Amazonian Quinine bow

[barney]

I didn't make this one. I've been lent it by a friend who has a friend who spent some time with the Uaupes tribe on a tributary of the Rio Negra. The bow's made from Quinine shaped and tillered with a machete and knife. The bow is triangular in cross-section and about 6'6'' in length.  The string is Liana fibre and the feathers are Macaw. The wood is extremely dense like Lignum Vitae (denser than Ipe, Id say).

The tips are incredibly narrow, so the maker obviously had a good idea about bow performance.

Sorry, but I don't dare to brace it.

Any one come across anything like this before?

[NTD]

I've never come across anything like that but it sure is a beauty, thanks for posting.

[bowkee]

That's cool , must shoot real long arrows?

[Parnell]

Very interesting.  I've never seen anything like that in person, but I'm wondering about a 'gift' that Billy had been given awhile back at a show of some sort.  I think he had been given an amazonian bow that was something along those lines.  Not totally sure, though.  I think he'd been given some arrows with it that were very large and unfletched. 
Looks like Ipe doesn't it?
I thought that Ipe was a generic catergory of wood, and that there were a number of species that fit in the category.  I thought I'd read that Ipe just meant "bow wood" in the native tongue.  Anyone know for sure?
Is Quinine specifically different or would it fall in?

Very interesting post, Thanks for sharing, Barney.

[NTD]

Did some quick research on the wood.  Quinine is actually an alkaloid derived from the quina tree as an anti-fever treatment for malaria.  Neato.  And it does look similar to Ipe but the SG's I found show it's quite a bit less dense than ipe.  .7's to .8's

Nice thin tips on that thing I bet it's fast. 

[JW_Halverson]

Wouldn't it be fun to make a copy if you could get a hold of some of that wood.  Be nice to see how it pulls and shoots.  Nice peice, thanks for sharing pics with us.

I have a black palm bow from Papua New Guinea (and 5 arrows) and I hope to find some black palm to use to reproduce it.