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Question on bow nocks

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WillS:
If you make them right you should be fine.  What a lot of people do is make basic Victorian (front-groove) nocks, and simply turn them sideways, and use them with a normal sized string loop and they look bizarre and can also fail.  The string groove needs to be shaped quite carefully (and is very different to the Victorian style) and the string loop needs be really tiny.  If both of those elements are ok, then it doesn't matter what horn you use.

With large loops that hang down from the nock, buffalo horn has a tendency to split, whereas cow horn doesn't. 

Here's a quick rough sketch of how the groove should be made (if you use a knife it happens almost automatically, whereas if you use a tile saw or something you have to really work at getting that shape right)



And here's a nock made in buffalo by a friend of mine entirely by knife, which is (almost) identical to the MR nock and should show you the sort of thing I'm waffling on about.



I'm probably making it sound more complicated than it is.  Give it a try on some scrap horn and see how it turns out. 


.....or use front nocks like the Victorians did...  >:D

FilipT:
Can that be made with draw knife?

Reason why people don't usually make them as there are no specific instructions and dimensions for that type of nock. Only guys who use them are seasoned bowyers who make warbows and probably see them in person on historical artifact bows, such as MR bows.

Can they be made on wood, instead of horn?

WillS:
There's no specific instructions or dimensions for Victorian nocks either.  I think the reason people don't make them is because they don't trust them.  You can make huge ugly Victorian nocks, or really dodgy little ones and they'll all still work.  If you get sidenocks wrong, they won't work.  I think a lot of bowyers give them a try, decide they don't like them and then continue making "warbows" with the wrong type of nock because they're used to them.

Don't forget that every single European bow found before the Victorian period had sidenocks, not just the MR bows.  Whether they were in horn or just into the bare wood, they ALL had sidenocks.  Even during and past the Victorian period lots of bows had them.  No matter how big or small or fancy or plain you make them, if you cut the nock into the front of the horn, you're doing something fundamentally modern.

You can make them out of anything you want.

Strichev:
By sidenocks you mean a single groove variety or the more common (nowadays) double side groove design? I'm getting a bit confused by terminology here.

WillS:
You've either got sidenocks (a single small groove on one side of the bow tip) or a "modern/Victorian nock" which is the entire face of the nock cut into a long groove going from side to side like a big smile.

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