Author Topic: Varabow  (Read 24342 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline wally

  • Member
  • Posts: 157
Re: Varabow
« Reply #15 on: September 28, 2013, 02:50:11 am »
The main bow is rigid and only the smaller limbs move on a pivot pin. The power seems to come from the elastic bands? Very odd design
and hey! Let's be careful out there

Offline Salvador 06

  • Member
  • Posts: 26
Re: Varabow
« Reply #16 on: September 28, 2013, 03:44:36 pm »
That's crazy unique!  It looks like a step towards compounds.  Thank you for the picture and best of luck in your quest.
Proudly subscribed to this magazine since 1994

Offline JW_Halverson

  • Member
  • Posts: 11,923
Re: Varabow
« Reply #17 on: September 28, 2013, 09:51:52 pm »
Looks like an evolutionary dead end on the way to compounds!
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline crooketarrow

  • Member
  • Posts: 2,790
Re: Varabow
« Reply #18 on: September 30, 2013, 10:25:00 am »
  So thats where compounds came from.
DEAD IS DEAD NO MATTER HOW FAST YOUR ARROW GETS THERE
20 YEARS OF DOING 20 YEARS OF LEARNING 20 YEARS OF TEACHING

Offline BowSlayer

  • Member
  • Posts: 644
Re: Varabow
« Reply #19 on: September 30, 2013, 11:04:40 am »
everyone stop using the "C" word! >:D
London, England.

45#@28"

Offline rockrush69

  • Member
  • Posts: 268
  • i want to live in a tipi and hunt for my food
    • facebook.com/flingahbows
Re: Varabow
« Reply #20 on: September 30, 2013, 06:01:27 pm »
I have seen a simalar design but with cables instead of rubber bands and four limbs all bent . Picture the limbs on the back being more reflexed and the belly side limbs being more or less straight with a cable conecting the tips ... all most like this bow in the pic strung in reverse . Instead of the rubbery bands it uses all four limbs for extra tork . You know what.... i think since no one can find one of these ..... this calls for a build challenge . Post a challenge to build this bow . And i bet a few guys will give it a try.  .... i might.
JESSE "HALF CHEROKEE" RUSH
The rabbit lost his tail cause the fox tricked him and told him to stick it thru the ice to catch fish he became stuck and the bear snatched him out by his ears leaving his bushy tail behind and streching his long ears... Cherokee story "how the rabbit lost his tail" :)

Offline BowSlayer

  • Member
  • Posts: 644
Re: Varabow
« Reply #21 on: September 30, 2013, 07:45:23 pm »
I have seen a simalar design but with cables instead of rubber bands and four limbs all bent . Picture the limbs on the back being more reflexed and the belly side limbs being more or less straight with a cable conecting the tips ... all most like this bow in the pic strung in reverse . Instead of the rubbery bands it uses all four limbs for extra tork . You know what.... i think since no one can find one of these ..... this calls for a build challenge . Post a challenge to build this bow . And i bet a few guys will give it a try.  .... i might.

from what your describing it sounds alot like a penobscot style bow. where it has a normal bow with a smaller one on the front. a friend of mine made one but it then ended up breaking :laugh:
London, England.

45#@28"

Offline wally

  • Member
  • Posts: 157
Re: Varabow
« Reply #22 on: September 30, 2013, 08:24:13 pm »
It's roughly similar to a penobscot type bow with a big exception that both the main bow and the smaller bow both bend as normal and they use three normal strings with no elastic. I've studied the Penobscots history and made a couple. I love them. I'll post some photos of a really stylised one I made for fun
and hey! Let's be careful out there

Offline wally

  • Member
  • Posts: 157
Re: Varabow
« Reply #23 on: September 30, 2013, 08:53:41 pm »
The normal Penobscot (although being a fake) has a set design where the two bows are together. My latest was made with a gap between for easier holding and the fox skull was just because I had one in the shed. The bow shoots well at 35-45lb. You can adjust poundage by cranking up the short strings.
and hey! Let's be careful out there

Offline JW_Halverson

  • Member
  • Posts: 11,923
Re: Varabow
« Reply #24 on: September 30, 2013, 10:29:11 pm »
The normal Penobscot (although being a fake) ...

Are you referring to one particular bow that is not an original, or are you saying that the Penobscot did not make these bows?  Please understand, I am not stirring this pot, just asking for clarification.
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline BowSlayer

  • Member
  • Posts: 644
Re: Varabow
« Reply #25 on: October 01, 2013, 04:45:29 am »
Great.  Now I want to make one :laugh:
London, England.

45#@28"

Offline wally

  • Member
  • Posts: 157
Re: Varabow
« Reply #26 on: October 01, 2013, 05:36:00 am »
I got my information from a book selected essays by Gordon M Day. The first time the Penobscot warbow came to light was in 1901 and was sold by Chief Big Thunder to anthropologist Arthur Seton who was collecting and studying New England's native Americans. There appears to be no record before that.The Penobscot tribe had normal type bows and I don't think the warbow appears in their official website last time I looked. Chief Big Thunder was also known as Big Frank Lola A.K.A. Francis Loring and was said to be a white man who lived with the Penobscot most of his life. He travelled America with his sister selling baskets which the Penobscots are famous for plus their canoes. He signed up with P T Barnum's travelling wild west shows and was a showman who later made his living making and selling 'Indian Relics'. The original bow made by him was immediately copied and their were a few appearing after 1901. In my opinion a myth grew around it from then. I still love the bow, it's style and look even though I think  it is only about 100 yrs old. There is a photo of Clara Paul in Penobscot dress holding a warbow dated 1853 which someone said disproved the 1901 date. I searched into it and accidently found the photographer was a Francis Loring. So he could have used the bow in wild west shows in 1853, or he could have lied about the date-maybe?
A quote from the book- 'Accounts given of him were ‘he was unscrupulous, a liar, and a rascal’ by the informants to the writer, ‘Fanny Eckstorm, who knew him, and his Penobscot tribesmen, were in full agreement with this assessment. There was no record of a dissenting opinion.’
and hey! Let's be careful out there

Offline wally

  • Member
  • Posts: 157
Re: Varabow and Penobscot
« Reply #27 on: October 01, 2013, 05:51:58 am »
We seem to have drifted from Varabow(which I'm after)and the Penobscot which I love. Here are two photos of Chief Big Thunder ans Clara Paul with Penobscot bows, strangely of different types? Who knows the truth? Although I firmly believe that Big Frank Lola aka Francis Loring aka Big chief Thunder fabricated the idea. That doesn't detract from the bow's style at all.
and hey! Let's be careful out there

Offline JW_Halverson

  • Member
  • Posts: 11,923
Re: Varabow
« Reply #28 on: October 01, 2013, 03:58:23 pm »
Ok, Wally, it appears we are working with the same information.  Always wondered if Frances Loring's name was synonymous with "Big Noise".

And again I agree with you, it does not detract from the bow's style at all.  Some day I hope to have the guts to attempt one of them!
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline Knapper

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,057
  • David Atnip
Re: Varabow
« Reply #29 on: October 02, 2013, 12:15:26 pm »
What a beast
Knapper
Ad Dare Servire
PM104250