Indigenous Bowyer | making a recurve bow

Making a hunting-weight recurve bow for next deer season. Bowmaking was passed down to me by my father and uncle. Many of the tools I used in this video are hand-me-downs. A good amount of knowledge was also gathered from books, research and forums. Today, there aren’t many Native bowyers alive that carry on these teachings where I’m from. I want to keep what I learn alive for my future generations. This bow (65in) is longer than our traditional tlawitomeh (bows) which were on average 50-55 inches. This is to account for my height and corner-of-the-mouth draw style for bow hunting. While I used osage orange, a beautiful bow wood, our traditional preference was oak because it was very accessible. The handle design I used in this video is JD Jones’ (of pinnacleselfbows) signature handle wrap style. He does a much better job than I did, so go check him out if you’re interested in the design. #nativeamerican #archery #bowandarrow #selfbow #stickbow #bodark #osageorangebow #recurvebow