Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: YewArcher on November 06, 2008, 07:06:22 pm
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Here is a Hupa Indian Bow. The Hupa Indians are from North East California, more specifically in the Hupa (Hoopa) Vally along the trinity river. They are the most southern of the Northwest Indian culture. The Hupa like all the North West tribes were highly artistic people. Very sophisticated in their crafts and equipment. This is an example of one of there bows as represented in TBB Vol. 1 (More or less).
Here are the specs:
Length: 47” n2n
Weight: 48#@24”
Reflex maintained: 2.5” after shooting 3” after a rest (That’s great!!)
Materials: Heartwood yew and sinew
Here is the back of the bow:
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppaback1.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppaback2.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppaback3.jpg)
Belly:
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppabelly.jpg)
Unbraced: Look at that reflex!! :o
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppaunbraced1.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppaunbraced2.jpg)
Braced:
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppabraced.jpg)
Close ups of the grip. Linen with sinew wraps to give a good grip.
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppagrip1.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppagrip2.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppagrip3.jpg)
Here are the tab nocks. These are bent tab nocks done by cutting a kerf in the wood. Then there is a sinew wrapped around this area to create a bulb. The whole thing is then wrapped in rawhide. Beaver fur to silence the string slap. This culture was sophisticated enough to recognize and problem solve this. We still use similar methods today.
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008HuppaTab1.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppatab2.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppatab3.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppatab4.jpg)
Full Draw:
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/huppa%201/036-2008Huppafulldraw.jpg)
This is my 13th West Coast Indian bow and by far the best of the lot. It has taken me quite a few bows and a few years now to really perfect this style . It is really a complex bow to make. It is my favorite bow style to make and shoot. I have a sinew string curing but could not wait to get the pics up to share with you all.
I am so satisfied with this one.
Thanks for looking,
Steve
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Very impressive Steve! You've got those Hupa bows down it would seem :). Looks to be bending perfectly! Nice artwork too..
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Oh my, that bow is just fabulous. I can't see how you could improve on anything. I'll be saving a picture of that one in my gallery of dream bows. Wow!
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Outstanding work.
A fine example of the Type.
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do you use acrylics for paint?
and what to seal???
i need to take my time and quit making 3 hour survival bows and make some artwork!
great bow
jamie
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very nice looking bow, you do a great job on them. replica style bows are not really my style and normally i dont care for them much, but i like this one and your last one a lot. your turning out some really nice looking pieces. keep up the great work...that full draw pic looks great too! - Ryan
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Exceptional and true to form Steve, We have a cabin in our family that is down on the Trinity River in the Trinity Alps by Coffee Creek. I've done allot of research an the Hupa tribes and I've seen several museum bows and that is a very authentic reproduction. Great job and congratulations. Getting the tiller on a sinew backed yew heartwood bow is hard because in the yew is usually fairly wide and thin and the sinew can pull it around very easy while tillering.
That really is an outstanding bow. ;) Keenan
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Yew Archer, that is an outstanding bow. I love it. Jawge
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IMHO, you're doing a service to humanity by making these things as true to form as you're able. That might sound corny, but if you figure how few of them are lying around for people to see, pick up, even shoot, and how many hundreds or thousands of years they were in use.....nice job. You inspire me to take a crack at one of these soon. Dave
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Thanks guys, Those are some real nice compliments.
Keenan, You really touched on the complexity of this design. The yew is so elastic and the sinew so strong and the limbs so thin that it is REALLY HARD to get a good even tiller on these bows. And then when you think you have it your brace is out of whack and then you adjsut that and your tiller is out of wack. These are by far the hardest bows taht i have tillered. They are worth it though. In the end even a bow with an off tiller shoots as well as a picture perfect tiller so you make the best of it and get close as you can.
jamie, I use acrylics. I am getting to the point that my next one will probably be all natural paints but i sure like acrylics! They work real well for this style of painting. I el these mostly with true oil.
Thank again guys, Nice complimnts, I just really like makeing historical bows. I know they are not 100% but thats not really what I am after. I am seeking to make historical bows with a slight twist of modern tecnology to keep them alive and get them into as many peoples hands as I can.
Steve
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very nice. I personally would have lost those furs near the nocks, but I bet it silences the string slap if nothing else.
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yew nailed that one Steve, I find your work to be inspired and your attention to detail is incredible.
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Beautiful work Steve. But I want to know what you're going to make with that strip of baleen. Ron
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Steve, That is really wonderful craftsmanship. I hope you get to shoot something tasty with it...
Rich-Impressed
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goregous- thats all i can say. the paint looks great, the tabs are awesome, thats inspiration right there man. great work, you think similar dimentions would work ok with osage? -jimmy
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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. ;D
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.... :-\
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/Achuwami%20Bows/100_3881.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/Achuwami%20Bows/100_3877.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/Achuwami%20Bows/100_3875.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/Achuwami%20Bows/100_3870.jpg)
Here are a few other Yew and Sinew:
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/Acumawi%20Replica%20o6o7/100_4581.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/Acumawi%20Replica%20o6o7/100_4578.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/Acumawi%20Replica%20o6o7/100_4583.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/achumawi%202008/limb.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/achumawi%202008/unbraced.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/achumawi%202008/tip3.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d114/yewarcher/achumawi%202008/grip1.jpg)
Steve
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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?
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very well done - outstanding artwork.
Congratulations
Greetz
Cord
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man steve, you have become quite a master at the cali indian bows.great job..john
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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
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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 ;D beautiful work, scary how realistic those look man. -jimmy
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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
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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
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Beautiful bow,very well done. :) ;D Tiller look great and the artistic work is fantansic. :)
Pappy
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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
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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
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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
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Steve I keep looking at your bows can't help myself their works of art but better yet they are functional. Awesome work ;D
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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
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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.
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Looks pretty close to the Cerimonial Bows (Little Wider in the mid Limbs with blue and red paint) I seen at the museum in Eureka CA, to bad they won't let me take pictures, Great work.PK
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Nice work Steve