Story of Making a Chinese Bow
Story of Making a Chinese Bow
© Stephen Selby 2002
The following is a draft storyboard
to help in the preparation if an exhibition and a documentary film.
People featured in the storyboard are Mr Yang Wentong and Mr Yang Fuxi of Ju
Yuan Han, Beijing.
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1 Raw materials:
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2 Working wooden components into basic shape (wooden ends of bow = ‘siyahs’, wooden build-out at grip.) Main tool: saw and adze
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3 Using adze to cut two siyahs into knee-shape.
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4 Assembly of wooden/bamboo parts ready for gluing (photograph below was taken in Mongolia, showing a Mongolian bow.)
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5 Components after gluing, ready for horn
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6 Prepare glue for gluing parts.
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7 Where the horn (brown) will go:
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8 Cutting the horn: we don’t have enough detail on this. ??? |
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9 The scraping tool.
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10 Scraping the surfaces of the horn and bamboo with the scraping tool to ensure firmer bonding with glue.
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11 The bamboo after treatment with the scraping tool.
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12 Gluing the bamboo and the horn prior to joining: we don’t have enough detail on this. ??? |
13 String walker
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14 Horse
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15 Holding the bamboo and horn in the press and squeezing with the string walker.
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16 After the horn has gone on, the wooden build-out for the grip is attached. The assembly is left to dry for about one month.
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17 Sinew holder and sinew comb.
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18 Washing the tools for the sinew.
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19 Washing gluing board
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20 Combing the wet sinew on the board.
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21 Soaking the sinew in the glue.
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22 Heating the back of the bow before applying the sinew.
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23 Laying the sinew down on the back of the bow.
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24 Smoothing the sinew onto the bow back.
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25 Curing the glue and sinew over a flame.
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26 After gluing the sinew is left to dry for three months.
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27 Preparing to put birchbark over the sinew.
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28 The surfaces are glued and allowed to dry. Then both surfaces are licked with the tongue like sticking on a stamp.
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29 Bark strip applied obliquely to the limb.
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30 A hot iron is used to stick the bark firmly on the limb.
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31 Finishing and polishing the horn. : we don’t have enough detail on this. ??? |
32 Painting and Decoration. : we don’t have enough detail on this. ??? |
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33 Making the string: the string whipping tool.
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34 Whipping a string on a jig.
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35 Finished product.
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36 Arrows? |
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