Main Discussion Area > Horn Bows
240's sheep horn bow build with Tom Lucas
NorthHeart:
Just a recap, i'm working on 2 sets of horn bows for myself. Some of the pics are of a third set that Tom is building for a customer. My large horns soaked for 14 days and were then strapped to a board. My smaller set soaked for only 9 days and were strapped down. For 25 days we let them dry near a fireplace in Toms care. Without the fire you may wish to go a bit longer just to be safe.
Next we cut the edges off the horn, leaving us with the bows limbs. Tom prefers to lay a measuring stick down the center and mark with a pencil down each side, leaving approximately 1-1/8" wide limbs. He prefers to cut outside the lines to be safe using his bandsaw. I do mine, and go "extra safe" leaving them 1-1/2" wide. I got them thinned down in thickness somewhat comparable to his. He likes using a rasp. Im a bit more comfortable with a belt sander, being very careful to leave extra material until he can check my progress.
NorthHeart:
cutting and thinning....
NorthHeart:
A good days work.
DC:
At this point, they look to be 1/2" thick, can you bend them by hand, over your knee? Do they bend at all?
NorthHeart:
DC-they are still quite stiff and i would be afraid to try and bend them on my knee at this point. But they do flex a bit when you rasp over the part hanging over the edge of the vice.
Today another session of thinning, to remove the inner "flaky stuff", and to match the outer surface accordingly. They are getting close to the point of being ready to splice. Tom gave me the option to leave the tips natural or wack them off. I told him i never built a horn bow before and for him to decide. He said they just get in the way and hang off the end, this is because we will be using the thicker part down away from the tip for our nocks. Tom has had bows in the past where the tip was too thin and when shot the string flew past the limb and "debraced" the bow. I looked at a picture of one of his earlier bows where he left the tips full length, and then sinewed horn pieces on each side near the tip to essentially widen the limb and prevent this. Ive also seen sinew wraps made into donuts to accept the string loop, and i imagine one could just keep wrapping the area in question to make it thicker, but with that also comes more mass near the tips, by cutting the tips off we remove mass. In the end i told him these are "Tom Lucas" style bows. We cut off the tips.
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