Main Discussion Area > Horn Bows
Sheep Horn Bow build (complete)
wizardgoat:
Alright, we all have our own "bowyers bucket list", and a sheep horn bow has been near the top of mine for a while.
Instead of trading 20 horses for one of these little buffalo bangers, I thought what better time than now to attempt one.
A bow made of no wood, only horn and sinew.
There isnt a whole lot of info out there on making these bows, but there is a few sources I have on hand. Native American Bows has some great info, as well as American
Indian archery and the Encyclopedias of Bows Arrows and Quivers has some cool stuff as well.
I've never done a build along, so bare with me! Whether I fail or succeed, I'm hoping we can all at least learn something.
I acquired the horn and sinew from Chuck Loeffler thru trade, and lucky for me, he had already reduced the horn to strips to avoid border customs issues.
He even sent me the off cuts, so I'll have nice tip overlay material for a looooooong time.
Chucks website is also a good read on horn bows.
Here are the horn strips and one of the off cuts.
Chuck had already done one heat session to get some curl out, but they needed another one to get them flat enough to work easily.
I profiled the bow to around 1 1/4 till mid limb and a slight taper to the tips, for now anyways.
I began to reduce the thickness of the horn strips. Much like wood bows I aimed to have a slight thickness taper toward the tips.
I had a few "soft?" spots in the horn, so I needed to get under neath them. Not totally sure on the desired thickness or amount of stress to put on the horn at this point, so I went with what felt right.
I sort of pre tillered the strips over my knee, so I knew I was on the right track. I'm not concerned with draw weight on this bow, If it happens to shoot an arrow I'd be more than happy.
I whipped up a quick caul to begin shaping the horns. I went with 1" of backset, not sure if its too much, or not enough.
I tapered each strip for 3" for a lap splice. Theres alot of ways to do horn bow handles, but the lap splice seems the easiest to me.
I boiled the horn for about 5 minutes and quickly clamped them down, heres what they looked like.
After the horn cooled, it was time to glue the handle. I bought some high quality hide glue online a while back, so I decided to use it.
I think I got a pretty good fit, I hope anyways.
I made a piece of horn to fit on the back of the handle. I tried to make a belly one but gave up after I couldnt get it to fit right. I hope that doesnt't come back to haunt me. Here is what the handle looks like cleaned up a bit.
Some twist issues to deal with.
lebhuntfish:
Very cool Goat! I'll be watching this very closely. Definitely on my bucket list! Thanks for making this post. Patrick
mikekeswick:
Cool!!
I've never made one of these but I have made a few 'normal' hornbows. With a structral splice like that it's obvious that it must stay together for the bow to work, so with that in mind I am wondering how you prepared the horn for gluing? When it comes to gluing horn to a wooden core you have to use many sizing coats of very thin glue to make sure you get a good bond with the horn. Horn being so dense it's hard for the glue to properly wet the surface(unlike wood), if you gently heat it and apply many coats of thin glue you can get around this problem and get a good bond as the collagen molecules get built up slowly.
Anyways best of luck with this one, it will be super cool ;)
wizardgoat:
Mike- yes, from what I've read and heard, handle failures are the most common way for these to go.
I made sure the pieces were as flat as I could get them and roughed them up with heavy grit
sand paper. I did size them with thin warm glue,, and they seemed to soak up a couple coats pretty good. I used a thicker glue for the actual glue up. I didn't hear the horn, but will on the next one. I bet I'll be saying that a lot haha, so thanks for the input.
Not gonna lie, I'll be relying big time on a HEAVY wrapping up sinew at the handle, and will be
Do my best to avoid any big bending in the handle. Even if it means I lose some draw length.
Forgot to mention, the horn core is 31" long.
Aaron H:
Very cool wizard
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