I am posting this for tradganger mwirwicki who I recently provided these skins. A very awesome bow and one of the few, if not only, Coral backed bows.
I've wanted to make a horn and sinew composite bow for years and finally set my mind to do it. Recently, I visited Mr. Norm Blaker at his home. He showed me a bow made by Lukas Novotny without the siyas typical of the Asiatic composite bows. Immediately, it struck me as the style that I wanted to attempt. I thumbed through my book collection, and struck gold when I saw the front cover picture of an early print of Jim Hamm's – Bows & Arrows of the Native Americans. As I am a fan of short bows, I had to attempt the 36-inch, horn and sinew composite bow.
I had water buffalo horns long enough for two 18-inch pieces. I cut and sanded them into strips then glued them using hide glue to a 1/8 x 1 x 36-inch long osage core that I worked out of a quarter split stave. It was a bit disheartening cutting that nice big stave into such a small, thin slat. After letting it dry for a couple of weeks, I sinew backed the osage side with three layers of leg sinew. The bow was coming along very nicely. From the beginning of this project, I swore to myself that I would take my time on this one. It was my first horn/sinew bow and it was going to be special. I waited about a month between sinew layers fighting the constant urges to rush into them sooner.
Finally after the last layer dried, I strung it up with a long (relatively speaking) string to check the tiller. To my surprise, it looked good enough to shorten the string to brace height. In many ways, I was relieved since I really didn't know how I was going to tiller the bow. I didn't think that I wanted to scrape the belly. Was I to sand off some sinew from the back? Luckily, I didn't have to try either. I drew the bow down to 23-inches. I noticed though, that the bow needed to be stiffer in the handle area so, I unstrung her and added a fourth layer of sinew just at the handle area and a bit beyond. That did it. So, I guess that I figured out how to tiller the bow; just ADD sinew where it needed to be stiffer.
Now for the decoration – I wanted some horizontal designs but, knew that I wasn't much with a paint brush. I also liked the idea of snake skins but, I wanted something different. To me, this was far too special of a bow to settle for common rattlesnake skins. I thought about coral snakes. I began spreading the word that I would give my right leg for a set but, quickly learned that they weren't too common. Also, they are a very small snake and to get two skins that were a close match and then for both to stretch even an inch wide was going to be tougher. After about another month, a friend in Texas came up with a set. Then, it was time for the hair on the upper limb. Instead of horse hair, I saved a beard from my first wild turkey that I took 3 years ago. The magic in that beard had to be part of it. Here are the final specs: 36-inches long tip-to-tip. 42 lbs at 23-inches of draw.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowUnstrung.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowCoral1.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowBraced2.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowBraced1.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowFullDraw5.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowFullDraw3.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowFullDraw2.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/snakewood3/HORN%20%20CORAL%20BOW/WirwickiHornBowFullDraw1.jpg)
Cool little bow. Like the finish, looks like the time spent was definitely worth it.
Nice looking bow. Way to exercise that patients of yours.
Absolutely awsome. That is a museum piece if ever one was made.
God bless you , Steve
that is awesome, I was thinking about doing a bow with scarlet king snake skins and now I know it would look great. Thanks for sharing it with us.
oh and what kind of head is that on the arrow?
SWEET Matt! You got any plans to hunt with that bow?
I have know Matt for "a few years" now and he is a gifted bow maker(I'm serious). Always ready to help somebody out and a general all around nice guy. I am glad he is showing us his work,always a pleasure to see. Top notch finsh work as well.
Congrats Matt,and to Charles for fetchin up some cool skins.
KellyG: That point was made from bone. A special friend made that up for me. I won't hunt with that arrow, but I intend to make some up with a few obsidian points that I have.
Chuck: Thank you, friend! Nothing would be sweeter than to take game with the bow. I intend to hunt with it out of my ladder stand. Maybe I'll get lucky!
Sport, Missile and Sixby: Thank you for the kind words. It was a lot of fun to make. For sure, it was a test of patience. Something I had to reel back on.
Nice Job! I remmenber that horse bow in the book,,, you did good.
Though he doesn't know it, Jim Hamm was my mentor. I must have carried that book around for a year or two when it came out.
cool cool bow.
Short "D" Selfbows .."RULE" This is so much better ...cool !
Thank you, osage, Osborn and Stoner! I'm very pleased how it turned out. It was worth the effort.
Was that some of the sinew you got from me Matt?
After seeing this little gem I want to do one.
got any sinew?
...nice arrow too. Is that a "bone" point?? Whats the lenth from knock too back of blade?
Very nice....my observation of your full draw pic looks like more than a 23" draw?
thanks for sharing
><>
glenn
SWEET BOW!
Charlie: LOL, I used all of your sinew but, I do have some more. Let me know if you need some. I'd be happy to provide you with whatever you need.
Stoner: The arrow is 24" nock to back of point. It is a bone point that a special friend made for me. I won't shoot it. It was a "friendship" point.
Igor: No, it hits the wall right about at 23"
Stiks: Thank you, kind sir