Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: M-P on November 20, 2013, 01:09:58 pm
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Howdy Folks, A new archer showed up at the range during the local club's Turkey Shoot last weekend asking for help with a bow. He received the bow with practically no back ground history. He seemed to think it was a native bow from africa or other parts unknown. The bow is made of a dense tropical wood of nearly uniform brown color. In fact the wood looks an awful lot like Ipe. The bow is 85 inches nock to nock. the limbs and handle are oval throughout in cross section, becoming more circular near the tips. The limbs are ~ 1.5 inches wide and taper gradually. The last foot or so of each limb is deflexed or reflexed. In all truth I could see no evidence for choosing back and belly, so I suggested it was safer to string it with the tips in deflex. We didn't have a scale handy, but the draw weight is ~ 70# at 28 inches. Another member made a string and we gave it a go. There was tremendous hand shock when shooting my 450 gr arrows.
So any ideas on origin? Is it a modern replica, an imported abo bow or just somebodies modern creation? Ron(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc270/May-Pumphrey/unkbow.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/May-Pumphrey/media/unkbow.jpg.html)
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(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc270/May-Pumphrey/unkbowtip.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/May-Pumphrey/media/unkbowtip.jpg.html)(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc270/May-Pumphrey/unkbowclose-up2.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/May-Pumphrey/media/unkbowclose-up2.jpg.html)
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No clue.
It almost looks as if the horn nocks have been taken off, leaving only the inner cone of the wood? Not sure though. Try to make such pictures with the camera set on 'macro' mode (the little flower icon on the camera).
Is there any (remnant of) a handle visible? A bowyers mark? It looks a lot like a simple straight stick :p
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I'd say it's a long'n.....Sorry couldn't resist :) ;). Really I'm not much on bow history but some guys on here are. I'm sure they'll chime in.
DBar
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Typical amazon long Ipe bow. Quite a few seem to wind up brought back by travellers although this could be a replica made by somebody now that Ipe is easily accessible here.
http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/14152/amazon-bow-pics?page=3
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To me it looks like one of two things (I am by no means a expert at judging) if the nocks are like that and there wasn't horn nocks I would say it looks like a African bow that was stained or a darker wood, OR it was a South American bow out of ipe. Or an imitation of either.
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Thanks for the suggestions guys. Sorry about the blurry close-ups. I thought I had the camera on macro, but obviously not. The owner did say there had been a string handle wrap that was falling off.
Pat, thanks for the pointer to the paleoplanet thread. It sure looks to be a very similar bow and the wood does look like ipe. Oh and that blue string was made up on the spot that day, very modern.
If any body else as info or thoughts I'd love to hear them. Ron
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I agree with Pat