Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: venisonburger on January 21, 2008, 09:29:14 pm
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Has anyone ever used deer rib bones for a bone and sinew wood core bow? I know people use buffalo rib bones but I wonder if you could use whitetail ribs, maybe side by side to get the width and even one on top of another for thickness. Just throwing ideas around.
Looks like I'm gonna have to try. Never did a bone belly bow before.
VB
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Wild hog rib bones might be better. They are really long.
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what about moose , elk, or cow rib?
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My pet frog says:
RIB-IT :D
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My pet frog says:
RIB-IT Cheesy
lol, thats a funny!!!!
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So, now that I have other choices what would the drying process be, do the ribs need to be split to remove any marrow, or are they solid? hopefully someone has some knowledge of how to treat the bones when I get them.
VB
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This is a project I`m very interested in, too. There is some similar discription of making antler/ sinew bows in the book: "Native American Bows", by T. M. Hamilton ISBN- No.:0- 943414-00-8 (previously ISBN 0- 87387).
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Bows & Arrows of the Native Americans: A Step-by-Step Guide to Wooden
At this link you can even preview some of the text and pictures for a rib bow. It looks like it has some problems with stacking. I cannot tell exactly as some pages are missing, but perhaps it is the design. The bow shown might have stacking problems because the tips are not recurved for leverage rather than only because the belly is bone.
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In the book "Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans" Jim Hamm goes on to say that "My conclusions about the rib bow are less charitable than those about the buffalo horn bow. Although the bone will make a bow, it is almost more trouble than it's worth. The advantage of the composite bow, the tremendous overdraw, does not exist with the rib bow. The rib bow is indeed a novelty, as there are probably not more than one or two others in existence, but the time and effort put in to it could be more profitably used to make a good sheep or buffalo horn bow".
Maybe the bone of the ribs is not as elastic or possibly heavier than either buffalo or sheep horn?
Alan
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I read in a forum that the rib bow was a disappointment, but as beef ribs, or at least parts of them, are relatively easy to get, I have not given up hope. I any one know if the eskimos have done any bone knot splicing?