short bow

[bigfish]

I am wanting to make a very short bow under 48" maybe as short as 38"  with the tips flipped I have a lot of sinew cow horn and osage I can also get some oryx horn my question is of the three what would be the best belly material  for such a short bow or is there a better material 

[Pat B]

I'd say cow horn belly, osage core and sinew back.

[Patches]

+1 what Pat said.  Swampmonkey made a plains Indian bow from bison horn, osage and sinew about 2 or3 years ago that was 38 inches and 50# draw. I cannot remember the draw length. He posted here in the bow section. I will try to find the post and put a link here.  His was a flatbow though, it did not have flipped tips.

Neal

[Patches]

Bigfish, the post by Swamp monkey was posted on May 8, 2013. I apparently am not smart enough to post a link here on this thread  . Good luck!

Neal

[blackhawk]

Osage stands very well on its own as well as a selfbow

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,54199.0/nowap.html

Any combo(or the osage alone) will work well if you do your part

[PatM]

Just go with Osage and sinew  first if you haven't tried that yet. Oryx is better than cow horn. Virtually no composites use cow horn that isn't from select types of cattle.

[bigfish]

Osage stands very well on its own as well as a selfbow

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,54199.0/nowap.html

Any combo(or the osage alone) will work well if you do your part

what was the stave length on this bow before the tips were bent

[blackhawk]

Osage stands very well on its own as well as a selfbow

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,54199.0/nowap.html

Any combo(or the osage alone) will work well if you do your part

what was the stave length on this bow before the tips were bent

~44-45"...hence its 43" ntn...i always measure a bow along its curves etc...