something fishy about this

[stuckinthemud]

Hi guys, the bow on this cross-bow is over 700 years old and is covered in fish skin over birch-bark.  Just thought that might be interesting to some of you.  Anyway, it set me to wondering what we all know about fish skin backing, up til now I thought it was utterly beautiful but a little 'out there' for me, something I aspire to being skillful enough to attempt one day but not yet - got to finish cutting my novice teeth before getting to grips with that sort of thing.......Anyway, I know that thick skins and bottom-feeders sort of go together, like sturgeon, pike and carp or maybe large species of eel. Would cat-fish be OK? Or dog-fish  - but then their shark, so maybe not??  How to process them I do not know.  Gratuitous photos of 'skinned' bows would be cool. Thanks in advance,
Andrew

[bassman]

That crossbow looks original except for the handle being changed twice ,and the limbs an string changed three times. Had an ax that came over with Columbus like that. Just a little humor.

[stuckinthemud]

I've got a yard broom just like that

[Ringeck85]

Beautiful old crossbow!

Is the bow a horn/sinew composite? Or is it wooden?  Hard to tell in the picture, though I would imagine that the former would be more powerful and reliable.

Is that bone or ivory on the prod?!

[stuckinthemud]

Its a yew/horn/sinew composite bow, weirdly these bows put the yew on the belly, maybe as a framework, maybe as a way to facilitate tillering a bow with a draw weight of several 100 pounds

The nocks are horn

The tiller is decorated with stag horn (antler)

[aaron]

About fish skins:
Dogfish skin is really thin. when dried, it's thinner than a sheet of paper. I never backed a bow with it.
Sturgeon skin is thick like a deer skin. the thickest parts of a sturgeon are like the thickest part of a deer hide. It's strong enough that you can not tear it with your hands. I'd bet it's as strong as deer hide.
I don't know about other fish.. but I hope to learn more. I have a tuna skin in the freezer.
Processing a fish skin is like making deer rawhide: scrape flesh and "membrane", then tack out to dry. Degrease well.
Backing a bow is just like doing it with rawhide except fish skin is oilier. I use TB3 but i'm sure hide glue would work.

[EdwardS]

Catfish skin is traditionally the cover for Magyar wooden quivers.  It's not that hard to work with.  Much like snake skin.

[bjrogg]

I've got a yard broom just like that

Hard to give up a good tool
Bjrogg

I'd like to play around with fish skins to. I've seen some really pretty carp ones to.

[Bryce]

I have some muley rawhide, bull shark skin, spiny dogfish and sturgeon is tougher that both together. It’s like a 1/16” slice of horn. It’s thick stuff. Catfish usually have paper skin, not something I would look at to hold anything down.

[bassman]

Any idea what the string and limbs were made from.

[stuckinthemud]

The best quality strings were silk,  but linen and hemp were also used.  The limbs were yew, goat horn (or baleen or buffalo horn) and sinew. The yew was used in a variety of ways, as the belly, as the core or as the belly and core sandwiching the horn.  Many bows didnt have any wood in the limbs, just horn and sinew. Draw wight of these could go up to 1200 pounds

[Stickhead]

Here's my fishing bow - osage recurve backed with grey triggerfish skins.  That stuff is like nature's fiberglass - light and strong!

[stuckinthemud]

Beautiful, love the v-joins,  how many skins did it take?

[George Tsoukalas]

That's an awesome find, stuck the mud.

[Stickhead]

Beautiful, love the v-joins,  how many skins did it take?

Three fish worth of skins, as I recall.  The fish monger was happy to give them to me for free.