Author Topic: Hickory Algonquin Replica (Read 11894 times)

Brokestick · « **on:** November 14, 2007, 07:03:28 am »

Hello everyone. Here are some picks of a bow I started about a year ago and finally finished. It's a copy of an Algonquin bow from the Encyclopedia of

Native american Bows Arrows and Quivers, Volume 1. I don't remember the page number, and I loaned out the book, so I can't look it up. It started as a

hickory board, and I took it down to a single growth ring. It's 66" nock to nock, 69" overall, and pulls 50# at 28" with a 6" brace height. I did all the

carving back in January and have been picking away at it ever since. When I first tillered it to finished dimensions, it took a little bit of set, so I heat

treated the belly with it strung backwards on my tillering stick, and a heavy coat of linseed oil to keep from scorchin it. Now it retains about 1/2"

reflex, mostly in the handle area. I attempted to accent the carved areas with a graphite pencil and ended up dirtying the new growth grain in those areas,

so I went over the entire bow with a mixture of powdered charcoal and linseed oil. The finish is several coats of boiled linseed oil, baked in with a heat

gun and sanded between coats. I've found the heat gun saves me alot of curing time between coats when woking with linseed oil. When completed, I topcoated

with beeswax and heated it before rubbing it in. The final step was making a sinew string for it. I had made a dacron sring for it, but I wanted to be as

authentic as possible for this one. I twisted it out of deer leg sinew, which I plan never to use again for string making. It was a royal pain in the bee-

hind to work with fibers that short.

The string is waterproofed with linseeed oil and wax also. I'm just glad it's finall finished, and I can get on with

some other projects. I need to get working on some arrows so I can stop shooting the store-bought ones, and I would like to finish a couple light hickory

bows for my boys for Christmas. I can't post all the pics here, so I'll post a follow up with a couple more. I hope you all are having a great day, and keep on crankin' out great bows. Julian

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Brokestick · « **Reply #1 on:** November 14, 2007, 07:11:55 am »

Hello again. Unfortunately, I had 8 pics I wanted to post, and the original message could only carry 6. Here's the full draw pic, and one with the string unbraced. I thought it was interesting, this being my first sinew string, that when I twisted the string tighter before tying the timber hitch, it naturally untwists itself, and wraps around the bow. No worys about string keeping when unbraced.

Have a great day. Julian

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DanaM · « **Reply #2 on:** November 14, 2007, 07:13:16 am »

Love the carved tips and the simple clean look of this bow. Definately one to be proud of.

Pappy · « **Reply #3 on:** November 14, 2007, 07:34:57 am »

Very nice, simple yet effective.Love the carving,you have some talent.Nice job.

Pappy

Pappy · « **Reply #4 on:** November 14, 2007, 07:42:22 am »

Looks good,and like Dana said just reply to your thread and add more Pictures.

Pappy

Marc St Louis · « **Reply #5 on:** November 14, 2007, 08:20:17 am »

Very nice. You did a good job with that bow.

I might be able to merge the 2 topics but I've never done that before and could screw it up.

Done

Woodland Roamer · « **Reply #6 on:** November 14, 2007, 09:10:18 am »

Brokestick, that is an outstanding replica bow! Very nice job. The carving and artwork look great. I think you just got my vote for November selfbow of the month!

Alan

YewArcher · « **Reply #7 on:** November 14, 2007, 09:12:26 am »

Nice job,

Thats one of my favorite bows to replicate.

SJM

George Tsoukalas · « **Reply #8 on:** November 14, 2007, 10:06:08 am »

I love it. Nice bow. Th tooler looks great too. Jawge

Hillbilly · « **Reply #9 on:** November 14, 2007, 11:28:38 am »

Great job! I've threatened to try making a replica of that one myself but I've got about a dozen half-finished bows already laying around that I haven't had time to work on. Does it have any handshock with those big tips?

Justin Snyder · « **Reply #10 on:** November 14, 2007, 11:31:26 am »

Great looking bow, you did a great job on the carved tips. Justin

Brokestick · « **Reply #11 on:** November 14, 2007, 12:41:13 pm »

Thanks for all the comments. The reason I didn't reply to my own post was that I couldn't find it after I posted it. Somehow it inserted below some older posts, and I didn't scroll down to find it. I figured that perhaps the moderators had started screening posts, like some other forums do. Thank you Marc, for linking them together for me. As for handshock, it has surprisingly little considering the size of the tips and it's a bend through the handle bow. I've always wondered the same, considering the size of some of the tips illustrated in that book for Northeastern bows.

CHUCKER · « **Reply #12 on:** November 14, 2007, 01:33:39 pm »

I'm liking your bow a lot! I have several staves waiting to become bows and I think one will be similar to yours. Very nice all around. You will have my vote also. Of coarse the mouth is young yet.

How does it shoot?

Pat B · « **Reply #13 on:** November 14, 2007, 01:43:24 pm »

Nice bow and beautiful detail work. I love this kind of bow...simple but effective. It is amazing how effective they are and how little hand shock they have.
Charcoal and oil makes for an excellent finish and coloration for whitewood bows. Pat

GregB · « **Reply #14 on:** November 14, 2007, 02:20:38 pm »

Really nice job, simple in design yet a lot of time-consuming detail and finish work.

Primitive Archer