Help identifying bow

[jjnapp]

#3630

A family member just gave me this bow. It was from an old friend who recently passed away. No one really knows too much about it so I was wondering if someone here could tell me more about it.

I haven’t strung it up yet because I don’t have a string long enough. It is 6 foot tall and made from a single piece of wood…..it seems pretty stout. It almost resembles a broom stick.

[Homer]

#22233

Interesting white — what, inlays? And cool stitching on the handle grip. If it doesn’t have any writing on it, it could well be the product of a skilled shade tree bowyer. Good luck unraveling the mystery. One avenue would be to try and backtrack to the dead person the bow belonged to and talk to his descendants if you can locate any. Maybe they will have memories.

[jjnapp]

#23277

The white markings are painted on. The paint is very old and chipped/cracked in places. Other than that there are no symbols, numbers or writing on it.

I’ve checked with everyone who might know more about this bow and they don’t seem to have any info for me.

[jjnapp]

#24677

With all of the knowledge I’ve seen displayed on this forum someone has to know something about older longbows. You won’t hurt my feeling if you tell me this thing is a piece of garbage….I’ve personally never seen/owned a non reflex-deflex longbow.

Were there any companies that made production scale longbows? How do you shoot a bow off the shelf? Do I need a glove on my bowhand? How long of a string do I need for a 72″ longbow?

[Stephen Graf]

#25083

If it were me, I would hang that bow on the wall. An old, all wooden bow, is likely not to last long, once strung. Especially if it hasn’t been shot in a while, and kept in the hot attic.

It is likely that the bow has lost a lot of its compression on the belly side. This means that you will have to “teach” the bow to bend again.

If this bow really intrigues you, you could have it duplicated by an experienced all wood bowyer.

Or, you could slap a string on it and see what happens. Use a 70 inch string. 3Rivers sells gloves you can wear on your bow hand so that you can safely shoot off the knuckle.

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