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tip tips please
WillS:
137 out of 137 bows with the sidenocks cut into the wood is a lot of coincidence ;)
stuckinthemud:
Well, my lack of experience showed up very quickly, I found a small void in the back of both nocks between the wood and the horn, but I found it the hard way when I cut into the void rounding up the horn tips. I think the taper I used was too long at 5cm, trying a shorter taper with a modified drill bit.
WillS:
Your goal really with the inner cone is to shape it as close as possible to the natural cone left when cow horn sheds and the inner core falls away.
It's very consistent in shape, and looks remarkably similar to the way most people grind their drill bits. Obviously if you can use cow horn that has lost its inner core it saves you an awful lot of time!
If you can't use naturally hollow cow horn, a convex taper is the way to go, and 5cm is perfectly fine, provided the fit is good! One good way of getting the horn to fit the wood perfectly is to chuck it in hot water for a bit, then tap it down onto the bow tip and let it cool to shape.
stuckinthemud:
Thanks for the hot tip Wills! I made several mistakes on that pair of tips, I hand carved the hollows with flat tops to match the profile of the bow, spent hours finessing with chalk dust, lost track of how long each tip took, then messed up the final shaping on the bow! Its taken about 20 minutes a side with the drill bit! The cones currently measure 17mm across (the width of the limb at that point) by 22mm in length.
[img] https://stuckinthemudsite.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/img_20170910_164821.jpg [img]
apologies for the link, this usually works for inserting an image, dunno why its inserting a hot-link instead.
WillS:
Ideally you'd want a more slender, graceful transition from bow limb to tip. It should all look like it's flowing from one element to the other, instead of limb - cone. If that makes any sense?!
With a drill bit, the entire process of fitting the nocks should be about 5 minutes for both together. My method is (if not using naturally hollowed cow horn):
1. Draw around the drill bit onto the bow tip, and shape it to match exactly. I do this with a sharp knife and it usually takes about a minute per tip. Use a scraper to smooth everything off and make it round.
2. Holding the horn tip in my left hand, I drill down into it holding the drill in my right. This lets me feel if the drill is wandering off centre and I can easily adjust my angle to keep things straight.
3. Push the horn onto the tip, and if it doesn't quite fit sand the tip slightly. If it's a bit further out than sanding will allow, it goes into hot water and then gets tapped on with a light hammer. This water method makes the process take longer but after you've done a few is very rarely needed.
4. Fill the horn with hide glue (or whatever you're using) and shove it on and let set.
5. Mark the position of the string groove and cut down to the wood using a good sharp knife. Open the slot as wide as necessary, round everything off with the knife followed by a wipe of sandpaper and you're done!
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