You can find the making of this bow here! The next steps: The whole thing turned out a bit short with the stiff handle, I tried to lengthen the bow with the backing and additional underlay. Both, the backing and the underlays were steam bent, they should work as stiff levers of a mild static.Read more
eastern red cedar
This is the making of bow (No. 51). Some months ago a friend asked wether I would like to have a branch of a juniper which he had to cut away as it was broken down by a storm. And of corse I did. He brought a piece, kinda a quarter of a stave withRead more
These are two sinewed ERC (Eatern red cedar) short bows with short recurves, tips and handle were sinew wrapped and some dark brown pigments were applied when glue still was wet. Both got a paint job with same pigments on the back in an opposing triangle pattern. At least some muskrat fur strips on handleRead more
Here is the stave I’ve got from my friend Erwin (thank you, Erwin!) from Austria. It is a bit deflexed, 52” long, about 2” wide at the crown, has some avoidable knots and unfortunately one absolute not avoidable. I first thought about making a replica bow, but gave up that idea and went for aRead more
This is the second bow coming from one stave (first see bow No. 28 ). This is the belly split from that stave. Tillering was a bit crazy, because of wiggles and huge holes which I let a bit stiffer. This is a very nice piece with lot of character and a wonderful colored surface.Read more
This is the first of two bows coming from one stave (see here: http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,40092.0.html ). This is the main split from the backside of the stave. Chris (blackhawk) and Josh (Gun Doc) gave me the advice to back that wood (it’s only heartwood, no sap) and I did so. In this case it is backedRead more