Here is a bow with a maker's mark

Holding the centre is the cowhhide , and the both sides are skin of fishs , and with the side is the sun and the moon , another side is the bat .

The transparent horn piece of amber colour

This bow seems to be from Xi'an or Chengdu. Is that correct?

The transparent horn piece of amber colour

The transparent horn piece of amber colour , and possesses drawing

The signature of ?Shunhe?

The transparent horn piece of amber colour , and possesses drawing

1：" the Qing Dynasty " imperial court makes the shop of bow in times to the signature of Shunhe 。
2：The transparent horn piece of amber colour , and possesses drawing。
3：Holding the centre is the cowhhide , and the both sides are skin of fishs , and with the side is the sun and the moon , another side is the bat . And at the skin of fish while on pastes the golden peach skin , this is fairly rarer . The hook of the both sides of bow , same the parcel skin of fish
4：The cushion of chord is made with the padauk . The parcel of birch bark is careful , and completely are 5 millimeters of wide strip form barks .

How are you Mr.xie , and this bow is found in " Shandong "

That is a good looking bow. I assume that the painting under the horn may have weakened the bond between the horn and the bamboo core. I think a bow maker would have to be very skilled to make a bow like this that performed reasonably.

The fish skin looks like stingray rawhide. Is that correct?

Ray

Thank to the concern of Ray Cover and Bede !
Call pearl fish or shark fish in China .

Is this the same type of fish hide used to underwrap sword handles in Japan and China?

The patterns of round dots look like it is. The reason I ask is I had thought of using it to back a bow in the past and leave the rows of spikes raised rather than sanding them flat.

I did not know if this type of skin would work for backing but apparently it will.

Ray

The Japanese used same for sword hilt covering. Same comes from the skin of a skate which is the relative of rays.

In China, various types of fish skin were used on bows and sword and knife scabbards. It is generally thinner than the same used in Japan and has more even denticle size. The denticles are the tooth like projections of the skin which form the circular pattern of the polished skin.

In Northern Manchuria in the time of the Qing, some tribes made clothing out of tanned salmon skin. In the Amur river, there was a sturgeon fishery and sturgeom was another fish that had a decorative skin used for sword handles.

Bede,

I was considering making a bow with same rawhide backing and leaving the center ridge of spikes raised. It would look absolutely wicked even if it would be a bit unconfortable to shove under your arm to walk downrange. :lol:

I don't know how the unsanded same would act as a backing though. Thats why I perked up when I saw the picutres. The little circle patterns on the bow look like sanded skate or ray.

Ray

Ray,
This is getting confusing when referring to same and ray.

Unpolished ray skin can be very abrasive. It depends on how it was tanned. Chrome tanning leaves it somewhat softer. Just don't wear the skin off your bow hand. It used to be used as sandpaper.

Ray; I did not reply previously when we discussed fish skins on bows. Actually, I was not talking about using the ray skin as backing. You may notice that it is being used on this bow as decoration, above and below the grip in short strips, and as a covering for the siyahs. Most likely this ray skin (a ray or skate, a member of the shark family, referred to as "shagreen" when worked up this way, was often painted green) was put on as rawhide, glued down, had its rough surface abraded, and was stained, and laquered over till smooth.

Tanned shagreen has a somewhat different texture and may be more difficult to manipulate in this manner.

I was told that the skins with the large center bumps are male skins, the females have a less defined ridge. Notice the small holes on the face of the skin. These are sonar receptors.

I have also seen some primitive arrows with small strips of ray skin glued around the nocks, presumably to enhance a pinch-type grip. -j-

Sorry Bede,

Someimes we Americans can get lazy with our nicknames and abreviations. I should have specified it as stingray.

Ray

This ray skin is difficult to work with - especially in the rawhide form. It has to be soaked in alcohol to soften it, and that in turn means that it is difficult to glue effectively to areas of a bow that get stretched or stressed. Also, the hide is very resistant to stretching, and if it were used to back a bow, it would certainly split. In old bows, it was only used on non-moving parts such as siyahs and arrow-passes.

There is a tanned version on the market which is more flexible, but it still does not stretch.

I would therefore not recommend ray skin for backing a bow.

Thanks Stephen,

You saved me about $90 in same rawhide. Thats one of the problems with being an artist. You get all these ideas of things that would really be nice aesthetically but don't work in reality. Its nice to have more experienced folks out there to keep the feet on the ground.

Again thanks for the input,
Ray

However, in The Traditional Bowyer's Bible Vol 1 in the "backing" chapter, they mention sturgeon skin as being a beautiful backing choice.

(it is more cosmetic than functional, except maybe by giving a protection against the rain, similar to snake skin).