Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Horn Bows => Topic started by: bosko on December 10, 2018, 08:55:29 am
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Hi, here is my first attempt in a native american horn bow. This bow is made of water buffalo horn, because it is way cheaper then bighorn sheep horns and I am no expert, so I did not want to buy expensive sheep horns and maybe ruin them in a first attempt to make this kind of a bow. So I had some water buffalo horns at home, because in the past I made some turkish style horn bows and I decided to give it a go ;D
The bow is 25" long NTN and 26" tip to tip. It is a bit short, I know, but one of the horns had a severe damage, so I had to cut it off. I believe it has about 55 g or maybe 60 g of dry sinew on it, without the wrappings. The horn is 5mm thick almost all the way and 1 and 1/6" wide at the handle and little less then half an inch at the tip. The handle is a short splice with two horn plates, one on the back and one on the belly and 1 rivet. Because it is my first attempt, some advice from the experts in this community would be much appreciated, thanks in advance. Now comes the hardest part, waiting about 6 months for the sinew to season. Fingers crossed that it won´t break and hopefully become a shooter in 7 or so months.
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Short--but cool :D :D
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What kind of draw length and weight do you expect from it ?
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Thanks DC
Ohma 2: about 15" of draw length, maybe a bit less and I hope for about 35 - 40# of draw weight.
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Well it should be very stable with that profile, length and width. How did you go about glueing the sinew to the horn?
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Aaron: I put the sinew in two sessions, first 3 layers with about 20% hide glue (about 45 g of sinew) and the last sessions 1 layer with about 16% hide glue. From my experience with making asiatic style bows I found out that less concentrated glue for the last layer is better, but the problem is I never glued sinew directly to horn, so I hope that it won´t come off. I really hope that it would be stable, because there is no wood core and I do not have any experience with just horn and sinew bows, so I rather sacrifice some speed for stability for the first one.
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Did you size the horn first with any thinner glue? With horn being very dense, I'd be worried that the 20% hide glue wouldn't penetrate deep enough into the horn.
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Well Aaron I do not recall it exactly, but I believe that I put 3 or was it 4 coats of 6-7% hide glue for the sizeing and the horn was a bit glossy before I put sinew on. I learned the hard way that the horn must be sized well with thin glue, my first 3 turkish horn bows had glue failure and the horn delaminated from the wooden core. Aaron you think that 20% hide glue is to thick for the first layer of sinew. In Adam Karpowicz's book he suggests the glue concentration between 20-25%, but yes I know in asiatic style bows you glue the sinew to wood and really I have zero knowledge glueing sinew directly to horn. So Aaron I really hope you are wrong :D , because if not, we have a fast breaker here, not a fast shooter :P
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I hope I am wrong too bosko. I think if you used the 6-7% glue first, and got the horn glossy from the glue before you added any sinew, then you should be fine.
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Aaron: I even roughed up the surface of the horn before applying thin coats of hide glue. So I really hope it would be fine. Thanks Aaron for your advices, they are much appreciated. If this won't work, than I will be using thinner glue for the first layer of sinew next time. I will be posting the progress as I go.
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It'll work bosko.Cool looking little shorty.Like the little hooks on the tips.Pretty sure you'll hit your draw weight.
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Thanks BowEd, I am glad to hear that you like it.
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Some progress on the shorty after 4 and half months of curing time. For now it is holding OK. The smaller one was made the same time and the same way as the longer one, it just doesn't have horn plates on the handle splice, I was working on both in parallel, the smaller one was a bit of try and it is meant for a pistol crossbow, for now it pulls about 49 pounds at 8 and a half inches, at the end it would be more about 45 pounds, because one limb is still a bit stronger (left one on the picture) so I am going slow with tillering. Fingers crossed ahead.
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This is way cool! That’s quite a little project there.
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That’s awesome! I’m gunna try steer/long horn horns and see what I can make from that. You ever done that or used that material?
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Some more work on the shorty. Yesterday I opened it up a beat.
High-Desert: Thanks, yes it is quite a project and I have limited time to work on it, but man it is cool when I do :D
Mafort: I have not tried other horns that water buffalo yet, maybe one day if I am lucky and get some other ones cheap, but from what I heard cow horns are not suitable for bows they tend to separate, but I am just guessing, I do not know for sure. Good luck on your project and post some pictures of your work.
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Those are sweet. Horn bows just moved up a bit on my "to do" list ;D
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Progress on the shorty, braced and on the tillering stick at 10 inch. It was drawn already to 13 and half inches on the tillering tree and the scale showed 55 pound at 13" draw. The tiller is not perfect by any means, still some more sanding to do here and there and got some twist to remove with heat so that the string aligns in the middle of the handle. I hope it survives the treatment.
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I think its looking very good. Keep up the great work!
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Thanks NorthHeart, but yours two look even better :D I would love to shoot those pretty beasts of yours, they have gone through so many master bow builder´s hands it is already epic and historical ;D I am already impatient to test my shorty for speed on the crony.
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Excellent. I love looking at these bows.
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Would this style of bow be stable if it was 42 inches ntn?