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Finished composite hickory bow/ pics
BowEd:
Mike.....I realize you are a student of these horn bows and Karpo's book,and a credit here.I've had his book too for a number of years.Me a student probably not to the extent you are in that you have a couple of beautiful horn bows to your credit that you displayed on here and although I have one cured I have not tillered it yet and one ready for sinew also.I did go through the work of grooving core to horn though on both and finishing out these horn bows can get you a more in depth view point.
You are right from what I can gather from Karpos' book that this bow @ 28" is definitely understrained.It is 58.25" long NTN 60" TTT and 1.25" wide at fades.Approximately an 8" handle.At least 8" stiff levers on the tips.Taper on width and thickness app.1/16" every 5 and 3/8" length along limbs from the fades.Slow and evenly.It probably should be pulled up to at least 30" anyway.Then I believe the draw weight would be around 57#.Mass on it is 17.40 ounces.Which according to Karpos' book is a pretty high mass to draw weight ratio.A little over 9,but in the ball park or under a bit of Steve Gardners mass weight formula for self bows which says it should be around 22 ounces because of induced reflex or 18 ounces normally.Hav'nt shot it through the chrono.According to what I've stated here what do you think it will shoot?
Construction was usual like horn bows are.Core prepared and tapered flat side view profile.Horn tapered too and glued onto belly of core but heated into a bit of a curvature before applying it.No grooving.Then sinew applied using a reverse stringing of 3 courses over a weeks time tapered and crowned slightly too.
Peacebow_Coos......Yes it's always an adventure to string these up especially the first time.After that not so much.The tips are not too sharply bent to static so a normal type primitive stringer can be used to string it.Pretty safe actually and not too strenuous.Too dangerously set back to string these using the push pull method though.A different type stringer is used when the statics are sharply bent.Actually getting the tips to 6" past the handle only required around 54 pounds.16" of tip travel.Gemsbok was the horn that was used.
BowEd:
Thanks fellas.I'm still shooting it and have a #D shoot this saturday to go to to help that along and then the finish work will begin.
Knotty:
@BeadMan , please allow me to ask you a question:
I've always been fascinated by horn bows , technically what I understood about your bow is that you made a hickory selfbow to start off, backed it with sinew and added horn to the belly for compression purposes?
Thanks in advance for your answer, you did an amazing job!
BowEd:
Knotty....In a nut shell yes but in a different order.The width/length/and thickness will determine your draw weight.The core of this one might have been barely a 20 pound bow @ 28".I did not test this one on the tree.In the past I did.I did'nt want or need to this time.After making enough of these you get a better insight as to how much poundage you will get from your composites that are added.
The horn is applied first to the core then the sinewing begins.Reverse stringing it as the courses are applied.Reasons for this is that I want to put the horn into tension and the sinew into compression gradually as it drys between courses.This is hard to understand unless you have Karpos' book but what happens then after it is cured when the bow is drawn during tillering and shooting the composites press themselves into the core to eliminate delamination if glue lines are properly done.I'm sure there is someone else on here that maybe can explain it better but that's my understanding of it.I hope you can picture what I said.
These bows can be really magical in a way compared to making self bows.Flexing/tillering/and seeing them come around to tiller.Shooting them is a little like pulling on a rubber band.I'm sure the all horn bow makers know this feeling but if you put enough horn and sinew thickness on a wood core the feeling will be the same.Your outside third of limbs towards the tips needs to be set back and stiff enough to eliminate any stack at the end of the draw while being light enough to eliminate hand shock.Sounds like a tall order ehhhhh?It is'nt once you do a few.
This one I got to working a bit more on the outer limbs than ones in the past without it stacking and not quite as much on the inner limbs.To me one reason why besides being overbuilt for the draw weight that it did'nt take much set.The length on this one is another reason too.
wizardgoat:
That's a cool bow. I know a bowyer in Washington state who makes similar modern style composites.
I agree with that length you could get a little more draw length, but I bet it shoots great at 28"
Unstrung profile is awesome
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