My horn bow build-a-long

[DC]

I actually already have two natural Crabapple crooks that I can use for siyahs. I could epoxy up some limbs with the kasan eye bend out of the Eastern Maple. Hmmm

[DC]

The Crabapple crooks had too tight an angle and not a sharp enough bend so I decided to laminate a couple. It's 4 layers of Eastern(Sugar) Maple. I boiled them and clamped it up. It went very smoothly and looks real good. The pieces are 2" wide so I will rip them down the middle to get two identical siyahs. It will take a month of Sundays to dry I imagine but I've got a few years in me yet I also put some Douglas Maple strips in a 4" PVC tube of water to soak for a week to try that method. It's in the sun for most of the day, maybe that will improve the soaking.  I'll put some disinfectant or something in with it. While I had a tube full of water and some uniform strips of Doug Maple I thought I would check it's SG. 3' strips floated with 1" sticking out so they have a .66 sg.

[Deerhunter21]

Thank you for joining in. I was thinking that no one was reading this. I wondered about laminating after my first try at bending a piece of Hazel as a test. I got quite a bit of spring back. I hadn't soaked it for a week or dried it for a week but still. It would save me building a trough to boil it in. It would also save me a month in drying. Did you use epoxy or hide glue?

You kidding me! I love watching the horn bow build alongs! I think your doin great!

[DC]

Thanks DH   I found a way to dry the siyah lams faster.

[gorazd]

5 piece construction....
Laminated siyahs are over 25cm in length  -  entire kasan and tip ...

I have found some pictures from project -
1. pictere of the form and
2. gluing siyahs into limbs ..

Oh, when you say you are gluing up the siyahs with 4mm lams how much of the bow are you making? Will your siyahs include the tips and the entire kasan or will it just be the tip and the outer half of the kasan. Put another way will you have a slice in the middle of the kasan? Sorry for all the questions.

Nevermind I just found it in Adams book on a 5 piece the splice is in the kasan.

[DC]

Thanks for the pictures. In the second picture would the kasan eye be just off the bottom right hand corner?

[gorazd]

Yes ...

Thanks for the pictures. In the second picture would the kasan eye be just off the bottom right hand corner?

[gorazd]

laminated siyahs for mongol bow - also from black locust strps ... this time glued with epoxy

[DC]

Mine are glued up(epoxy), we'll see tomorrow.

[DC]

I've mean meaning to make one of these for a long time. Finally got to it today. I need it to boil the limbs for bending. 37"x 6 1/2"x 3 1/2". Only one seam leaked and I got it fixed first try . It fits nicely across the stove. With an inch or so of water in it there was a 10°f difference in water temp in between the burners. Hopefully with more water in it that will even out. I'll try it in the gas barbecue and see if that works.

[Mafort]

Might try a campfire with that and put the coals around it. Be carful not to melt itvthough

[DC]

It's galvanised steel, it won't melt. The corner solder joints are the weak point but as long as its full of water it should be fine.

[DC]

The test laths have been soaking for 4 days so I'm giving it a try. I'm going to boil them for an hour and see what happens. I have backing strips clamped on and I'm boiling everything together. It's 30" from the kitchen stove to the shop and the door is open. I've got the caul all set up with clamps open and wedges ready. We'll see if I forgot anything in an hour

[DC]

It went better than I expected. the test laths had a couple of small knot and I expected trouble from them. But everything is bent and clamped up and looks good. can't see any splinters. First one took less than 2 min from out of the hot water and all clamped up. I had trouble with one clamp so the second one took 2 1/2 min. I can see where the caul needs a little mod. More on that later. So now they have to dry on the caul for a week. That will give the real laths time to soak.

[DC]

Caul mods.  You can see just to the right of the two sharp bends that the wood didn't go right down tight to the caul. I'm thinking that's because the clamp is too close to the bend. If I cut on the black lines, next time I'll be able to move the clamp to a better position. I may have to beef up that area.