LAST ONE Primitive Flatbow Osage Orange 64″ (51#-55#)
$425.00$249.00
Primitive bows are made by hand from a single piece of wood. They are the most individual bows and remind of simpler times when man hunted with the bow thousands of years ago. Their design and form follows the grain of the wood and is carefully shaped and crafted to achieve the perfect compromise between speed, efficiency and durability. A primitive bow has no shelf and the arrow sits on top of the hand, as a result they can be shot right and left handed.
Osage Orange – From native Americans to modern bowyers, Osage orange is one of archery’s most heralded woods and possibly the best bow-wood on earth. Osage orange is a gnarly, shrub-like tree that might make you wonder how anyone can make a bow from its wood. Don’t be fooled by its appearance. Osage orange grows durable wood that’s ideal for building bows. The wood is a brilliant orange when spit from the tree, and darkens to a caramel color as it ages.
Primitive bows are made by hand from a single piece of wood. They are the most individual bows and remind of simpler times when man hunted with the bow thousands of years ago. Their design and form follows the grain of the wood and is carefully shaped and crafted to achieve the perfect compromise between speed, efficiency and durability. A primitive bow has no shelf and the arrow sits on top of the hand, as a result they can be shot right and left handed.
What is Osage Orange?
From native Americans to modern bowyers, Osage orange is one of archery’s most heralded woods and possibly the best bow-wood on earth. Osage orange is a gnarly, shrub-like tree that might make you wonder how anyone can make a bow from its wood. Don’t be fooled by its appearance. Osage orange grows durable wood that’s ideal for building bows. The wood is a brilliant orange when split from the tree, and darkens to a caramel color as it ages.
How will my bow look?
This is very hard to tell! Each bow is unique and depends on the wood. Imperfections in Osage-orange wood make for interesting, high-character bows. Sometimes this can lead to so called “snaky bows”. Sometimes you even have a whole in the bow – which will not affect the bow but adds to its uniqueness!
Famous bowyer Ron Hardcastle wrote: “As smitten as I am with Osage, even a cursory glance will show that it is far from perfect, often growing in treacherous twists and snakes and leaded with knots and thorns. But herein, for many bowyers, lies the interest and excitement of wood bowyery.”
What comes with my bow?
Your bow comes with a leather grip and horn nock overlays and has a Dacron endless string. For storage and protection your bow comes with a black bow sleeve.
What arrows do I need?
A wooden bow wants and needs a heavy arrow! Aim at least for 450grn weight. A cedar shaft weighs around 12GPI, so with 30″ length and a 125grn head you get to about 485grn. Another option is to use a heavier carbon arrow shaft like the Gold Tip Traditional with a 100grn brass insert and a 125grn point, which at 30″ and 500 spine gets you just over 483grn. Real feather fletching on arrows used for this bow will work best.
What do I do for maintenance?
The bow is waxed with a paraffin based wax and treated with linseed oil. Oiling and waxing it regularly will keep it in great condition. You shouldn’t use a varnish over it.
What is so good about this bow:
Shooting a primitive bow connects us right with ourselves and nature. They are a true piece of art and if maintained well will give us joy for a long time. Osage Orange lets us experience its aging process: starting with a bright yellow it will darken to a dark honey and if we’re lucky then over the next decades we can see it turn deep brown-purple.
Technical Specifications
Bow length: 68″ (approximate)
Draw weights: 26# – 60#
Maximum draw length: 32″
Hands: both – can be shot right and left handed
Brace height: approx. 7″
Riser: Osage Orange one piece bow with a leather grip
Nocks: Horn overlay
String: Endless Dacron (this bow is not fast-flight compatible!)
If you’re about to buy your first bow you should consider a few things.
1. Start with a low draw weight bow
Archery is a very unique way of using your muscles. Nothing will have prepared you for this. So your muscles and more importantly tendons need to be trained to cope with the stress of pulling and holding back the string. If your bow is too strong very bad posture will become a habit: things like not having a definitive anchor point in your face, head tilted too far backwards or forwards, back leaning backwards, bad release etc. It also increases the risk of injuring your shoulder. Your muscles will build up faster than your tendons, so keep practicing good form with this bow for a month longer than you think you need to before you go up in draw weight.
All adults will be comfortable with 20# and most will be with 25# – our Red Ranger longbow and Beginner Black Hunter are available in those draw weights. If you’re fit and regular work out than 30# should still be fine. The official DOC Hunting draw weight is now only 35# – they too realised that precision beats power.
