Stone Age bow hunter

At 30, Wasilla resident Tyler Bobo has been making his own bows and arrows for about half his life. He considers it a passion and sells real-estate as a profession. With his most recent project, Bobo opted to build a quality hunting implement-using nothing more than what a human from the Stone Age would have access to. The result? He landed a moose within minutes of hitting the woods.

“I’ve been making bows since high school,” Bobo said. “I wanted to make one primitive, as primitive as I can. One that could have made using nothing but plants, animals and rocks.”

Starting with the bow, Bobo said he utilized Osage orange which is the wood of choice for many bow makers. He said the tree makes an excellent hedgerow and is found wherever cattle are herded in the Lower 48. Although he could have made a trek south and harvested his own piece of wood for the project, Bobo said he opted to purchase one on eBay that was approximately 56 inches long and 1.5 inches thick.

Bobo said the donor piece is usually from the trunk area of the tree and only the heartwood, or inner wood is used for making bows.

“You get a raw chunk…they usually split (the tree) with wedges and you remove the sap (soft) wood,” Bobo said. “You can use a saw, but splitting it usually gives you better results.”

Splitting instead of sawing allows the wood’s natural strength to dictate how it separates. He said one of the most time-consuming parts of making the bow is getting the stave (the part of the bow facing the arrow) honed to a single growth ring. If more are present, it weakens the bow, he said.

“It’s one of the most mundane, labor-intensive parts of the project,” said Bobo noting it took in the area of 10 hours to complete the task. “I wanted quality but I wanted something a caveman could have made with broken rocks and stone tools.”

With the laborious work of carving and sanding the bow behind him Bobo turned next to stringing it.

“I used hemp. I had never spun my own thread. You need 10-12 strands of it. That way (the bow) is easier to pull,” said Bobo. “I used beeswax to keep the strands from fraying.”

Bobo said using multiple strands of hemp instead of one solid string allows for more flexibility and an easier pull. The section of string that meets the back of the arrow is reinforced. He used bamboo and likened the process to placing a bandage on a wound. The additional surface area is expendable and keeps the user from having to replace the entire bow as often.

Although Bobo said he could have made the arrows on his own, in order to save time, he purchased an all-natural arrow made from spruce.

“Spruce is very common (for arrow-making). It’s a strong and straight wood,” Bobo said. He notches the 30-inch arrows cross-grain at one end, wraps it in home-spun thread and coats the entire thing in animal grease. “I like to use bacon grease. I rub in dozens of coats. It keeps things water repellant and keeps moisture out of the wood.”

Bobo explained the bow is coated as well. However, too much moisture in a bow will result in it developing a tendency to either return to its initial state more slowly, or in some cases, not return at all. The final step in the process is fletching the arrows—putting on feathers to help with aim and distance. Bobo utilizes turkey feathers for this part of the process. He splits the wings and sands the tips flat.

To hold everything in place, he uses moose leg sinew. Once the sinew is prepared, Bobo slightly moistens it and wraps the feathers in place. As the sinew dries, the natural glue shrinks slightly and will hold it in place for years so long as it’s not over-exposed to moisture.

Bobo makes broad-head arrows or points out of obsidian rock. Again to save time, he purchased slabs and then shaped them with a copper-tipped flint nap. Bobo said creating the arrows is yet another time-consuming part of the process. Additionally, there is an art to getting the sharpened edge.

“You have to pop your wrist. It takes about an hour-and-a-half to make each tip. There have been plenty of times that I’ve gotten a lot of time in on one and then have it break,” Bobo said. “There’s definitely an art to it.”

Once the tip is finished, Bobo inserts it on the arrow, ties it in place with sinew and then applies birch tar which he boiled down from the tree itself. Bobo said birch tar makes an excellent adhesive and sealant. He made six arrows to complement the project.

Bobo had the opportunity to put his passion to work in late August as he was fortunate enough to have drawn a cow moose tag in the Sutton area. His aim true, he landed the first arrow.