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American bison, horn bow w/sinew(pic update)
Barrage:
Hey Timo, great build along.
I was like you, saw that article in PA and knew it was time finally get at one of these. The bison horn I have is quite a bit shorter (~10"). When you laid out your template could you get it fairly flat along the horn? In order to get my template around the horn without overlapping, the template wasn't very flat. So when I went to boil and clamp, the horn had a pretty good curve to it (not the coil curve; I mean if it was uncoiled and laid flat, it would look like a crescent moon). Did you have this sort of issue at all? Can you just muscle it straight? The horn seemed to cool off very quickly and I couldn't get it to work out for me the first time out. I have a couple horns though, so that was mostly just a test to see what worked best. Also the horn seemed pretty brittle and dry after soaking a day and boiling. How about yours?
Thanks for any info you can provide on this. Yours is looking great so far, looking forward to seeing it done!
david w.:
This is awesome
welch2:
To keep the horns from getting brittle ,and to give me more working time , I soak them in milk or diluted hide glue .The Mongols do it this way too .
I soak them for a few weeks , When they are ready they will bend pretty good without any heat ,But I heat them up, still in the milk (newer not so stinky milk ) And when they are hot ,not quite boiling ,I have about a minute or a little more to get the horn clamped . I think the water leaches and then cooks some of the proteins out of the horn...making them brittle.
Ralph
Timo:
Tom Ressler sparked my interest in building these bows. He tole me that he got all the secrets from some native american elders. So I have to give him the credit,and he in turn will credit those who taught him,as it should be. He also has many more secrets that he has yet to devulge I think. ;) Either way it's very interesting as to how they,(native americans) came up with this. And how they did it all with stone tools? :o ??? Amazing stuff to ponder me thinks.
Ralph I have recently read about the milk and the hide glue soak.I just did the water bath as I knew very little about any of it,but I am learning now. Your thoughts gather my interests.
Hillbilly, I hope this ride ends with success!
Barrage, I used masking tape for my template, and yes it did not lay down real well,I just cut outside the lines a bit.I had a lil trouble with what you are talking about,but these horns where thin, so I could manipulate them fairly easy.I also set some drywall screws along the edges where I needed them to help hold the horn straight.Not sure if you can see them in the pics or not?I did however straighten them more after I removed them form the form, with the heat gun.stuff is rubber after a couple mins of heat. Didn't seem to dry to me.
Somthing of interests: I have had this bow over the air cond vent for a few days now and it has not reflexed any. Not sure as to why? Every bow I have ever sinew backed has reflexed.
Barrage:
Thanks Timo.
I'll have to try it out on another horn and seen how it goes. I had let mine soak in water for a couple days before I boiled - maybe that caused some issued with the brittleness. I had also read about the Mongols soaking horns in milk for days; seems to make sense from a leaching aspect. I actually noticed after looking at your pics again that you had some of that crescent curve when clamping too. Not quite as bad as your horns are bigger. Good to see you got them straight though. Mine wanted to buckle in a couple spots while trying to get them straight. I think a longer boil and more clamps might solve it though after looking at your setup and boil times.
I also thought about cutting them straight and doing a butt joint; anyone ever tried that? Just creating a hinge at the butt joint?
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