Saxton Pope - Yahi Archery.pdf - Primitiv-bogen.de

Pope: Yahi Archerylloout the feathering.After having stroked the thoroughly dry feathersto settle them, he trimmed them by laying them on a flat piece ofwood, using a straight stick as a ruler and running a sharp chip ofobsidian along this edge.razor,and cut feathers better.Obsidian flakes are quite as sharp as a goodHis feather usually had a straight edge, and had a height of ysinch at the forward end and % or 1/2inch at the nock end. Sometimesthey were cut in a slightly concave line, and usually no trimming wasdone near the nock, but the natural curve of the feather tip was lefthere, making a graceful finish to his work.Instead of standing perpendicularly to the shaft,as has beenrecommended by our ancient English archers, Ishi s feathers were setat an angle to his arrow and tended to fall or lie closer to the shaftafter much use or being carried in the quiver. This position doesseem to have the advantage, however, of giving a better spin toarrows in flight, which, of course, tends toward greater accuracy.Some of Ishi s feathers were not more than three inches long, andthose on his exhibition or war arrows were the full length of a hawk spinions almost a foot.In none of his arrows which were made in the wilds was there anyevidence of glue between the feather and arrow shaft ;but while withus he occasionally ran a littleit on.theglue beneath his feather after bindingIn his native state, he seems to have used no protective over thesinew to keep out moisture not even fat nor did he apply any finishor varnish to the surface of his shafts.The arrow in the condition just described was now accurately cutto a certain length. His method of measurement was to hold the buttagainst his own sternal notch and then, reaching along the shaft withhis left hand, almost in his shooting position (as described below), hecut the shaft off at the end of his left forefinger. This gave a lengthof about twenty-nine inches. The cutting of the shaft was done witha filing motion of an obsidian knife. Later he used a bit of brokenhack-saw. The point of the shaft was then slightly rounded, and ifintended for small game, bound with sinew.to be used,If obsidian points werea notch similar to that intended for the bow string wasmade, and so cut that when the arrow was drawn on the bow, thisnotch was in a perpendicular position. The idea in placing the head,in a vertical plane was that in this positionribs of an animal more readily.it entered between the