49" Inuit cable backed....done (added pic of a simpler type model)

[half eye]

hey fellas,
       Few days ago I posted some NA bows, and amoungst 'em was an Inuit that needed it's bridges and cables. Here it is.
49" overall, white oak (Barrel stave stock) the bow weighed 38# @ 25" w/o the cable and 48# @ 25 with 3 turns on the cable. The bow has an easy 27" draw length. The pics have the same 28" overall arrow as in the other post.
       The bow shoots very quietly, I guess thats because of the cariboo skin under the cable and the bridge block wrap under that part. This thing was a pain in the rear...it will be some time before I do another one.
        Anyway got the regular photos and a second bunch of close up shots....the cables are made, secured and all that without knots of any kind. Everything is intertwined, wrapped , half hitched or soldier hitched. This includes the binding that hold the twist in the cable (grip center) the cables are one piece and everything else is one piece. The hide is not glued down and neither are the bridge blocks.
        Feel free to let me know about any screw-up's, and enjoy the photo's.
Rich

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[half eye]

here's the close-up's

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[KenH]

What a great bow!!  Wow!  30% increase in draw weight with just a couple turns of the windlass!  That's incredible!!

Love the lashing pattern, how did you work that out??

[half eye]

Ken,
      I used a book that Ken75 was kind enough to give me. "North American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers" by Otis Tufton Mason who wrote it while curator of the Smithsonian in 1893. They broke the Eskimo natives into 3 groups....Arctic type, Southern type, and Western type. There are at least 22 different types of cable layouts with some overlapping in style and some showing 3 or more styles on one bow. I picked a combination of two Southern types.
     The Southern types tend to be longer bows about 38" to 50" and single bows, The Western tend to resemble the Asiatic type bows where the bows are spliced and the limb tips are similair to siahas or horn types. Anyway, my bow was a solid self bow of wood so I went with the western "bridged layout" and the cable system came from specimens collected at Bristol Bay and Nuniviak Island. The trademark of these types is "extra starnds let into the cable by means of any number of half hitches passing around the bow and into the cable".....the second trademark is that the twin cables are continuous around each knock in a contiuous strand form two cables which are woven into a single "great" cable.
      Sorry for the long winded explanation but thats where the pattern(s) came from.
Rich

[okiecountryboy]

Rich
Beautiful bow!
Personally, The way you craft primitive archery,....I think you were born bout 200 years too late...
Now wait a minute, how old are you anyway. Naw, you couldn't be 245 Years young.LOL

Ron

[Pat B]

Another very cool Native American bow Rich. I really enjoy seeing what you will make next. I believe you are breaking all the laws of archery as far an overall length vs. draw length...and using boards to make them all.     Very well done!

[Rich Saffold]

Rich, I feel the same as Pat.  Your bow is a beauty and that is a great looking full draw pic too!

Rich

[AncientArcher76]

Wow Rich very nice craftsmanship!  I have that cordage for u and will send that out along with the rest of goods!  Looks like that turned out well!  Talk to u soon my friend.

Russ

[Easternarcher]

I certainly concur with evryone else! Inspires me to make one of thos myself...I have that same book too!

What are you using for cordage? Artificial sinew?? or the real thing??

[half eye]

Hey Eastern,
       It's artificial.....did some digging and some of these bows would take (60 yards) of braided sinew to complete an Arctic type, and maybe 45 yards for a Southern type..........That's a whole lot of sinew. Also I believe that after contact with the whalers and sealers they probably would have used some type of twine cordage either from trade or ship wrecks. I don't think a guy would be too far off to use sail mending twine or upholsters twine.
       Hey Okie......I'll have ya to know that I'm 239 and holding. There is a lot to be said for doing somethings the "old" way like smoking and greasing bow wood, and I noticed that while using rocks to sand and shape the bows you can actually "feel" whats going on with the bow wood....can't explain but ya can physically feel whats going on....it's pretty cool actually. I also do all my tillering with the "under-tension" system....just use progessively longer sticks, check the bend by eye, and every once in a while pull the bow to "feel the weight"....worked for them and it works good for me.
      Thanks again for the nice comments, but they got the designs down....not me.
Rich

[Parnell]

Wow!  My year and a half on PA and that is the first example of that design and technology I've seen.  I've been looking at those for some time and wondering, and finally, here is an example.  Your the man!

[ken75]

dang nice bow rich , its all been said great work

[Lombard]

I can't help but wonder, how long the backstrap sinew from a Whale or Elephant Seal would be? Indigenous people of Alaska were know to hunt those creatures. If those animals even have the kind of sinew that Deer, Elk, Buffalo, Caribou, and such have along their backs. If so it would sure make twisting up one of those cables less labor intensive. Very wet in Alaska, so I wonder what they did to keep moisture from getting to the cables, since they used them, they must have some solution?

I really like what you did there, and the historical questions that you have got me thinking about. Now I just need to know.

[Parnell]

I have a couple questions.  I'm wondering about the bridge purpose.  It is to raise the tension so that the outer limbs aren't bending as much.  From the full draw it seems that bow is doing more bending in the first half of the limbs.  Are the bridges responsible?

Also, that bracing piece that looks like you've put on the belly side of the handle (Book17 picture).  Is that on the back or belly?  Just to reinforce the handle as it's bending a great deal there?

Did you make the cable as an endless loop and then wrap it down with once consecutive piece of cord just hitching it in along the way and then wrapping around the cable?

Very interesting Rich...

[Pappy]

Nice bow,you come up with more cool stuff. 
   Pappy