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Scribing horn in to bow instead of gluing on top

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bownarra:
The wood layers on the sides are not to strengthen the core to horn joint. They are to protect the side of the bow from impacts. Turkish bows used leather strips.
There is no 'easy' way to make a horn bow ;) If there was somebody would've come up with it by now :) There are some designs that are easier to execute than others.
Simple tools are definitely not a hinderance to making any hornbow, indeed the best tools are the simple ones. Most cultures hornbow making tools are variations on a theme but essentially very similar and perfected over many years. I doubt many bowyers used 'crappy' tools!

JNystrom:

--- Quote from: bownarra on March 31, 2020, 04:21:13 pm ---The wood layers on the sides are not to strengthen the core to horn joint. They are to protect the side of the bow from impacts. Turkish bows used leather strips.
There is no 'easy' way to make a horn bow ;) If there was somebody would've come up with it by now :) There are some designs that are easier to execute than others.
Simple tools are definitely not a hinderance to making any hornbow, indeed the best tools are the simple ones. Most cultures hornbow making tools are variations on a theme but essentially very similar and perfected over many years. I doubt many bowyers used 'crappy' tools!

--- End quote ---
Didn't they have leather at that time? Hard to see why you would glue that thick wood on the side to just protect from impacts.

What they do (and we can verify this):
- widen the bow, make it more stable
- increase the glue surface for horn-core joint

Simple tools aka high carbon cabinet scraper laser cut to toothed shape. Pretty simple but not really an original tool as meant here.
I mean its quite obvious the tools weren't as high quality steel and such. Still it might have not mattered much.
An easy way is to use a router bit to make perfect matching grooves that never fail even with bad glue prepare. There is no arguing about that either.

Personally i don't think the reason for side-wood was either increasing glue surface or protecting from impact. Might have been just a part of bow development. They got to use really thick, narrow horns that are easier to produce and i bet the bows shot just fine. To be honest the horn on the back is the one that makes a lot less sense.
It would be interesting to make such a egyptian bow. Maybe one would learn a lot...

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