Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Airborne890 on August 16, 2016, 05:30:08 pm
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A series of four bows were found in a bog at Holmegaard Moor, on the island of Zealand in Denmark. These consist of 2 near-completed bows and 2 other fragments from a similar type of bow. All were made from Elm. The site, and subsequent artifacts were dated to around 8500 years before present. They belonged to a mesolithic group of hunter-gatherers who were part of the Maglemosian culture, which was widespread across Northern Europe from 11,000 to 8000 years before present.
I have attempted to replicate the "holmegaard style" bow to gauge it's performance. The finished weapon is 62". It pulls 55 lbs at 27 inches of draw. The bowstring is twisted deer rawhide. The nocks are built up with twisted cordage, pine pitch, and sinew (the original artifacts having no carved nocks.) The handle is wrapped in twisted elm bark cordage.
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That's a good looking bow and you nailed the Tiller.
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how do you like the rawhide string, I have never tried that,, do you have a comparison of performance with a modern string???
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Nice bow and beautiful scenery.
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SWEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
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That looks great, I want to make this style of bow. Nice work!
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Right on! Thats one smooth lookin shooter. Nice work.
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Nice simple bow. No wonder the design has lasted this long. Well done.
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Thank you all for the encouraging comments! The deer rawhide string is actually quite thick and sluggish, compared to other rawhide strings I have made out of goat, squirrel, or groundhog. All said and done, I love the durability of rawhide strings, and the ease of manufacture. Of course they don't compare to the light, strong dacron strings of today, but offered a wonderful solution to the primitive and historic archers of yore.
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Great replication Airborne890.The whole thing.Nice bow too.Looks like your in sasquatch country there....lol.
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Great job great bow. Love that you started with to money shoot and ended with it to. Sweet f/d real nice bend.
Bjrogg
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PS I really like your outfit is that brain tanned? Did you make it?
Bjrogg
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Thank you Bjrogg! Yes, my outfit is braintanned. It was actually gifted to me by the man who taught me to braintan, so has great sentimental value :)
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Nice work, looks like it spits an arrow
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Sweet bow!.... Brian
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I like it good job!!!
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You're replicas never disappoint.
Careful running around the woods like that. Might end up on youtube as proof time travel exists.
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I don't want to believe rawhide makes a much worse string than dacron, it was even used in hornbows..
Looks awesome. Like a pyramid bow? Wonder why the design died out..
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I always enjoy looking at your replicas nice bow !
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Nice work :)
Del
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Good looking bow, nice job. Love the outfit also.
Pappy
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Really cool project! So how does that bad boy shoot?
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I'm really satisfied by how smooth it shoots. No kick at all. The deer rawhide is rather thick and probably robs the bow of some cast. I would like to make a groundhog rawhide string, or a gut string. I believe that would increase cast by a few FPS at least.
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Looks nice, simple and clean. Tiller looks great.
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It would be interesting to see chrono results comparing a rawhide string to modern materials
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Again awesome job bro! Hey how long did it take to heat treat it with camp fire coals?
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I would also love to test it through a chronograph. The heat treatment took about 15 minutes for each limb. I probably should have done another one after final tillering, but as it stands the bow only has about .5" of set unbraced.
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I am happy to report that the bow has gained considerable speed since switching strings from the thick deer rawhide to a 3-ply gut string. Really casts an arrow with authority now.
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Oh yeah! Thanks for reporting.
how'd you harvest and make the gut string?
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I was given a cleaned elk gut that had the fat removed and was twisted. I soaked it, cut it into 3 equal lengths, tying a knot at the top and bottom, then hung it with about 15 lbs of water in a bucket. After that I twisted the 3 plies all together and added another 15 lbs of water to the bucket. It stretched considerably and by the time it was dry all the plies were tightly wound and bound together.
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Nice bow but the real bonus for me is the primitive string.
could you make please some picture of both the rawhide and gut strings?
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Great work!