Making bowstring: youtu.be/L97qqldVvLo
Making stone-age arrows: youtu.be/Z-kDGXrLkqA
This bow has a draw weight of about 25 lbs. at 30 inches.
NOTES
This is not necessarily an exact traditional bow build of the Apache or Comanche, who have many methods and materials for making bows, including plenty that are far more advanced and powerful. Rather, I am following a number of common methods historically used by those tribes, as well as the Tohono O'odham. These methods are mainly: 1) use of mulberry wood, 2) use of a branch from a secondary-growth tree, 3) carving the wood green, 4) only using paleolithic technology. The dimensions and draw weight are also consistent with some historical bows of these tribes. Similar bows were recurved by the Comanche and Tohono O'odham by heating and bending the ends.
The exact wood species I used was Morus alba (white mulberry), an introduced species in the USA. Morus rubra and Morus microphylla are the native North American species of mulberry used by the above tribes.
The use of a plant fiber bowstring is not ideal for bow performance, nor was such common among the Apache or Comanche. The Cahuilla were known to use agave fiber bowstrings, and I wanted to try this for my ethnobotanical research. The primary historical bowstring materials used by the Apache and Comanche were sinew and bear guts, the latter of which being preferred by the Comanche for performance despite wet conditions, unlike sinew. Plant fiber bowstrings also work under wet conditions, and one primary reason I made this bow was for bowfishing.
The Indigenous peoples mentioned are living cultures, and when I use past tense, it is to emphasize the historical context of the practices to which I refer.
Please consider donating to Apache Stronghold to prevent the Federal US Government from selling their sacred ancestral homeland to a multinational mining corporation to dig a miles-wide open pit mine.
REFERENCES
- Barrows, David Prescott. 1967. The ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California. Malki Museum Press, Banning CA.
- Bean, John Lowell and Katherine Siva Saubel. 1972. Temalpakh (from the earth): Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants. Malki Museum Press, Banning CA.
- Castetter, Edward F. and Ruth M. Underhill. 1935. The ethnobiology of the Papago Indians. Ethnobiological studies in the American Southwest 2. The University of New Mexico Bulletin 275. Biological Series 4(3).
- Hamm, Jim. 1989. Bows & arrows of the Native Americans: a complete step-by-step guide to wooden bows, sinew-backed bows, composite bows, strings, arrows, & quivers. Lyons & Burford, Publishers, New York, NY.
- Kavanagh, Thomas W. (ed.). 2008. Comanche ethnography: field notes of E. Adamson Hoebel, Waldo R. Wedel, Gustav G. Carlson, and Robert H. Lowie. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE.
- Mails, Thomas, E. 1974. People called Apache. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
- Wallace, Ernest, and E. Adamson Hoebel. 1952. The Comanches: Lords of the South Plains. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK.
CHAPTERS
0:00 cutting branch
0:15 splitting in half
1:16 adjusting length
1:37 continue splitting
3:12 peeling bark
3:32 leveling
6:44 tillering
12:52 roughing out handle
13:27 continue tillering
14:45 finishing handle
15:11 carving nocks
15:43 knotting string
16:41 wrapping handle
17:25 stringing
17:57 accuracy
18:59 distance
19:14 penetration
Historical stone-age bow & arrow build
历史石器时代弓箭建造
ऐतिहासिक पाषाण युग का धनुष और बाण निर्माण
Construcción histórica de arco y flecha de la Edad de Piedra
Construction d'arcs et de flèches historiques de l'âge de pierre
بناء تاريخي للقوس والسهم من العصر الحجري
ঐতিহাসিক পাথর যুগের ধনুক ও তীর নির্মাণ
Construção histórica de arco e flecha da idade da pedra
Историческое здание из лука и стрел каменного века
تاریخی پتھر کے زمانے کی کمان اور تیر کی تعمیر
Pembuatan busur & anak panah zaman batu yang bersejarah
歴史的な石器時代の弓矢の造り
#primitiveskills #archery #flintknapping #survival #paleotech