The stave plagued me. I cut it down from a storm damaged hickory. It was a bear to haul out of this deep river valley. It did not stike me that this section might be prior damaged. I let it dry in the basement & I drawknifed the outer bark followed by a quick outline drawing. Normally I take off the inner bark too but not this time. I roughed out the outline and THEN took off the inner bark only to discover the back was riddled with tunnels carved by borers. I sulked for about two years and kept the stave in the basement only to pull it out and explain to others what borers do to hickory. Some time later I was inspired by some bows in the Chicago Field Museum. I cannot remember what tribe but the rings were violated badly on the back. Obviously the bow worked so when I got home I took my spokeshave to the back and worked it down to a smooth even ring violated surface. I violated the grain but equally for the most part. THEN I got to work tillering. Following that I was able to carve the faces in the the nocks just like the Algonquians did. I made the bow roughly to specs to the one on page 29 of Allely and Hamm's encyclopedia of NABA&Q Vol. 1. That is a great book for inspiration. By the way Hickory is not easy to carve like cedar and tupelo are.
Once done I burned some incising marks to replicate what the original had, followed by a dark stain and some sealant. The bow weighs in at 35# @ 28" The measurements are fairly close to the original being 69 " long, 1" wide and roughly 3/8" thick. The bow took an inch and 1/4 of set when unstrung. Now I am glad I did not throw it on the burn pile. It just needed for me to learn enough to save it.
