Ox bow form

In the past few months, I have become involved in the program with the oxen teams at Genesee Country Village. As part of this, we at the wagonmaker's shop have been working on yokes. Several yokes in the museum's collection were missing their bows, and our new team of calves has been outgrowing their yokes at an amazing pace.

A word about terminology: the 1835 Webster's dictionary defines "yoke" as the heavy timber that lies across the shoulders of the team into which are inserted the "bows." Often, though, "yoke" is used for the whole apparatus, which brings me to the object in the photo (Figure 1) that showed up at a local flea market recently. From the shape and size, it is obvious that it was used in bow making.

The object stands 27 inches high with 8 inches between the side boards, so it would easily hold two pairs of bows. The body was hewn from a single piece of oak timber. The three cross bars are free to slide out of the holes in the boards that hold them. Many bows were made to be somewhat oval. That is, the sides of the bow are not parallel, but taper inwards to where they enter the yoke. This shape fits the shoulders and neck of the ox better than would parallel sides. This shape is reflected in the block of this object. It does flare out again below the side bars, but that is most likely to give it a solid square bottom to rest on.

The only comparable device that I know of was illustrated in the June 1960 issue of The Chronicle1 (Figure 2). It was from the James Keillor collection and was identified as an "ox bow shaper." It differs from my form in having slots for seven cross bars. Edward Durell and J. Didsbury (Ray Townsend) speculated as to how it might have been used in bending bows. A few issues later in March 1961,2 Peter Drummond III had an article in which he describes how he made a replica and attempted to bend bows with it. He tried various sequences and seems to have been successful with one of his six attempts. Unfortunately, his analysis is seriously flawed by his assumption that the bows were made from "green hickory saplings."

It might appear that bows only serve to keep the yoke in place, but, in fact, they play a major role in the ability of the team to pull a load. Their strength is important. Old bows were never made from saplings, but from sections split from much larger trees. One does see bows with the bark on the outside, but again part of a large tree. Mr. Drummond's saplings were all sapwood, which bends much differently from the heartwood that makes up the majority of the old bows.

We have bent a number of bows using a steam box and a jig with a block and tackle and pulleys to bend them around a form. Knowing the effort required, I cannot imagine trying to wrestle one around a free standing form, much less two at once as the article suggests. In any case, the object that I have could not possibly have been used for bending bows. It has only three cross bars and the boards they go through are not attached well enough to withstand the force needed.

What was its purpose, then? The freshly cut, green bows, bent by pulling them around a form, either cold or after steaming, need to be held in shape while the wood seasons. This doesn't require much force, and a batch of bows could easily be put into the jig and left to dry for a few weeks. Wedges might have been used behind the lower bars to hold the bow more closely to the form.

With oxen being in general use for farming up until around 1850, why are devices like this so rare? I suspect it is simply because they were really not necessary. A length of cord or wire, or a light batten tacked across the legs of the bow, is all that is really needed to hold the shape.

Notes

1. "Ox Bow Shaper," The Chronicle 13, no. 2 (1960): 20.

2. Peter Drummond III, "Ox Bow Shaper," The Chronicle 14, no. 1 (1961): 10.

Author

Ted Kinsey is the weekend wheelwright/wagonmaker and occasional ox drover, among other things at the Genesee Country Village Museum. He last wrote about paintbrushes for The Chronicle.

Copyright Early American Industries Association Sep 2003
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