Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: kleinpm on March 18, 2014, 10:31:55 am
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I called the division of Yellowstone National Park that stores there artifacts to see if I could exam any bows/arrows they might have. They replied that they had a recurve osage orange bow, 34 3/4 inch long. I thought this is going to be neat. I was expecting a short osage plains bow. To my surprise the bow is a Yew paddle bow from California that was donated to the Park about 100 years ago by a collector from Bozeman.The collector that donated the bow moved to Bozeman in the 1880's. The paperwork with the bow says it was acquired in Humboldt, CA. As far as I know this bow has been in storage since it was acquired and isn't in any books and has probably only been seen by a few people since it was acquired.
34 3/4 inches long, sinew backed yew. Handle is 1 1/4 inches wide and 1 9/16 inches wide mid limb. The the bow is more or less the same thickness throughout the bow at about 3/8". As you can see in the pictures the bow is painted on the back, but the belly was painted red at some point. Most of it is gone and it has an orange hue now. Some sapwood is visible on the edges of the bow.The string appears to have been painted red also, but it is very faint now. The red paint on the string may have been from handling the bow and then touching the string when it was in use or in storage.
The grip is wrapped with thick rawhide or thin leather and has seen a lot of use.
Unlike a lot of bows that I have seen in western museums, the workmanship is superb. There is not a tool mark anywhere on the bow and the sinew back looks better than most of the bows posted on the forum. Unlike most plains bows I have seen, the sinew seems like leg sinew instead of one thin course of backstrap sinew.
I have a few more pictures if anyone is looking for anything specific. There were two arrows with it that I am going to post in the arrows section.
Patrick
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is that bows belly slightly concave? very nice bow non the less
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Very cool, Thanks for sharing. Do you think the string is sinew or plant fiber? Looks like a two ply to me??
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8) dp
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Ionic,
The bow is slightly rounded on the belly.
NClonghunter,
The string is 2 ply sinew, 1/8 inch across.
Patrick
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Very cool old bow :)
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That's great - thanks for posting! I was just re-reading the paddle bows section of TBB last night.
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Wow! Thanks for sharing this bow. That string looks like sinew to me. That thing looks stout for 34"!!
You said the backing looked like twisted leg sinew? Do you have any close-ups of that? Looks like it has the Hupa kerf-cut nocks.
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outstanding
thanxx for posting.,
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Wow! Thanks for sharing this bow. That string looks like sinew to me. That thing looks stout for 34"!!
You said the backing looked like twisted leg sinew? Do you have any close-ups of that? Looks like it has the Hupa kerf-cut nocks.
No. The backing looks like leg sinew instead of back sinew, not twisted. Most plains bows that I have seen have one thin layer of blackstrap sinew.
Patrick
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Thanks for the new photo on my file
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That was a great opportunity for you to examine that bow. Thank you for sharing it.
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Thanks for clarifying....I dont know where I read twisted???
ionicmuffin, I thought it looked concave too. Must be one of those depth illusion things.
That is a sweet discovery. Glad they allowed you to nock the dust off and snap some photos. Thanks for sharing them.
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awesome piece of history there, great detective work kleinpm
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Very interesting. Thanks for sharing
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That is sweet! The only bow at my museum is an Eskimo bow. Still cool but wish they had more. Thanks for sharing!
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That is a piece of history... wonderful bow. Thanks for sharing. jawge
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Very nice. Did you argue with them that it wasn't Osage and supposed to be strung the opposite way? ;)
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Very nice. Did you argue with them that it wasn't Osage and supposed to be strung the opposite way? ;)
The string was loose, although it wouldn't surprise me if it had been strung backwards.
I informed the lady helping me that the wood was not osage. She was very helpful, but very unknowledgable. She was more of a secretary than a historian.
The bow was labeled Osage when it was donated to the Park in 1930. I doubt anyone has examined it since then.
Patrick
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Very interesting Patrick, Thanks for sharing
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Very cool, thanks for posting this so we all could have a look into the past. Be nice to have one of those in your own personal collection wouldn't it.
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Should have bagged it an run away whilst she had her back turned >:D
Lovely piece of history.
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Thank you for posting the pics. I saved them to my file.
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hey Patrick, here are a few pics from my last visit to the Carnegie museum in Pittsburgh.