Elk Horn bows

[Mountaineer]

Would like to talk with someone who's done an Elk horn bow before.I've been reading a bit on it,but never tried it before.Just don't want to mess up on the only piece of elk horn I have.They are kinda hard to come by in WV.Any help is appreciated.Thanks

[welch2]

I've never tried it, but sence you only have enough elk horn for one attempt, I would suggest making a few little test bows out of whitetail horns. That way you can get plenty of experimenting in ,and up your odds on success.

Ralph

[Justin Snyder]

I'm curious to see what you come up with.  I have read that they were mostly ornamental and ceremonial, just hearsay though.  Justin

[Mountaineer]

I've never tried it, but sence you only have enough elk horn for one attempt, I would suggest making a few little test bows out of whitetail horns. That way you can get plenty of experimenting in ,and up your odds on success.

Ralph
  Thanks Ralph.Seems like a real good idea.Why didn't I think of it???Thanks again

[Trapper]

The Shoshone and a few other tribes in the mountains used elk antler, and the bows were pretty short, but they also had a wood core and the belly was elk antler and they were heavely sinew backed, Ive worked with it enough to know that I really dont want to mess with it again. I think if I had to work with antler it probably be Caribou, I think you can get alot straiter peices off of the caribou. I think some of the older bows that were called elk was probably caribou. Trapper

[Hillbilly]

I remember reading in Reginald Laubin's American Indian Archery book about his tribulations building  an elk horn bow, and he pretty much concluded that it wasn't really worth the trouble-apparantly elk antler is pretty brittle. He made a couple sheephorn bows that turned out good, and he was thinking the same as Trapper, some of the "elk horn" bows were probably actually caribou antler.

[episaacs]

Look up Bob Thompson if you're near Ravenswood.  He's made some really nice ones.