2. Find out if you need a Right or Left Hand Bow
Find out which one is your dominant eye. This will determine if you will be a right or left hand shooter and if you need a Right or Left Hand Bow (this is counterintuitive, so read on before you order!).
Right Hand Bow: A right hand archer holds the bow in the left hand and pulls the string with the right hand. The arrow will therefore be lined up under the right eye so they can look along the arrow towards the target. The arrow passes the bow handle on the left for right hand bows.
Left Hand Bow: A left hand archer holds the bow in the right hand and pulls the string with the left hand. The arrow will therefore be lined up under the left eye so they can look along the arrow towards the target. The arrow passes the bow handle on the right for left hand bows.
This video explains how to work out which of your eyes is dominant:
Most people when they are right handed are also right eye dominant and vice versa. However a few people are what is called cross-dominant. It is extremely advisable to practice archery according to your eye dominance. So if you’re right handed, but left eye dominant, then you should shoot a left hand bow. I have seen first hand what the difference is when I trained with a good female archer who was cross-dominant but didn’t know about it. Her scores in tournaments were always good, but when we started training with a left hand bow and after she got used to it her scores were off the chart. She shot a simple primitive wooden bow, but her scores made other women in the Recurve class jealous.
3. Get a Bow Stringer
A bow stringer is a useful tool to string your bow and protecting your bow limbs from becoming permanently twisted or damaged. It’s worth the investment and in our opinion totally required for bows with strong recurves like the Black Hunter Recurve. Our Bow Stringer Pro is great, strong and affordable. Nearly every archery store on this planet (ours included) will not warranty twisted limbs if no bowstringer was used.
4. Invest in a good Shooting Glove or Tab
I still use my second glove, it’s now 14 years old. It’s worth the investment! It should fit like a second skin. I like to buy mine one number too small. We got a great rang available that we all tested thoroughly.
5. Get help with your Arrows
Every stick makes a bow, but an arrow is hard work. The arrow needs to fit the bow and you. And it’s a complex system. Even the most basic arrow shaft information, the spine, comes in various ways depending if it’s a wooden, carbon or aluminium shaft. Carbon arrows need also to be splined and they are difficult to lengthen at home. The weight of the arrow tip has as much influence on arrow flight as the type and lengths of feathers. And the length of the arrow has big influence on the dynamic spine. Ask someone to check your nocking point too. If your heads spins by now, just follow my advice and get help – ideally from us!
Oh, and don’t buy an arrow set of Alibaba until you really know what you’re doing AND you can check you got what you ordered at home.
6. Get an Armguard
An armguard is not just to protect you from stringslap ( a hit of the string on the forearm, common on longbows). It can also protect you from serious injuries when anything goes wrong with your arrow, arrow nock or string.
6 reviews for LAST ONE Primitive Flatbow Osage Orange 64″ (51#-55#)
Customer Images
Rated 5 out of 5
Chris
Beautiful bow very comfortable to shoot would highly recommend
Rated 5 out of 5
Chris
Beautiful bow very comfortable to shoot would highly recommend
I love this thing from the crazy looks to the quiet, smooth shooting. The only thing that could possibly do with an improvement is the handle grip which is quite thin/hard and imparts a fair bit of hand shock. Could maybe do with some extra padding to reduce shock and give more hand grip bulk.
Reviewer
Thanks for the detailed feedback, we will pass this on! Meanwhile there is some great foam you can get with art supplies to pad the handle out. Regarding the handshock: most primitive bows have that side effect, please try using heavier arrows with 15GPI (like a cedar shaft with a 125grn point). We wish you lots more fun with this bow – any questions, get in touch!
Excellent bow that gets a lot of looks! Feels good in the hand, and flicks arrows out nice and quick!
I love this thing from the crazy looks to the quiet, smooth shooting. The only thing that could possibly do with an improvement is the handle grip which is quite thin/hard and imparts a fair bit of hand shock. Could maybe do with some extra padding to reduce shock and give more hand grip bulk.
Thanks for the detailed feedback, we will pass this on! Meanwhile there is some great foam you can get with art supplies to pad the handle out. Regarding the handshock: most primitive bows have that side effect, please try using heavier arrows with 15GPI (like a cedar shaft with a 125grn point). We wish you lots more fun with this bow – any questions, get in touch!
A very beautiful and unique bow, a fantastic addition to my collection of bows. Extremely well crafted and shoots very well.