Great lakes scalloped bow ?

[burnt]

Wanting to make a Odawa, Potawatimi style  bow and I had a couple ?  I know there are a few out there that have made many of this style.  Did the Anishnabee use quarter cut(sawn) wood or did they use staves from large diameter trees.  most of the bows I've seen here or in the mag are board bows and I wondered if this is the traditional way.  What are some good dimensions for this style of bow minus the added scalloped thickness.  I understand how to add this to the equation.  Thanks

[bubby]

check out halfeye's posts he is the king of those bows around here

[autologus]

Gun Doc made me a Seneca style trade bow check out his post.

Grady

[Badly Bent]

I've made four from staves, none from boards though. Width at scallop cut outs will depend on wood type, density,  length of bow, target draw weight etc. I modeled mine from sketches from book 'bows & arrows of native americans' by Jim Hamm and Steve Alley although my dimensions were different than the book.
Do take a look at Half Eye and Gun Docs post, their bows are very well done representations of this style and Rich
sometimes post dimensions of his bows to help others. He is also has a lot of knowledge on historic bows in this style.
Good luck.

[half eye]

hey burnt,
      The quick answer to your questions is: Both ways. Some of the bands used the smaller diameter ash or ironwood split in half (stave bows) and some bands would split out large trees with the grain "standing" (quartersplit board if you prefer). The Algonquian bows that I've studied were 1-1/4 to 1-1/8 inches wide, had about 3/4" tips. The length of the bow was short by todays standard. The Odawa had the shortest bows (between 3 and 4 feet), the Ojibwe were somewhat bigger (they were physically larger than the Odawa) maybe up to the mid to high 50's inch. The Potawattomii and Shawnee bows were even longer but still short.  The reason for saying that is directly related to the bows thickness...a 50/60" bow should be layed out at least 3/4" thick and the shorter bows should be layed out 5/8 thick. Both will require being tillered thinner.
       Scalloped, plain, or carved edged...most all the bows I studied were basically "javelin" shaped. by that I mean a parallel center section with straight tapers to the tips. I know that the Ottawa bows were straight (flat) and that the Ojibwe (Chippewa) bows were generally "slightly double curved". The only 2 examples of Shawnee and Potawatomii bows that I've found were (in all 4 cases) straight. The Iroquois' bows were completely different and I certainly don't know much about them.I'll attach a couple photo's to give you an idea of Odawa (pic one) and Ojibwe (pic two).
rich 

[autologus]

When you lay one out do you lay it out like a straight tapered bow as if it does not have the scallops?

Grady

[half eye]

I have done both ways but now days I carve out the bow and tiller till it's a basically a bow, and then carve in the scallops. I do not believe that it makes a difference, so do it what ever way seems to make the most since to you. The layout only needs to accommodate the extra "scallop width" if you are going to make them quite prominent otherwise you don't need extra.
rich

[burnt]

Thanks for the answers. Thanks half eye that was just the info I wanting.