Penobscot (exploring the puzzle) SUCCESS

[riverrat]

when you seen them bows. was the shorter bow on the back was it tillered from its belly? and on the main bow, was it tillered round on the belly or flat on the back? were the limbs flat or half round? in drawings it looks very much like the shorter bow would have a rounded back and a flat belly. and the main bow would have a flat back and a round belly. maybe even tillered on the back vs. the belly? all i ever seen was drawings. thats what gave me the idea maybe they made them because a very small diam sapling was used. i.e. much crown . thanks Tony p.s. hope you dont think this is a stupid question. drawings leave a lot to the imagination sometimes. nothing like seeing the actual object.

[burchett.donald]

  Rich,
          Looking great, the decrowning step caught me off guard. I realize now you need two semi-flat surfaces to mate together for stability...Will anything go between or just wood to wood?
                                                                                                                                       Don

[half eye]

riverrat...the one I saw was like in the Penobscot museum pic. Almost all of the back bow was covered by the wrap binding the 2 together. I can't say from seeing only one type. It could very well be Either way. Two saplings would probably make a decent 40-45 pound bow but a lot of Native Americans made bows with both round backs and or round belly's. They look like saplings but could also be regular staves carved to that section..

Don, This bow has the rawhide all the way under the backbow in one piece. It will get mashed between the two bows then over the tip and down to the main bow. I am only doing the "light decrown" to remove anything that might be a "pressure point" when the rawhide mashes the bows together. I am thinking that enough wood and rawhide to make weight is going to have an enormous amount of pressure and really dont want to take a chance that a pin knot or such would cause a full draw failure

catch you up tomorrow
rich

[LEGIONNAIRE]

Rich you never fail to inspire us I think I will be trying one of these bad boys.

[lebhuntfish]

Rich you never fail to inspire us I think I will be trying one of these bad boys.

+1

Patrick

[burn em up chuck]

   I've been following, very cool

                        chuck

[half eye]

Hey fellas,
      I have rough tillered the two bows but needed to set it aside and work with the raw hide to answer some questions.....so I undid the model bow except for the grip wrap. and am just about done with ironing out the rawhide backbow cables.

Theres a single pic of the next step into the tillering of the real bows. After cutting to near dimensions and steaming in the overall shapes....I draw a line parallel to the back and then angle from that line to a keel ridge down the belly....first pics.

The rest of these pics (2 posts) are details of how I shaped the bow tips and "fixed" the flat rawhide straps. After the pictures there will be an explanation of what I found about doing this and the results of doing it in different ways.
rich

[half eye]

rest of this batch

[half eye]

get the explanations after dinner fellas
rich

[Badly Bent]

Good post Rich, I'm watching with interest.

[burchett.donald]

    Rich, looks like the slits will shrink tight drying...Looks very strong, no twisting eh?
                                                                                                                                      Don

[half eye]

Ok, here is the deal....hope this aint too long winded.

1.   There are 3 different versions of drawing on these bows. Allely shows 2. One has a backbow 1/2 the length of main bow. The cords run between string knocks from backbow to Mainbow.. The strings were above the backbow tips and the grip wrap was fairly short.
2. The second has a backbow 1/2 the mainbow also, same type double backbow strings in knocks but has a longer grip wrap done in 3 sections....but still showing some limbs ion the backbow.
3.   The illustration from the Penobscot Museum has a continuous backbow string, running between the bows, hooking the backbow tips and then on to the mainbow tips. The entire backbow wraped to the mainbow.....I also noticed (after redoing mine wrong) that this type has a backbow only 1/3 the length of the mainbow.

     So that left me with the "how do you do that" one piece backbow string. This is how I figure it needs done (might be wrong though) Get your strip of rawhide soaked up soft....measure the back bow and cut 2 slits one inch short of each backbow string knock.....hook one slit on a backbow tip then stretch the hide enough to run down the belly and hook the other tip....do this so the hide is between the bows and over the backbow tips.
     Once you got that done put the backbow down on the mainbow and line up the center marks (previously marked on both bow edges) .Now temporarly tie the two together in about three places with temp cordage.....this is to hold the 2 in alignment for the next step
     Now pull one of the strips out taught and cut a slitone inch short of the mainbow string knock. Now stretch the strip over the mainbow. I leave the "extra" that i used as a handle to pull....leave that till mostly dry but a little soft and trim.
     This brings us to the 2 bow grip wrap....since this is done with rawhide as well you can either do it now or after the backbow strip is dried up. I say this because I dont believe you could wrap the grip up before the backbow strip dried too much to stretch. Which brings me to this point....I dont believe it makes much difference in performance to use the 3 string method instead of the 2 string.....so if you make yours with the knock to knock three string set up....you could backbow string after wrapping the grip....probably easier.

Here are some pics about this deal....I got one more area to cover just after this.
rich

[half eye]

heres the pics

[half eye]

rest of them

[half eye]

When I strung the strip between the backbow knocks I had cut the slits for another backbow and they were a little too big. I show two ways to deal with above....the best result was had by getting the strip over the tip, then giving it one twist then back down flat to pass over the backbow tip....and then on to the mainbow tip......the one I didn't like as well I passed one end of the backbow stip through the slit and pulled it up (which twisted the edges of the slit) then on to the mainbow tip.....the picture with the backbow strip forming an "X" is the one I believe to be superior.....both ways worked fine are nice and tight and strong....but the "X" looks better.

I also noticed in the museum sketch that the backbow strip was indeed flat.....but it was also tapered with the backbow end wider than the mainbow end.....mine are parralel which is wrong to the drawing. That brings me to this.....if you like the look of a twisted backbow string here is how to do that ...and still keep the necessary "flat" slit hook-up points. Wether you use one backbow string or two you want to leave one inch of "flat" between the two tips.....meaning after you have the slit cut for the backbow come out one inch more and mark the strip....measure for the main bow slit and cut it.......now cut a slit from your one inch mark down the center of the strip and stop one inch short of the mainbow slit......put a spring clampon the mainbow tip end and twist to what ever degree you want....this will leave the mainbow end still like a flat strip but the string will be twisted.......think about it....a slick way to make a bowstring that doesn't require any knots....just slide the flat bits down over knocks.......pretty slick I think.
     Attached is a pic of a scrap that's twisted up like I described.....the only reason that the cord is tapered is because the strip went from thicker to thinner, so it twisted up in a taper. I am going to keep that in mind if such is needed in the future.
rich