Plans/photos of original Penobscot bow?

[Kviljo]

I've been thinking of making a Penobscot bow for some time. Pictures of an original is hard to find though. Perhaps you know of some here on the internet, or in books?

Any thoughts on how the geometry of the bow should be to give a fat F/D-curve is also very welcome I guess it should be made so that the front string is as far from the main bow as possible at brace, but laying on the back of the main bow at full draw. But I'm not quite sure how that could be done.

[half eye]

Kviljo,
     I have one photo of a museum bow for the style you were asking about....sorry that it's only one but maybe it will help
half eye

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[Marc St Louis]

Here's is a picture of the bow that was the basis for the one I built a number of years ago.



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[Kviljo]

Awesome! Thanks guys!

I did a few scetches and figured the main bow should be reflex-deflex to get the most out of the design. Nice to see that the old one is reflex-deflex too

What were your experiences from making your bow, Marc? Did you feel the design could be improved in some way?

[Marc St Louis]

The bow was not that difficult to make but I was not impressed with the performance.  The piggy back bow that I made probably drew about 80# at a few inches of draw.  I tried winding the string up for more tension but it didn't seem to make any difference to the performance.  I did take the bow apart with the intention of replacing the piggy back bow with a much heavier one but never finished the experiment.

[ricktrojanowski]

Kviljo
There are some good drawings of Penobscot's in the book "Encylopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers" by Steve Allely and Jim Hamm.  The book has 3 examples with some dimensions. 

[Aries]

Kviljo
There are some good drawings of Penobscot's in the book "Encylopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers" by Steve Allely and Jim Hamm.  The book has 3 examples with some dimensions. 

its been a while since ive read that chapter but i think i remember him being kind of biased against the penobscot design for some random reason, but i do remember some good pictures. there was also a very good article in like the third issue of PA that had lots of info from a guy experimenting with the design, and its benefits.