hickory Eastern Woodlands bow ??

[sonny]

a buddy and I cut a hickory sapling (from where we hunt together= Good Medicine I hope) a few months ago, split the two logs into six or seven staves, one of which I grabbed on a recent trip to his house. I plan on leaving it the 70" or so that it is and it's 1-1/4" wide through the handle section.
never having made such a long bow I'm not sure if a D tiller would be the best...seems that leaving the middle third a bit stiffer would probably be best,, but that's only a guess on my part.
any suggestions ?? and pics of such a bow would be great.

[Strongbow88]

Yeah if you leave it 70 inches long it would need to bend very little in the middle. but the shorter you make it the more it should bend in the handle. that is with a 28 inch draw. with a longer draw you would want it to bend a little more in the handle.

[Pat B]

Unless you specifically want a 70" bow I'd say that is too long however the Cherokee, and other Eastern Woodland tribes did make long war bows.   You could build a Sudbury style Eastern Woodland bow that was made from hickory and has a stiff handle section. It is(still in existence in the Peabody Museum at Harvard) 65" n/n(67 1/2"t/t)  or an Eastern Woodland Cherokee style bend through the handle war bow(around 68"-72" long) or a similar hunting bow that would be 55" to 65" and bend through the handle. Pat

[xin]

I've seen the Sudbury bow in the Harvard Peabody Museum.  It is about as handsome a bow as I've ever laid eyes on.  The weight  was probably 50 to55 lbs. It was whipended tillered as I imagine there was no bending near the handle. This probably made for a very pleasant shooting bow.  Probably a 70 inch hickory bow is more mass than is needed for a hunting bow and may even make a more sluggish performer.  Just a few thoughts.  Have fun!

[Hillbilly]

About 66-68" would probably be plenty of length. I would make it barely bend through the handle, more felt than seen. I don't care much for bows that bend too much in the handle, and most of the woodlands bows looked to be bending only slightly there from the looks of the thickness tapers.

[Kjikakakuj]

  I've read recorded acounts from jesuit missionaries visiting here in Nova Scotia during the late 1500's that the Mi'kmaq people ( an Algonquin tribe) of the time used bows that were two meters (6 ft.) long. There are not to my knowledge any surviving examples as flint locks were quickly adopted as they were easily had, being supplied when the warriors(hunters) were allied with the french during the French/English wars.

  The only historical portrait I've seen of a Mi'kmaq holding a bow is of a painting done during the late 1700's. It shows him holding a bow identical in every way to the ELB (minus horn nocks) and the ones depicted in the De Brays(is that spelled right?) engravings of the Florida Warriors.

   I'd say go for it. Something similar to the Algonkian bows in the Eastern Woodland bows chapter in the TBB (Vol.2?) wood probably be a good choice if your looking for something decidedly different from the ELB.

    Look foward to seeing what you come up with.

                                       Sean C.
                                        Mi'kmaq First Nation

[Papa Matt]

Brothers, what is ELB?

-Matt

[Pat B]

Matt, ELB is English Long Bow, referring to a narrow, deep cross section as opposed to a flat thin cross section of a flat bow.     Pat