Primitives bows are primarily made on a Hickory stave to allow a quality bow of a reasonable price. We have a number of backing and laminate options for the hickory bows to give additional speed and strength. We also offer custom bows of Osage Orange which makes the best the of primitive self bows. The bows are generally of flatbow design, but longer than the prairie bow design for a longer and smoother draw to the general needs of the modern archer. Bows are normally made in 60″, 66″, 68″ and 72″ – but can be made in just about any reasonable length.
The competative requirements of most primitive archery events allow only bows of all wood, and usually backing of only natural North American materials. Bows cannot have arrow shelves either cut in or added on the outside. Strings cannot have servings or nock points. We make our primitive bowstrings from artificial sinew with a ‘flemish braid’ upper loop and the lower end is tied to the bow with a boyer’s knot or timber hitch. These strings are of Dacron, so are as strong as B-50, yet meet all primitive requirements unless the competition requires completely natural string material. We have complained of this requirement to a number of primitive event holders for safety reasons. Artificial sinew is much less prone to stretching or breaking as materials such as linen or true sinew. We do offer strings of linen if you request it.