So my mom has been doing chemo for a while and she goes to the cancer center downtown to get it. She has been there 3 times now. Well last time we went a guy came in with all these REALLY cool bows to talk to our nurse. He explained that all the bows were hand made and I was like wow! They were gorgeous. One had a mink hand grip! So we talk for a little bit and I tell him that I shoot a bow. He seemed pretty impressed that I shot a 45 pound 60 inch recurve.
So as we talk to him and the nurse (who is making a bow for herself under his instruction) I find out that he makes bows, arrows, arrow heads, knives, yadadada...all handmade and most replicas of native american such. Even cooler is he makes most of them with tools he makes himself!
Anyway, so we part ways. Well about two weeks later my mom comes back from chemo and says hey I got a surprise for you. The man who had the bows wanted to make me one!
Well he went home that day we met and thought about his niece(?) that has a 17 year old daughter. Well his niece had cancer too. So he sorta knew how hard is was to have a mother going through all that he is and such and decided to make a bow for me.
If that isn't like the sweetest thing ever. It brings tears to my eyes to think of him. I don't feel worthy o.o' He even named it for me (since a lot of native americans named their bows) He named it Chemo-sabe from the lone ranger kemosabe. Its the chemo bow for short because of the chemo he and my mom are going through.
I went to his house today to pick them up...Here is some pics:
There is my new bow!! (sorry for such shitty lighting)It is 42 pounds and around 50 inches. It is a "stick bow" which is one of the most common bows the Native Americans used since it was easy to make. Mine differs a little since it does have an arrow rest on in. (It falls under the long bow category)
Here is a close up on that arrow rest.
The wood its made out of is osage-orange. It will darken as it is exposed to light, but in my opinion it looks gorgeous dark or light! (He showed me what it will look like)
He signed it and dated it. His friend also signed it as he helped him a lot making it. (I blurred out their last names since...you know...stalkers and such and to protect their privacy...)
Oook so there was my bow. But I also got a tour of their house...which was like a MUSEUM!! They had sooo much in there...I snapped a few pics of course:
He had a big table of stuff. He had stuff he made and stuff he had found on the various trips he went on. The ones in the case here he had made. He also made the clay pots and fired them himself!
The arrow heads in this case are some that he had found. That dagger you see? Well that was one that he had made. He made another one just like it and his friend killed a boar with it.
Here are some more that he made...seriously there were like ten of these cases!
Yea, that is a spear! A frigging spear for goodness sake!! How cool is that?!? (I got to hold it tehe)
Here is a bow that he made. Beautiful huh?
More bows that he made.
This is his war plaque. He really is such a neat guy.
So yea....wow huh? I was speechless the whole time. I so want to sorta dedicate this post for him since he is such a special guy. I have found out that he is 72 years old. He had cancer in the throat and various other places. He has blood clots and he has to be fed through a feeding tube :,[ He gets three days of treatment every three weeks. (thats a lot of stuff to go through and it is really hard on the body)...Oh and icing on the cake, he did TWO tours in vietnam!! I mean he going through all that stuff in his life and he took his time to make me that bow. *teary eye*
After we left his house we went birdwatching and found a place to make a fire and roast veggie hotdogs. I got some great pics there too...but that will be tomorrow ^.^
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