I bought a really old Osage Orange bow the other day for $20. There was no name on it. It had a pigskin handle wrap and an old broken continuous strand bowstring made of silk. After removing the handle wrap all I could find is the number 40 which is pretty close to the 35 pounds that I measured with a scale. There is a builtup handle that looks to be hickory that has been applied to the bow proper.
Any idea on when silk strings were used. The bow works great with a new string, it really zips the arrows along.