Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: PaleoNinja on January 02, 2013, 04:31:44 am
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Happy New Years Fellas,
This is the "Modified Miwok" bow that I recently completed but have yet to seal. As I'm sure many of you know the Miwok Indians of N. California built excellent bows that were short, narrow, sinew backed, recurved and bent through the handle. Since I live in Miwok Territory I have always had an affinity for these weapons, and have recently started building them. This one is a Modification on the original Miwok Design. It's 4" longer than the originals would have been, it's more intensely recurved and it's made from Yew rather than Incense Cedar.
The bow has no string follow after tons of shooting and zero stack. I didn't originally plan to have string bridges but the bow kept reversing or else it would have to be braced excessively high. The string bridges were successful in that they prevent the bow from throwing the string off. Unlike the originals the bow has a rectangular cross section (rather than lenticular) in the working parts and a circular cross section in the recurves. All the Sapwood was removed, and 3 layers of elk sinew were added in its place.
Hope you guys enjoy it.
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Wow, beautiful bend on that one! Very nice bow there.
George
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nice bow. it looks great.
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Beautiful bow. :)
Pappy
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Sweet like stick
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Very cool little bow!
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Great work, super bow.
Del
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Nice work!
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Very nice work on that short one. Probably not an easy bow to make but you seemed to have nailed it, thats one to be proud of there. :)
Greg
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Very nicely done! The bow is strikingly beautiful. Jawge
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Excellent! 8)
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beautiful!
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Very nice bow. Bet it shoots fast.
Is that Mt Tamalpias in the background..?
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Beautuful work!!!
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Really nice bow! Now you need to get you some home-made elderberry shaft arrows and a napped obsidian point.
Gabe
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Sweet! I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the shooting form yet! How do you find it shoots?
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very cool, I love how lite and flexible yew is. Im curious in your research did it say incense,or stinking cedar?I have never seen any myself but the common name stinking cedar, refers to California Torreya, which is in the yew family.
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Nice job. That's a cool little bow.
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Nice work. Lots of bend in that shorty. Looks like a sweet ambush bow. How does it shoot?
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Thank you all for your kind words, I know it must be nice if it passes the scrutiny of other bowyers! The bow shoots very fast and hard for only having a 23 inch draw. That is my brother in the photos, after we go to the range it's hard to get him to give that thing back to me!
Badley Bent: You are right this bow was difficult because the design is not the most stable, since it's narrow and has long static recurves. It had to be repeatedly adjusted with heat to make the tips line up perfectly.
Paul N/KS: Yes that is Mt. Tamalpais, and this is certainly Coast Miwok Territory. The creek in the photo was also lined with shell mounds back in the day, a few of them are still around. Do you live in the Bay Area? Why have we not hung out!?
evldwrf: I'm not sure that I've heard of "stinking" cedar, but I think your talking about Torreya Californica which is better known as California Nutmeg. This Species as well as Incense Cedar were listed by 18th century Russian Fur Trader Sources as the Bow-Woods used by the Miwok. Post Contact/ Post Gold Rush Torreya Californica has basically disappeared completely, while the amount of Incense Cedar in the state has absolutely Ballooned. Because of this I've been cutting Incense Cedar for more Authentic Replicas which will certainly be posted later ;).
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Great looking bow. Did the Miwok hold the arrow on the opposite side of the rest compared to most of us modern archers?
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Beautiful, just beautiful!!! You NAILED that sucker.
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thank you for responding to my question. my only resource was national audubon society file guide, and i actually tried to find torreya californica to no avail. thanks for the info.
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NICE ! Well done - Bob.
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Definitely looks warmer than where I'm at... we can walk on the water.... ;D that is 1 nice looking Bowl!!!! ;)
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Absolutely great bow!!!
Simon
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Absolutely gorgeous work. That's some serious recurve! Is the shooter using a thumb ring?
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Cool! 8) Josh
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I think I have an affinity for your weapons! :D
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I know that bay backdrop. I like that your taking technoligoy from around the world and mixing it with the north/central cali style bow to make the perfect bow for you. pretty!