HUPA BOW

This short bow (50 inches) is made from hickory. I stained it a reddish brown to resemble juniper or cedar. It is backed by elk sinew and painted in a Hupa-style pattern. The tips and grip area are decorated with rabbit fur. It pulls 48 pounds at 26 inches.

Snaky Osage Takedown

This is a snaky osage takedown bow with copperhead skins on the back.  It is 66” long and has buffalo horn tip overlays.

Native Bow and Arrow with Saddle Quiver

This is a native American saddle quiver made of tanned deerskin painted with earth colors. The lacing and fringe are also deerskin. It contains a 40" long osage self bow that pulls 46 pounds with a double-twisted elk sinew string. The arrows are made from river cane with turkey feather fletching. This entire rig would have been worn by the native horseman as he went to battle or to hunt. The bow could be extracted quickly and strung when swung around into his lap. Then, he would mount one arrow and carry two in his bow hand. This way he could shoot three arrows fairly rapidly.

Super Snakey Osage

This is a bow made from a very crooked piece of osage orange wood.  It is then covered with two rattlesnake skins.  It is 52 inches long and pulls 48 pounds at 26 inches.

Hickory Bow with Bloodwood Handle and Tips

I built this bow for a man who wanted an easy-shooting bow for his sister. I made the bow from a hickory board and decorated it with bloodwood handle and tips. As you can see, it is only an 18-pound pull at 24" inches, but it has a very fine cast for such a lightweight. I love the shape of this bow--a sort of teardrop profile. I have used this style on quite a few bows lately and I really love it. It is very easy to tiller and performs well.

Hickory-Backed Hickory Bow

This type of bow is another of my favorite styles. It is composed of two thin strips of hickory glued together in slight reflex. A handle composed of several different wood types is then glued onto the belly of the bow and tips are added that reflect the handle design. This bow is very fast, light and smooth. Bows of this type were made famous by Mr. Perry in flight shooting contests in Utah.

Yew Bow

Yew is a traditional bow wood that was used widely by the English longbowmen. It is a conifer, but it has unusual strength and flexibility that made it a fine material for crafting long-casting arrow launchers. In North America, the yew forests are mostly located in the west coast rain forests of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. This bow is made from British Columbia yew. It pulls 47 pounds at 28 inch draw. The tips are carved from whitetail antler.

Bamboo-Backed Bamboo Bows

Bamboo-backed bamboo bows are one of my specialties. These bows are constructed of bamboo cores backed by a thin layer of exterior bamboo with exposed nodes. When glued into a reflex-deflex design, these bows make very fast, silent, smooth-shooting machines. They are extremely resilient and tough. Here are some of my favorites.