Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: SA on January 31, 2012, 10:36:18 pm
-
a new guy i work with went on a mission trip to west africa(bon duku south of burkina faso) about five years ago and managed to bring back a bow from a lobi cheif in the village they were in(traded a package of skittles). he brought it to work today so i snapped some pics and thought i would share . his friend is going back to the same place this month and is goin to pick one up for me ,he says it is not uncommon to bring back a few bows among other goods.
this is him w/bow
-
those are interesting tips and the way the string is attached , i'm not even sre what the string is made from but there is a pic of it.
-
wow, that is cool. What is that string made of?
-
i'm not sure looks like some kind of plant fiber :-\
also he had the tip taped up and when he unrapped it ,it came off inside the duct tape . i will get a pic when he unwraps it , he was told not to touch the point that it was bad '' maybe poison'' hence the duct tape.
-
WOW, As a kid I dreamed of having poison tipped arrows like tarzan, but i also wanted a pet lepord and a man whoes life i saved to do my bidding...never got any >:( But anyway that was an awesome find and must have a cool history. If only bows could talk (it might be pissed about being traded for some skittles) :laugh: :laugh:
-
Very Cool.
Looks Very Primitive indeed!
Judging by the photos I'm guessing that your friend doesn't unstring it?
Can it be drawn?
Thank You for sharing!
-gus
-
gus- no he doesn't know much about bows, but lookin at the tips i don't know how you would unstring it and tie it back.
i tugged on it a bit ,i think it can be drawn i just didn't want to be the one to break it ;)
-
darn right sa,don't draw that bow..its irreplaceable!!
-
I have one from New Guinea very similar to that one. The string on mine looks lke split bamboo. Looks to be about the same length. The arrows were much longer than the bow and were a light cane, similar to phragmites. Special little bows.
George
-
That's a neat bow...
-
Very cool,simple and I am sure very effective. :)
Pappy
-
Really appreciate you posting this.
Lane
-
WOW, As a kid I dreamed of having poison tipped arrows like tarzan, but i also wanted a pet lepord and a man whoes life i saved to do my bidding...never got any >:( But anyway that was an awesome find and must have a cool history. If only bows could talk (it might be pissed about being traded for some skittles) :laugh: :laugh:
Now that's funny!
-
and a man who's life i saved to do my bidding...
Minion! Bring me a single hair from the Golden Fleece!
I making a new cheese cutter...
-gus
-
What a cool string that thing has, and looking carefully at the ends looks like it was burned to length. what an awesome primitive bow.
-
That is too cool ... be cool if he did a bow trade with the chief
-
Exactly my first thought, country! I'd trade one of mine in a heartbeat!
-
youngboyer- i bet when he finished his skittles he thought ''maybe that was not a good trade ;) should have gotten two bags...
gstoneberg-i think your right (split bamboo string) do you have a guess on what type of wood it might be? i have no idea
country , postman- i thought the same thing it would be cool to trade a bow with the chief, i think it would be even better to have him teach me to make one his way . they go on mission trips every year might sign up for one :)
-
Yea.... doing the mission trips is something I would like to get into.... Another year or so.. all the kids will be in college.....Its something my Dad did for years...would kind of like to carry it on in his memory
-
I'm pretty sure my nephew said it was some kind of palm. My bow and some of the arrows look like this:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7035/6804785647_a2531e72c0_z.jpg)
Here's some tip detail so you can see mine is tied similar to yours with a similar "string". Back when I first got it I did a little reasearch and I think it's black palm. I'm afraid to bend mine more than in inch or so.
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6804785669_22fdf5663a_z.jpg)
George
-
So in looking at these two bows, it looks like they don't unstring them very often, if ever?
Guess it's time to do some reading... :)
Thank Y'all for sharing such cool and unusual bows!
-gus
-
what intrigues me is a very similar style from west Africa all the way over to new guinea. nice collection too.
-
If its palm i would bend it. supposed to be some Hercules strong stuff!
And Gus the reason you would want a bow strung all the time is for the opportunity shots of hunting. this is when your doing a LOT of hunting and you cant take the time to be stringing your bow. so the bow gets braced pretty low so not to put much tension on it. or thats how gstonebergs picture is. the bow that sa posted is braced a lot more.