chokecherry and sinew Blackfoot buffalo bow.

[loefflerchuck]

 I recently saw a post asking about Blackfoot bows. I made this one  few years ago, and it's still a great shooter. The bow is chokecherry with an elk sinew backing. It measures 46" nock to nock. It has a slight double curve, and pulls 68# at 24". With a regular  cedar arrow it has a cast of 154 yards. The back has a Montana rattle snake over the sinew. The red on the belly is pipe stone dust pigment. The string is 3ply sinew. It's finished off with a wrapping of brain tanned deer hide for the handle. The arrows are also Blackfoot replicas, made from dogwood shoots. (no points yet).
  I am quite impressed with the durability of chokecherry. It shoots pretty hard with a sinew backing, although even with 3 layers of sinew it still follows the string a bit.

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[zenmonkeyman]

Thanks for posting this!  Pretty much all I have to work with is chokecherry, and this is inspiring to say the least!  Beautiful work.

[DanaM]

That was me asking about the blackfoot bows, thanks for posting this fine example

[Little John]

Nice replica bow,congratulations and thanks for posting.   Kenneth

[cowboy]

Darn nice setup there! Enjoyed the look .

[sailordad]

very nice

i dont know what style of points the blackfoot used
but if ya show me a pic with  size referance,or tell me what the type is called i can find it in my new book.
maybe we could work out a trade for stave of that choke cherry?

[DanaM]

Tim we have chokecherry here also ya know, have fun finding one straight though

[sailordad]

ya,the land owner who lets me chase ground buzzards has a hedge row of them
i found one nice straight one that was about 3" in diameter,damn hand saw broke on the second stroke
i wanted that sucker too,i was gonna make a bow for him.
i always make him something every year,just cause he lets me hunt all the time.
thought a bow from one of his hedgr row choke cherries would be cool.next year in th spring that suckers coming down
even if i gotta go beaver on it 

[cowboy]

Tim: That's wantin some wood bad!! Hope you got some good front teeth .

[medicinewheel]

Really nice, awesome bend!

[loefflerchuck]

  I used to use bone or the old barrel hoops from wine barrels, but now the only hoops I can find are the new galvanised ones, and that does not make too authentic an arrowhead. If you need a chokecherry stave Sailordad I got lots in this canyon

[juniper junkie]

very nice, how many layers of sinew did you use? did you induce the double curve by heating or was it more of a natural curve of the stave? that thing really bends! good job.

[George Tsoukalas]

Congratulations on a mighty fine bow! Jawge

[sailordad]

i would love a stave of choke cherry

[zenmonkeyman]

Just out of curiosity, how much does sinew outperform rawhide as a backing?  For example, there is a standard rule for determining bow length based on draw length; how is that rule modified by rawhide, and how much by sinew?