Estate sale find, I've got a question.

[Dave Bulla]

I posted the below on the main forum and was encouraged to post it here in the collectors forum also.  So, here it is....

Went to an estate sale Thursday morning that was supposed to have a bunch of tools and guy stuff.  Turns out they had two old bows and two old quivers with some arrows.  One of the bows was an oddball.  It was a recurve and had a two tone wood riser (walnut and maple maybe) and solid aluminum limbs.  But it was the other one caught my eye.  It was an old osage longbow that appears to be sinew backed and it has a single pin old style target sight on it.  Here are a couple pictures.

Unstrung
 

Strung
 

Belly side of handle
 

Back side of handle
 

Close up of handle and the shelves someone added.  It appears that this was a right handed bow (slight difference in shape on left side of handle) but someone wanted to shoot it left handed.
 

Better pic of sight.
 

[Dave Bulla]

Now, my next question.  Does this look like some kind of sinew backing?  It's very well done if it is.  I don't see any ends starting and stopping and thought it was very old fiberglass but there is no cross weave at all.

   
   
   

It's got one issue that needs to be addressed...

The sinew or fibers (whatever they are) have come up for about 2 inches at the bottom limb tip.  I'd suspect that the act of stringing and unstringing the bow against the instep caused wear and at some point it started to lift up then maybe the owner continued to shoot it for a while?
   

A closer view.
   

The bow is made with a pretty square cross section.  The belly side of the limbs shows very little rounding but I don't know if this was from learned experience of a talented bowyer or laziness of a casual craftsman.
   

Overall the quality of work seems pretty good.  There is a bit of a line at the end of the lower dip that may be a leftover from when the bow was built or might be from something like a strap on quiver.

Lastly, the price was okay.  I got it for a few dollars less than it was marked but they weren't very willing to deal as it was the first hour of the sale.  I figured if I waited, it would be gone next time I came back.
   

Not sure of the weight.  I thought at first it was pretty light because the first couple inches don't feel like much.  I'm thinking that is due to the sting follow it shows.  When I pulled it about 20 inches, it was firming up nicely.  Still probably only in the 40's at 28" but that's okay by me.  I plan to work it up slowly and let it relearn how to bend.

Here it is immediately after unstringing.
   

Kinda cool eh?

[Dave Bulla]

The consensus of a couple other TG'ers on the main forum was that it might be a Fortisan backing.  I've heard of it but never seen it so I'd have to guess.  My gut says this is not a natural fiber backing.  The fibers seem too shiny.

I'd also be interested in ideas about making a repair.  Lacking advice to the contrary, my plan is to use something like clear epoxy thinned with acetone and brush a thin coat on the limb then stick down as many fibers as it will hold being sure to have them combed out nice and smooth.  I figure I'd let them set up, brush some more epoxy on top of them and lay down the next layer and continue until they're all stuck down but it might be better to do it all at once then apply a pressure block of some sort to squash them all down at once.

I'm open to ideas and info about it in general.

[oldbohntr]

Yes, I agree that is fortisan.  I've had several bows with the fortizan backing in various deteriorating conditions. I've not considered any of them shootable or repairable.  Not to advise against it, as I know of a lot of old osage bows that shot just fine after decades of sitting.

I think I'd not take a chance on repairing the fortisan, mostly because I'd not have confidence in the uniformity of tensile strength in the backing(some more experienced bowyers might find that amusing, but that's how I see it.  I'd try removing it and replacing it with rawhide...assuming that no cracks or problems were found under the backing. And, I'd put loc-tite 420 in every hole or crack.  I don't know what glue was most often used with fortisan(mayby urac?), but I'll bet alcohol or maybe mineral spirits, or worst case-lacquer thinner will dissolve(not soaked in any of them but carefully applied and immediately wiped off, along with scraping. Scrape or mechanically remove all you can first!  Then apply a good soaking with wood rejuvenator before reapplying a backing.

[Liquid Amber]

Fortisan was introduced to the public in the March 1946 ABR by Forrest Nagler.  Clarence Hickman produced Fortisan backing sheets until the Korean War when the Government once again took Fortisan out of the market.  The fiber was used for Parachute cord and replaced silk during WWII.  Odds are the bow was built during that period.

[Dave Bulla]

Oldbohntr, I don't think I'd be afraid to shoot this bow even as is once I've worked it back up to full draw.  I figure I'll give the repair a try and see what happens.  Worst case is I'd screw it up and have to remove it like you mentioned but I think it is very doable.

Hi Cliff, long time no see.  Where ya been?

Thanks for the info on fortisan dates.  I suppose mid to late 40's would be the era of availability but knowing bowyers and how they stash materials, I could see it easily being considerably later.

[d. ward]

hi Dave finaly found this thread thank you.Yes I say fortisan backing also.Some idea Potter McQuarry(bet I spelled that one wrong) built 100's of bows that look just like yours.Your idea on the repair would be the same I would use if I were going to make the repair.However you may want to use wood glue rather then epoxy.Wood glue is fine for glueing bows as long as you have some type of finish over the wood glue joints.Super cool bow right there and I bet Cliff is correct on the time of manufacture sometime before 1946.OK now this is the one I kind of stay out of ? shooting it.Your call and your call alone.I've shot some lots older then yours and they were fine but I've seen some not as old as yours blow up.........a good one was the Grum last week on Ebang one limb snapped in half ......... yikes that cost some money keep us posted on how it turns out bd

[Dave Bulla]

Thanks for the input Doc.

FYI, we have already shot it "as is" and it did fine.  Not very impressive performance but it feels solid.  The early string weight is a bit lame due to the amount of follow it has.  I figure this bow was built straight or with some back set and over time took a good bit of follow.  Like maybe got left strung at some point for storage or something.  Being from the era it is from and having that fancy new fangled backing, maybe somebody thought it didn't matter to leave it strung.  Then again, maybe it just got shot a lot.