first yew bow with snakeskin

[BowSlayer]

finnaly got round to working on a bow given to me by William Lord who has been making bows for over 20 years. the bow came from his pile of bows in the corner that he either couldn't fix or didn't have the time. so i asked him if i could have it. first i poped off the glued on risor which had a terrible glue line then i decided to make a bend in the handle bow. so i re tillered made some shavings and after a few hours it's now a bow. do any of you have any idea what type of snake the skin came from? i posted the pics on facebook and his comment was "Awesome I thought it was game over for that bow so well done mate" the specs are

bend in the handle
49" long
20#@25"









sorry so little pics if you wan't more ill see if i can get some more up. thanks for looking

[Josh B]

Good save young man!  I for one, would like to see some more pics so I can see how your tillering skills are progressing .  As far as the skin goes, I'm no herpetologist  , but I would guess some sort of python.  Josh

[killir duck]

congrats, you just stepped a notch up, it's amazing what pics can do.

[Lemos]

Nice save. It looks to be either a reticulated python or a rock python.

[BowSlayer]

Thanks for the sake I.d guys ill try and get some more pics up later

[autologus]

Good job on the tiller, it looks very good.  Nice save.

Grady

[BowSlayer]

oh i forgot to mention about a week ago i reinforced the tips with rawhide, brace pic coming soon

[Zion]

Is the last pic the FULL draw of 25"?? It looks to me that there would be more bend coming from a 49" bow  but nice skins and tips, tiller looks good.

[BowSlayer]

Is the last pic the FULL draw of 25"?? It looks to me that there would be more bend coming from a 49" bow  but nice skins and tips, tiller looks good.

i had the cammera on timmer so it didnt get the full draw i think there it is at 20"

[IdahoMatt]

Looking good young man.  Nice to see you are stickin with it, and with pics.  Keep up the good work.
P.S. I too would like to see more photos.   

[WillS]

Very nice looking bow.  Well done.

I'm 99% certain that's not a real snakeskin though.  I've kept pretty much every big snake you can get from boas to pythons and that doesn't look like any snake I've ever seen.  You can get some very convincing imitation skins so that's probably what it is.  Would have to hold it to know for sure though.  Doesn't detract from the bow though.

[BowSlayer]

Very nice looking bow.  Well done.

I'm 99% certain that's not a real snakeskin though.  I've kept pretty much every big snake you can get from boas to pythons and that doesn't look like any snake I've ever seen.  You can get some very convincing imitation skins so that's probably what it is.  Would have to hold it to know for sure though.  Doesn't detract from the bow though.

looks and feels real and the inside of the skin feels like it is real but it still looks good. thanks for the kind words on the bow.

here are some moore pics everyone. in the brace picture the limb on the left looks like it has a slight hinge but it has a knot there, i would fix it but i could make it worse. ive also noticed that this bow is backed with rawhide. and i even made a cool natural fibre string for it


unbraced pic (no set)


braced pic.


rawhide tips


fibre bow string



thanks again for looking

[WillS]

It does look like a genuine hide.  But I've never seen that pattern before.  I'm intrigued as heck now.  You got any more of it?

[BOWMAN53]

oh i forgot to mention about a week ago i reinforced the tips with rawhide, brace pic coming soon

Very nice looking bow.  Well done.

I'm 99% certain that's not a real snakeskin though.  I've kept pretty much every big snake you can get from boas to pythons and that doesn't look like any snake I've ever seen.  You can get some very convincing imitation skins so that's probably what it is.  Would have to hold it to know for sure though.  Doesn't detract from the bow though.

looks and feels real and the inside of the skin feels like it is real but it still looks good. thanks for the kind words on the bow.

here are some moore pics everyone. in the brace picture the limb on the left looks like it has a slight hinge but it has a knot there, i would fix it but i could make it worse. ive also noticed that this bow is backed with rawhide. and i even made a cool natural fibre string for it


unbraced pic (no set)


braced pic.


rawhide tips


fibre bow string



thanks again for looking

So did you re enforce the tips with raw hide or was the raw hide already there?  And if you the skins were already there, how do you know what the inside feels like?

[BowSlayer]

It does look like a genuine hide.  But I've never seen that pattern before.  I'm intrigued as heck now.  You got any more of it?

nope the skin was already applied. but i had to glue some of it back down. hopefully someone can i.d it

So did you re enforce the tips with raw hide or was the raw hide already there?  And if you the skins were already there, how do you know what the inside feels like?

i added the rawhide tips from a squirrel hide, when i was removing wood i caught some of the snake skin and about 2" lifted at the tip. I then glued it back down and then put some rawhide on the tip to secure it. in the future if i have some time i might remove the rawhide and add tip overlays.