T.M Hamilton in his book Native American Bows wrote about this bow he studied in the early 1970s. The bow was listed as red cedar with a sinew backing making up more than 50% of the bows thickness. It was obtained in 1869 from the Flathead tribe. He says the bow was built along classic elkhorn lines but with a wooden belly. "The bows reflex is flawless" he says. He also doubts this bow was ever used and "Made with the idea of selling it to one of the officers stationed at Ft Colville. He doubted the bow could maintain the reflex with a cheap juniper core. I wanted to test this.
This is one of 5 snakeskin backed bows I have seen, all from the northern basin (idaho, Montana, Oregon). The bow in the US National Museum is 43.5" long. Mine is 47 3/4, 46.5 n t n. Other than that I used the same measurements of the real bow. 2.85cm wide in the center, 2.3 cm mid limb, 1.5 cm below the nock. I used rocky mt juniper 3/4 sapwood 1/4 heartwood about. I backed it with 9 layers of elk sinew. 3 layers at a time over 3 weeks. When all this was seasoned the sinew makes up a little over 1/3 the thickness of the bow. I would like to examen the real bow and see if it is in fact more than 1/2 sinew or if it is just down the sides of a rounded back. I still plan on making a 50/50 bow of juniper and sinew to see how it works.
To get to the bow: 46.5" ntn. 52# @ 24.5" The bow has a 3 3/4" reflex right after being unstrung and after a week unstrung it is still about the same. It is a sweet shooter. I am making a longer one for my 26" long draw.
