Hupa West Coast Indain Bow, Yew Heartwood and Sinew

[YewArcher]

Thank guys, I will be hunting with her this afternoon. Wish me luck as deer have been scarce round these parts!

M-P, The baleen is going to 2 baleen bellied plains bows, 1 very short Japenese gaurd bow as shown in TBB2 pg 132 and a greenland bow. lol...every piece is already planned out. 

Ballista, Yes, Osage will work. i ahve made several in osage but they do not turn out as well. Oage is not as elastic as yew wood. Its really hard to get the hourglass shaped mid limb to bend with osage, with yew its not so bad......still a challenge but not as much so. Osage is also a bit heavier. These Yew and sinew bws are so light you cant even imagne you are holding a bow. I have since stoped making them out of anything but yew.

here is a few pics of an Osage version of the Pit River bow these are Osage:

This firts one was amazing! It was only 36" n2n and I was drawing it 24" or so on aregular basis as a test model.......well...you can only ask so much fom even osage and sinew....









Here are a few other Yew and Sinew:















Steve

[OldBow]

Very Impressive - got to be worth some money being so realistic. Bookmarked, too.
Where did you get that baleen that we see in the background of your pictures?

[bambule]

very well done - outstanding artwork.
Congratulations

Greetz
Cord

[Blacktail]

man steve, you have become quite a master at the cali indian bows.great job..john

[YewArcher]

Thanks Fellas,

Oldbow, I go that from a cleint who wants some bows made. he lived in Northern Alaska for 20 years and got that from the Inuit Eskimos, it has scrimshaw work on one side. Pretty good to. the scraps I am free to use as i described above. its pretty neat stuff and I am very excited about it.

Steve

[ballista]

awesome, my god that osage is goregous-thanks for the info btw, my aunt is a jockey and she said she might be able to get me riding, the only thing going through my head was taking a short reflexed osage bow and going stumpind, that bow looks like it would be the best canditate out there beautiful work, scary how realistic those look man. -jimmy

[YewArcher]

Thanks Jimmy, I apriciate the compliment.

If you are looking for a bow to shoot off of horse back I would sugest using a plains bow. Those were the North American Horse Bows. Follow these links to a few Plains Bows.


http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,9380.0.html

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,8251.0.html

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,9627.0.html


I have done a lot more then those that I posted here. PM me and I will link you to my site that has quite a few more Plains Bows.

Steve

[Knocker]

Very nice bows YewArcher.  Have you ever done any Haida, Salish or Kwakiutl type bows?  Where do you get the quantity of sinew that you obviously must go through?

Thanks,
Keith

[Pappy]

Beautiful bow,very well done. Tiller look great and the artistic work is fantansic. 
   Pappy

[YewArcher]

Knocker, Thanks, I have not YET made any of those tribes. If you have any picture of there work I would be glad to do one soon. My next one is a Klamath yew and sinew. I get me sinew from all over........hunters.......butchers..........other primitive bowyers. I use a lot of it so always keep many sorces.

pappy, thanks sir!

I just was shooting her and getting her fine tuned. I will spend all day thursday hunting and am ready. I hope to take a deer with this bow this season........I never seem to get enough chances to hunt though. Something feels good about thursday though......hmmm....we will see.

Steve

[woodsroamer]

Yew Archer:

You make fascinatingly beautiful bows. 1) You mentioned that the limbs were so thin. How thin are they? 2) What is the typical grip width on your bows? 3) Maybe I missed it but what material do you use for the tips? 4) What tool (tools) are you using when you are tillering in the final stages?

I'd just like to congratulate you on your artistic talents.

WR

[YewArcher]

Thanks WR,

1) They are real thin. I am at the coffee shop now so cannot measure them but will tomorrow with a caliper.

2) I use linen for my grips. It works well for the bend through the handle bows because it flexes easily.

3) The tips are covered in rawhide soaked in hideglue.

4) On all my yew bows I use a Nicholson #50 rasp until I get the brace profile that I am looking for. After that I use cabinet scrapers and 36 grit sandpaper fr the rest of the tillering.

Hope that helps,

Steve

[DanaM]

Steve I keep looking at your bows can't help myself their works of art but better yet they are functional. Awesome work

[YewArcher]

Dana, Thank a lot. I do apriciate it. The Native American bows (espically the west coast bows) are my passion in life! They take a lot of work and I apricate that you recognise them as functional art. They are also a joy to shoot.  I am really excited to hunt with this particular bow. I will let you all know how the hunt goes.

Steve

[ballista]

thanks for the help man, those bows in the link look great too-starting to really get drawn into these reflexed, shorter bows man. -great work, jimmy.