Bow Tool: Marlinspike

Item number E7446-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/34 , retrieved 1-28-2020: Marlinspike used for attaching sinew backing to a bow. It is made from bone, and at one end has a hole and two notches along each side that likely had been used for attaching to a thong, together with other bow-making tools. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/11: Sinew backing was attached to a bow using a marlinspike and a pair of cable twisters. One end of the marlinspike is tapered, and is used to raise strands of sinew when lashing them to the stave, and for tucking in the ends of the lashings. Cable twisters are turned outwards in opposite directions at each end. They are used in pairs for twisting strands of braided sinew into cables that run along the centre part of the bow stave.