Ozbow

I've used imported/bought snakeskins before with a fair amount of success, just wondering what other materials Trad folk have used and how you have gone about attaching it.
Cheers

I have not used this as backing yet but it could be worth a try. If it works well it could be a low cost alternative.

Applying the backing starts at 9 mins 50 secs into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVCMsbF_OD0

https://www.bunnings.com.au/gyprock-eas ... e_p0731009
Daryl.

Good on you Daryl thats thinking outside of the box.
What other things were primitive bows backed with

So I've found something that I think is definitely worth trying out and that's eel skin (poor man's snakeskin?)
Apparently it's 150 times stronger than cow leather of the same thickness, eels are easy to come by and legal, they seem to be the right shape= long, and I can dry it myself and use the the same process involved with backing dried snake skin traditionally. Apparently it has a fair amount of stretch in it too so Im planning to pull it tight as it sets.
Looks like there's a night of eel fishing coming up soon

The eel skin should work.

I searched the internet but could not find out how thick the skins actually were, the only reference was ‘thick’.

The thicker the backing is the more the limb mass increases. As a general rule most backings will increase the integrity of the back of the bow but will not increase the bows performance.

When backing board bows (not split staves) I prefer to use pole bamboo as it becomes a working part of the bow.

I believe pole bamboo is economical as I can get four, sometimes five backings out of a $30.00 pole.

Daryl.

Found this earlier post viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15577

Thanks again for your input Daryl, nah mate I'm not chasing performance but a more stable, longer lived self bow.
For some reason, I had in my head that it would be thin like snakeskin? Hopefully it's not overly thick as it would probably rob me of arrow speed.

If you catch some eels you could make your own glue from them.

http://www.kramers.org/glue.htm

Daryl.