Osage sinewed plains, Cheyenne style 54#/26“ (No. 58)

This is no replica bow. It is a plains style 50“ long for a 26“ draw. The tips are flipped backwards, of course a bendy handle. Complete belly is painted with earth pigments (orange, red, bright ocre, dark blue).

The backing is sinew in two layers, conventional done in two layers. The first at 2014 Feb 14, the second at 2014 Aug 27 – so call it a long lasting project, haha. Wood is about ⅔, sinew about ⅓ of thickness. At widest point 1¼”  x  ½”.

I tillered in 2014 November and dressed her up and finished her 2015 January now.
This bow holds a nice reflex of 5”.

Handle is brain tanned buckskin, cord is same material.

Double diamond nock on the bottom, single kerf on upper.

The tips are decorated on the back with sheeted mica (grounded mineral), applied in the wet glue. When the light comes from the back it looks like simple dark pigments, but when the light comes from the opposite the surface is shiny and sparkling (hard to take suitable pics).I saw this a while ago on a bow from Chuck Loeffler here on PA. Finally I found the drawing of the original in the book of Jim Hamm & Steve Allely (Encyclopedia). BTW. For me one of the most interesting books!

Also in this book I found a nice belly painted Cheyenne bow. Thought I give the painting a try on mine. So this bow is a mix of some things found on different originals.

Only a few measurements are done for the painting, most just by eyeballing and freehand painting. A carefully sanding with 800 grit and rubbing in an oily dark brown pigment solution brought the desired antique look.

a detail of the sinew backing

and a view along the belly and the back

The sinew is applied in two layers (520 + 450grain), measured is the shredded dry stuff. The little sketch below shows how.

After shooting in that stick, I did make some tiller adjustments at the sides and squeezed out a good more inches of drawlength. also painted the sides in a dark blue …….. here are some pics!