Sturgeon Skin/rawhide backed Penobscot Bow

[Almostpighunter]

This is a story of 1 + 1 = newfound inspiration.
I haven't posted in a while and, to be honest, I haven't done much bow making lately either. I kind of fell flat on the whole bowering thing over the last year or so. Don't get me wrong I still love the craft and the bows, but I just wasn't inspired like I used to be. I've been doing more leatherwork recently and decided to sell off a lot of my bowering materials to make room for the leather. In the process of cleaning out my work space I found some old staves that I either been hoarding or never finished and decided to just go through the motions one more time. The 54" osage stave became a rawhide backed,bend through the handle, bow a few days later... but I already have/made several of these bows and I felt it was "just another bow" to me. I also had found a 60" hickory bow that I had backed with rawhide as well and got into tiller, but I never finished because the limbs had some minor propeller twist in them. Something about the 60" length of the hickory bow tweaked a memory and I checked this book (pic 1) for this picture (pic 2) and suddenly I had my inspiration.

I converted the osage into the smaller "back" bow and left the hickory as is. The resulting penobscot bow is made as close to the specs of the book as I could manage but with the obvious differences of wood type and sturgeon skins (lil' primitive archery bling-bling). I was very excited about the look, but nearly jumped out of my skin on firing the first shot! The bow draws incredibly smooth and feels like a 45-50# bow despite it having weighed in at 63# @ my 29" draw. The arrows screamed to the target and hit really hard. I can't wait to shoot through a chronie the next time I make it out to the range. In the end I am very happy and hope you guys like what you see!

If you'd like to see the bow in action, I posted a video on my YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXEVqVzVS48

Long bow:
Rawhide backed Hickory
60" nock to nock length
Sturgeon Side skin with scutes

Short "back" bow:
Rawhide backed Osage
30" nock to nock length
Sturgeon Dorsal skin with scutes

63# @ 29"

[Almostpighunter]

more pics

[Almostpighunter]

Tiller

[chamookman]

I've always been a Fan of Sturgeon Skins - Cool Bow ! Bob

[Orrum]

First I have seen of sturgeon skins and I like em a bunch!

[---GUTSHOT--->]

Cool bow!

[Almostpighunter]

Gutshot, Orrum, Chamookman, thanks guys!

[Danzn Bar]

very interesting......fine workmanship.....and I really like the wood combination.
DBar

[upstatenybowyer]

Very cool. Wonderfully executed. Never seen one like that 

Cheers

[bubby]

Nice job Mike! Good to see you posting again

[BowEd]

Very cool bow Almostpighunter.Nice video too.It really snaps them out there from 2 of the favorite types of wood I like.Dazzling finish with those sturgeon skins.Like you said a starry starry night look.

[osage outlaw]

I really like those skins.  Nice work.

[Pat B]

I've never been a fan of the Penobscot bow but you have done a good job on this one from the well done tiller to the sturgeon skin backing.  I think the sturgeon skin would have been plenty strong enough backing but understand it was a second thought.

[burn em up chuck]

      very very cool

                    chuck

[Stick Bender]

Very cool bow Mike I watched your vid last week & thought that was a unusual bow for you but realy nice , sorry to here you lost your bow mojo you sure inspired me long before I became a PA member & I learned a lot from your vids hope that bow inspires you again !