info guys! Thanks for the input.


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

flipgun said:


> I decided to do the same thing with beer bottles. Insert them into the crotch of the fork and bind the branches. in about a year? Perfect fork. Somewhere in Arkansas are about 20 trees with beer bottle imbedded in them.


bottle brush trees ! :rofl:


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## All Buns Glazing (Apr 22, 2012)

I remember an old thread about this, actually. There was a photo of some trees planted, strapped to a small piece of plastic that spread the bottom branches into a perfect y.


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## Dr J (Apr 22, 2013)

I have done something similar with young Guava branches, the Suriname cherry and the white cedar.the first image with the overlapping fork is Suriname Cherry. The second has a fork where a vine strangled it resulting in the unusual formation of that fork.


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## OldSchool (Apr 21, 2013)

My Dad wrapped vines around straight branches to make cool looking walking sticks


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## ash (Apr 23, 2013)

bigron said:


> gamekeeper john has videos of him harvesting fresh forks then taping the tops of the forks after squeezing them to the position he wants them to be at after they dry then he just hangs them in his shop till they cure


He also has a video where he ties a hazel sapling to make the fork grow into a nice U shape.

Hazel, Willow and Ash would all be good contenders for this treatment, I think.


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## primitive power slingshot (Apr 5, 2013)

flipgun said:


> When I was a kid I read something on how in some tribes of Native Americans, when a boy was born his father would take a stone into the forest. There he would find or alter a fork with a smaller, more supple branches, put the stone in the fork and wrapped and bound the limbs about the stone and left it the branches would grow around the stone.When the boy was almost old enough to fight, they would harvest and cure his war club. I decided to do the same thing with beer bottles. Insert them into the crotch of the fork and bind the branches. in about a year? Perfect fork. Somewhere in Arkansas are about 20 trees with beer bottle imbedded in them.


i am headed to arkansas!!!! :rofl:


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## Dr J (Apr 22, 2013)

Why would someone use my photo before getting my permission to do so!


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

Blue Skeen gave me a tree fork that had been tied when young and forced to grow in a perfect U. I think that Ivan Glen had also done this. When I was a wholesaler I bought Stag Horn Sumac canes to sell from a man in Arkansas that he grew. I add ed glass eyes and called them sue-bears. He had a soft white rock surface nearly vertical that he drilled holes in and planted seeds. The Sumac's then grew into a small tree with the root making the cane handle. I keep a couple of them one for me and one for Nell. We always had them with us on vacation. Here is a couple of pictures. -- Tex


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

In my country this method of shaping branch/three for some later use, like the walking stick or that round wooden part thah is put on oxen when they pull the cart etc is well known.

I never used it, and if someone would come with an easy and effective way of how to do it I would like to give it a try - no matter that I live in the country where half a day walk in forests around can result in some 20-50 very nice forks..

cheers,

jazz


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## ceedub (Apr 22, 2013)

I can see where it would be a whole lot of trouble for someone who has a good supply of hardwood forests at hand but where i live the forest are pine and the only hard wood trees to be found are usually primped and pruned along driveways or public parks. So in my case augmenting the forks in the tree to maximise usable fork production in a viable concept.


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## tnflipper52 (Jan 26, 2012)

I don't have enough years left to wait for the results. I have seen Bonsai trees that over the years have been made into remarkable specimens. Grafting tree limbs should not be a great problem, if you have the time. Nice idea though.


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## MagicTorch100 (Jun 4, 2013)

Hi Ceedub, I've tied green Ash before and then dried it next to my log burner, slowly.

It's very effective, you've just got to keep tabs on them if you force dry.

I used to make withies out of Ash bark and use them to whip the forks together after I'd cut them long.


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## Sckraps (Dec 18, 2012)

Absolutely possible, you are basically talking about large scale Bonsai trees. The shape you come up with is only limited to your imagination and patience.

http://www.bonsaisite.com/


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## BrazilianSlinga (Jul 19, 2013)

You can definitely do this. Wrap around shapes, even arround plastic industrial slingshots.

You can also microwave or boil freshcuts and them molde them with rubber bands. Don't overstress them or they will break.

Also in the case of a crooked/funky/uneven fork, you can microwave it and them put a very big weight over it for a week. (an upside down patio bench for example works just fine. Just make sure the contact points between the fork are as flat as possible surfaces.


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