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Several years ago my cousins and I would meet near Lees Summit, Mo to shoot at the Three Trails course. Bob would always look at my bows and jokingly remark that he sure wished someone would make him a bow like that. I told Jim, Bob’s nephew, that if he would pay for half the cost of glass and glue I would make the laminations and build him a bow.
Jim and I discussed what materials to use for the laminations and settled on Hickory and Walnut. Jim liked the combination of Hickory and Walnut because both trees produced nuts that can sustain life and the bow could be used as a tool to do the same.
I settled with building with an Osage core, Hickory laminations, and Walnut overlays. I added Mesquite to the handle section and tip overlays from another cousin’s place in Texas where we all had hunted together a few times.
I told Jim that we now needed a name for the bow and his wife came up with the perfect name. She told us that since Bob would be skewering animals for the BBQ that is should be named Shishka–for Shishkabob. That was it.
One day in 2011 we met at Bob’s house to go shoot at the 3D course. I pulled the bow out of my car and handed it to him and said ‘What do you think of this one’? He pulled it out of the bow sock and looked it all over with great admiration and finally his wife, who was in on the deal, asked him ‘What’s that written on it’? He hadn’t even noticed that his name was on it. Bob was totally speechless.
Sadly, Bob passed away from cancer a couple of years ago. His wife gave the bow to Jim which was fine by me. He was close to Bob and I was happy that he got it.
Jim stopped by my house today to pick up a little pot belly stove that I was giving him. He pulled the bow out of his truck and handed it to me saying he didn’t have anybody to hand it down to but I did. Now I am the one who is speechless.
I shot it this afternoon for the first time in 9 years.
Shishka has come home.
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