Menominee bow ??

[sonny]

(see dimensions below)
If A= bow length then that bow is a little longer than 46" and roughly
1-1/4" wide. I'd love to know what the H) dimension refers to-
any ideas ??   


copied from American Museum of Natural History website -
Dimensions: A)L:118.5 W:3.2 H:3.3 I)L:60 W:2.2 H:2 [in CM]

[Hrothgar]

Just guessin' maybe tip width,

[Joec123able]

Maybe handle ? That would be a short handle tho lol

[WillS]

Surely if L is length and W is width then H must be "height."  I would imagine height is how a museum archivist who doesn't make bows would document thickness. 

I'd say bow A ) is 118.5cm long, and is 3.2 X 3.3cm at the thickest part (handle).  If you know how the limb tapers in profile and the size of the tips, you should be able to draw up a design?

[Slackbunny]

You would think it would be thickness, but that makes no sense. Its too large.

Just had an idea... maybe those are the dimensions of a case that they store it in. Like a glass display case or something.


Edit:
Oh wait, WillS probably has the right of it.

[sonny]

obviously we can't see how thick it is but I'd be surprised to find that it's that
thick (3.3cm= 1.299") at the handle.
anyone else agree with that ??

[Cardboard_Duck]

Here is my guess...

The H is the height, but maybe the bow has some reflex or string follow, and whoever measured it didn't get the "thickness" but measured from the highest to lowest point.

[WillS]

obviously we can't see how thick it is but I'd be surprised to find that it's that
thick (3.3cm= 1.299") at the handle.
anyone else agree with that ??

If you don't know the draw-weight, there's no way of saying if a bow's thickness is too thick.  3.2cm is not very thick for a high poundage bow. 

Judging by the picture, there's virtually no width taper from handle to limb tip.  It looks like a plank of wood all the way down.  This means that all the taper has to be done on the belly.  That requires a far thicker handle than mid to outer limb thickness, so in my mind 3.2cm sounds right.

[sonny]

I would challenge anyone to make a whitewood bow of those dimensions -
46" long, 1-1/4" wide, 1-1/4" thick at the handle section- with a reasonable belly taper
and for that person to simply get a string on that bow....

 

[WillS]

This may sound ridiculous - I have no knowledge at all of primitive American bows - but do you know if it was a working, practical bow?  Could it have just been decorative/ceremonial?  If it was, the design wouldn't have to be functional.  The profile doesn't look like a functional bow, but then as I said I've never seen any other similar bows so I don't know.

[bubby]

i'm inclined to think one of those numbers is a typo

[half eye]

Hey Sonny,
      I'm pretty sure that the height is is derived like CD said.....dimensions if it was sittin in a invisible box. Because the bows that have the "turned back horns/tips" also have large "H" figures. Having said that I emailed the squints at the site and asked the question directly.....will advise when they answer back.
rich

[sonny]

yeah I actually meant to agree with the Duck but failed to do so....til now