Hupa West Coast Indain Bow, Yew Heartwood and Sinew

[YewArcher]

Here is a Hupa Indian Bow. The Hupa Indians are from North East California, more specifically in the Hupa (Hoopa) Vally along the trinity river. They are the most southern of the Northwest Indian culture. The Hupa like all the North West tribes were highly artistic people. Very sophisticated in their crafts and equipment. This is an example of one of there bows as represented in TBB Vol. 1 (More or less).

Here are the specs:
Length: 47” n2n

Weight: 48#@24”

Reflex maintained: 2.5” after shooting 3” after a rest (That’s great!!)

Materials: Heartwood yew and sinew

Here is the back of the bow:







Belly:


Unbraced: Look at that reflex!! 




Braced:


Close ups of the grip. Linen with sinew wraps to give a good grip.







Here are the tab nocks. These are bent tab nocks done by cutting a kerf in the wood. Then there is a sinew wrapped around this area to create a bulb. The whole thing is then wrapped in rawhide. Beaver fur to silence the string slap. This culture was sophisticated enough to recognize and problem solve this. We still use similar methods today.









Full Draw:


This is my 13th West Coast Indian bow and by far the best of the lot. It has taken me quite a few bows and a few years now to really perfect this style . It is really a complex bow to make. It is my favorite bow style to make and shoot. I have a sinew string curing but could not wait to get the pics up to share with you all.

I am so satisfied with this one.

Thanks for looking,

Steve

[cowboy]

Very impressive Steve! You've got those Hupa bows down it would seem . Looks to be bending perfectly! Nice artwork too..

[Gordon]

Oh my, that bow is just fabulous. I can't see how you could improve on anything. I'll be saving a picture of that one in my gallery of dream bows. Wow!

[Traxx]

Outstanding work.
A fine example of the Type.

[michbowguy]

do you use acrylics for paint?
and what to seal???

i need to take my time and quit making 3 hour survival bows and make some artwork!

great bow
jamie

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

very nice looking bow, you do a great job on them.  replica style bows are not really my style and normally i dont care for them much, but i like this one and your last one a lot.  your turning out some really nice looking pieces.  keep up the great work...that full draw pic looks great too! - Ryan

[Keenan]

 Exceptional and true to form Steve,  We have a cabin in our family that is down on the Trinity River in the Trinity Alps by Coffee Creek. I've done allot of research an the Hupa tribes and I've seen several museum bows and that is a very authentic reproduction. Great job and congratulations. Getting the tiller on a sinew backed yew heartwood bow is hard because in the yew is usually fairly wide and thin and the sinew can pull it around very easy while tillering.
  That really is an outstanding bow.    Keenan

[George Tsoukalas]

Yew Archer, that is an outstanding bow. I love it. Jawge

[David Long]

IMHO, you're doing a service to humanity by making these things as true to form as you're able. That might sound corny, but if you figure how few of them are lying around for people to see, pick up, even shoot, and how many hundreds or thousands of years they were in use.....nice job. You inspire me to take a crack at one of these soon. Dave

[YewArcher]

Thanks guys, Those are some real nice compliments.

Keenan, You really touched on the complexity of this design. The yew is so elastic and the sinew so strong and the limbs so thin that it is REALLY HARD to get a good even tiller on these bows. And then when you think you have it your brace is out of whack and then you adjsut that and your tiller is out of wack. These are by far the hardest bows taht i have tillered. They are worth it though. In the end even a bow with an off tiller shoots as well as a picture perfect tiller so you make the best of it and get close as you can.

jamie, I use acrylics. I am getting to the point that my next one will probably be all natural paints but i sure like acrylics! They work real well for this style of painting. I el these mostly with true oil.

Thank again guys, Nice complimnts, I just really like makeing historical bows. I know they are not 100% but thats not really what I am after. I am seeking to make historical bows with a slight twist of modern tecnology to keep them alive and get them into as many peoples hands as I can.

Steve

[a finnish native]

very nice. I personally would have lost those furs near the nocks, but I bet it silences the string slap if nothing else.

[DanaM]

yew nailed that one Steve, I find your work to be inspired and your attention to detail is incredible.

[M-P]

Beautiful work Steve.  But I want to know what you're going to make with that strip of baleen.  Ron

[Rich Saffold]

Steve, That is really wonderful craftsmanship. I hope you get to shoot something tasty with it...

Rich-Impressed

[ballista]

 goregous- thats all i can say. the paint looks great, the tabs are awesome, thats inspiration right there man. great work, you think similar dimentions would work ok with osage?   -jimmy