Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Jakesnyder on June 26, 2019, 03:58:19 pm
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I know when your talking about eastern Woodlands indians there is a wide variety of designs they used. One thing that I find alot when looking at photos is they had wider tips. Can someone explain to me what this would benefit them? You would think it would slow down the limbs thus making the bow shoot slower. Any thoughts? Thanks
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The Eastern woodland culture as well as natives from most areas weren't worried about speed. A durable hunting bow was more important. I've made a few Eastern Woodland style bows with the wide tips(3/4") and single side nocks and if well tillered they preform surprisingly well. The Cherokee made 2 styles of these bows, 4' to 5' hunting bows and 6'+ war bows, most with the wide tips.
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Do you have any pictures patb? I'd love to see some of your work.
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Most fairly primitive peoples weren't as up on physics etc.
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Durability and aesthetics would be my shot in the dark, also maybe ease of manufacture.
Durability because a wider tip should be harder to break, aesthetics because who knows what they found attractive.
And they might have been easier to build with stone tools
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Jake most of my pics got stolen by Photobucket. I'll see if I can find some pics.
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Built a Sudbury replica ,and no doubt it would kill. Gifted it to a friend.Then built half dozen more with same limb design at 56, 58 60 , and three at 62 inches long for 26 inch draw with tips that narrowed to three eights .Put Elk horn tip over lays on one with a 10 strand FF string.That one shoots nice. I Made them all from edge grain hickory.When scaled down the design looks nice with more of an elliptic tiller. I still like the Pyramid Design a little better, but that is just one example of Eastern Woodland bows.
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Ok it probably did not make that much difference in speed,, a little for sure
and I have read,, that as the arrow gets heavier, the tip weight is not making as much differnce in the speed,,dogwood shafts can be quite heavy, and maybe that was a factor,,
maybe with a sinew or rawhide string,, it was not an issue,,the few fps,,
and I have a feeling if an archer wanted a bit more cast,, probably just went up in draw weight a bit,or pulled the bow further,,, and the tips were more for durability and ease of stringing with rawhide or sinew,, ok thats my 2 cents,,
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Brad, I agree. I was just playing around with design. Fact is their bows worked fine for them.In my mind they were skilled archers, and hunters.
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Jake
google or duckduckgo the following eastern woodland site: www.primitivearcher.com
then click on images at the top of the search results page
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Thanks everyone! What was a common draw weight? Does it very as much as it does today?
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I'd say 40# to 50# but that's just a guess.
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I just scored 3 nice sugar maple staves. Reading through some old posts I came across someone saying you can dry it quickly. At what point is it safe to stick in the hot box without risking a bunch of checking? If its roughed out does it dry quicker than hickory?
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I like mine below 15% before I put them in my hot car. But I know of a lot of guys who just seal the backs and ends and put them in the hot boxes still wet. If you reduce it first it will get close to 12% pretty fast
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Is it stronger in tension or compression?
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Tension,
Keep to the flatter native styles I had a maple stave crysle (spelling?) on me real bad one time.
That said it may have been silver maple not sugar maple.
And I’ve had better luck with maple staves from saplings rather than full trees.
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In the past I made a number of red oak board bows. All between 64-68 inches. I used a basic layout with wide flat limbs ,3/4 inch wide at the tips. I wasn't really concerned with optimal performance. I just wanted a reliable bow that would shoot well. Here is a pick of one of the tips.
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Thanks everyone! What was a common draw weight? Does it very as much as it does today?
For war or hunting?
Encyclopedia of Native American Bow, Arrows, and Quivers, Volume 1: Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest is a good reference for eastern woodlands and more. it may be instructive to look at some of the arrow lengths of arrows associated with some bows