Bows with all the bells and whistles (gifts for my friends)

[half eye]

some more

[Swampman]

They are looking great Rich.  Very nice work. 

[Badly Bent]

Man I love the look of that osage with belly scallops and snake skin, cool bow Rich.

[George Tsoukalas]

Truly beautiful bows! Very impressive. Jawge

[half eye]

Thank you for the nice comments fellas.
rich

[mwosborn]

Beautiful bows for sure Rich.  You inspire me to higher levels sir!

Mitch

[burchett.donald]

  Rich,
          Off the chain buddy   Love the way the rawhide handle came out! And Jon's belly scallops, my next Osage will have a go at this type...Thanks for the close up's man...Awesome work...And hurry up and dry allready
                                                                                                                                           Don

[half eye]

Really glad you like it Don, wanted it to be special. Sent ya a PM also...
rich

[Knoll]

BELLY scallops?!! Hope Jon has that one by MoJam time! Awesome.

[---GUTSHOT--->]

Oh my goodness Rich those belly scallops are awesom! Well let me start over all those bows are awesome. Keep it up, I'm gonna give you the name of Bow whisper

[half eye]

Thank you Knoll, Gutshot really appreciate it.

Fellas,
    Here are some pics of the grip wrap of Jon's bow. Originally I had wrapped it in raw-hide only, but undid that and re-wrapped with hemp, and then re-applied the rawhide over that. A couple of reasons for this.....first I was not sure the wet rawhide might do something not good to the sinew or skin covering, because it was not just wet but pulled very tight to boot, and second wanted the grip to be "hand filling" and these bows are very skinny.
   Here are the pics
rich

[ajooter]

What kind of rawhide ya get there riiiiiiich?

[half eye]

Ajooter,
      That would be white-tail deer sir. It is my understanding that it is tacked out and hand scraped. It holds a great deal of it's collagen and seems really tough.
rich

[burchett.donald]

  Rawhide, sinew and hide glue...You have gone off the deep end Sir I'm liking it...Nice looking Penebscot bow, I know Jon will be thrilled...Classy job
                                                                                                       Don

[half eye]

Thank you Don, getting to where I like the all natural better than the man made stuff.

Fellas,
   Here are the pictures of the 2 finished bows.....both are osage, carved, sinew backed, and skinned. Whitetail sinew from Eric (used whole) and hide glue for the sinew and skins, and whitetail rawhide for the grip wrap. In the case of the Penobscott the grip is rawhide over hemp twine. The Seneca has a Linen string (8 strands) waxed with beeswax, while the Penobscott has a artificial sinew string set for now....(waiting for the "gut" material to arrive)
    The Seneca is 52" ntn, and between 65-68# @ 26....The Penobscott is 52-1/2 ntn, and at least 70+ @ 26". I can manage to string both bows but need some help to unstring them and cant draw either one much over half draw....so these guys have to shoot 'em in their own bad selfs.
   One last one in the works for Mr. Gutshot, hope to get started this Tuesday or there abouts.
rich