My first Qing bow

A very nice bow.

Great Bow, congratulations. Very good job on the tillering. I?ve mine yet to tiller...

How long is it? How far flew the arrows and what is their weight?

Best regards, JJ

About 160cm,I forgot, now it's unstring. I don't know the distance, 200m I guess, the wind is blowing hard, you can see my hair, arrow is 28g. I remember I have met you before at Korea (2008), yes???

You captured the shape and style of the Manchu bow. Good work.

Nice work. That is a great bow.

Wow, that bow is nice! :D

Like the other said, congratulations!

Daniel

Chen,

I was in Busan 2008, have to check the photographs to see if I can recognise you. Do you come to this years WTAF?

160 cm, I was wondering how your bow can be so light. 200 m is very good for this bow, I think. My 180cm replica weighs about 800 grams in the moment, and the original that it was crafted after, weighs 1000 grams...

And I see you are shooting Korean arrows ;-))

JJ

Impressive! What a clean looking well tillered bow!

What does it look like just after it has been unstringed, or rather how much reflex did it loose from the early brace? I'm considering bracing one of my bows that early too :oops:

The third photo shows two hours after it has been unstringed.



It?s before tillering.
This one is still too heavy(weight) I think, next one I?ll remove all the unnecessary materials and make taper shape limbs to reduce the dead weight. I served serve as a soldier at 2009, now is a free man, I?ll participate 2010 WTAF if I have time.

Great looking bow.
Is the core made from one piece of wood?
Or are the ears and the handle V-spliced?

Can you give us some number like?
Width and thickess after handle.
Wdith and thickness before ear
Thickess of sinew/wood/horn

Thickess and width of ear at string attachment.

Six pieces of wood, ancient way.

Certainly excellent craftsmanship.

Very nice..........very crisp and clean looking.

wencheh pengyou, wo juede ni de gong hen piaoliang. Qing gaosu wo, Yohua Shifu ni ban le ma

Good chinese, I have been taking it for 4 years since junior high.

As the Others sad, beautifull bow and superb work. Great to see this kind of craftsmeship.

The profile of the Qing/Manchu bow is quite unique. People complain these bows are slow and cumbersome compared to the other hornbow design but I really like the curves and long siyahs of these bows.
It's interesting what the famous archer Saxton Pope wrote about them on his book "a study of bows and arrows", he had high expectations but ended very dissapointed after his tests. He concluded that Chinese people relied on these bows not for performance but just because of the intimidating look...

Saxton Pope was labouring under the misapprehension that he could use his Chinese bows for flight shooting. He also drew them considerably shorter than they were intended.

He tested one heavy bow and one light bow if I remember correctly. he had no one who could use the heavy bow as a hand bow and get it to full draw and the light bow was clearly a light target bow.

He was an early researcher who did not have the advantages we have. It was people like him that in some ways are responsible for the interest that had produced the translations that we enjoy now.

Wencheh; This is certainly very fine workmanship. How did you become interested in Chinese archery? Do you have a teacher? -j-

Very nice , lovely lines certainly a graceful line to it.
alan

Exactly, Bede, you remember well. I agree with everything you said.
Saxton Pope got (through the help of his brother) two Chinese bows, one a light target bow, the other a strength bow. This bows wasn't made for shooting, he didn't know that.
All Pope's books are great for the archer's read.

Thanks for all your comments. Reto, long time no see, how are your Turkish bows? Finished? It seams you still remember me, I know you can speak Chinese, but?Ha, if you type English that will be more easy to understand. Half of my making bow knowledge is from Yohua which is the same one who taught me how to shoot, half is from Adam?s book, maybe more than half that?s really helpful.
However I still got some questions to ask every hornbow bowers, when I use Cattle Tendons for Backing(sinewing), it will split lengthwise on the limb, how do you prevent this, deer leg sinews do not have this problem. Another question, do you think the wood core will split a little inside when full draw or not?

Wen (or Cheh?),

maybe the sinew must be separated in finer fibres. cow backstrap sinew is quite coarse in comparison to deer leg sinew. The finer the sinew fibres are, the better they hold together. It can also be helpful to use more or thicker glue.

JJ

So good to see another bowyer making real bows.
Very impressive, great craftmanship, go on...............
That?s how such an ancient bow should be done, don?t talk to much about it, do it and here it is.........wow
1000 kudos for you, wencheh

Michael

Very impressive!

As said above, very true to Qing design. Most makers tend to get the ears wrong but the angles and curvatures on yours seems spot-on. I bet it draws really smoothly.

As for their effectiveness, I can see how Saxton could easily get to wrong conclusions using them for flight! Their effectiveness only really becomes apparent when using a rather heavy example with likewise arrows.

As noted by W.F. Paterson, the stored energy of the Manchu bow, for a given maximum effort, is probably the highest of any bow that has ever been in general use. Its main strength is not in speed and range but the ability to deliver a huge arrow on reasonable distances that strike with great force.

-Peter

Great looking bow, congratulations. What is the wood ,snew and horn thickness in the bending section?

Cem

Good job Wen . Thats it. ?Maybe litle stronger next time :D ...

Jos?Dom wrote:

The profile of the Qing/Manchu bow is quite unique. People complain these bows are slow and cumbersome compared to the other hornbow design but I really like the curves and long siyahs of these bows.
It's interesting what the famous archer Saxton Pope wrote about them on his book "a study of bows and arrows", he had high expectations but ended very dissapointed after his tests. He concluded that Chinese people relied on these bows not for performance but just because of the intimidating look...

He also made a very racist comment that you could always find something wrong with anything a chinaman makes. the ignorance of people in those days just makes me want to puke!!! :roll:

Chiness has now good answer. 70 % of all thinks from pencil to TV or comp sell in over the world are from China :lol

Thanks for your comment Redhawk, and JJ, that?s right finer fibres would be better, but I?ll try to mix with deer leg sinew next time.

Hi, Peter, I?m a little surprised to meet you here, you should know much more about Qing bow than me, I just want to contact you to ask some questions about average sizes, thickness and physical weight, I do not have a good ancient sample to copy, this is your email? [email protected]

To scemdonmez, bending section horn 5-5.5mm, wood 4mm, sinew 3.5mm

By the way, the judge for Chinese is not unreasonable today, too many fakes.

Mike McKinney wrote:

Jos?Dom wrote:

The profile of the Qing/Manchu bow is quite unique. People complain these bows are slow and cumbersome compared to the other hornbow design but I really like the curves and long siyahs of these bows.
It's interesting what the famous archer Saxton Pope wrote about them on his book "a study of bows and arrows", he had high expectations but ended very dissapointed after his tests. He concluded that Chinese people relied on these bows not for performance but just because of the intimidating look...

He also made a very racist comment that you could always find something wrong with anything a chinaman makes. the ignorance of people in those days just makes me want to puke!!! :roll:

Really? I don?t remember that comment, I need to find the book and read it again.
Well, not surprised, among some people ignorance is still present nowadays...

wencheh wrote:

I just want to contact you to ask some questions about average sizes, thickness and physical weight, I do not have a good ancient sample to copy, this is your email?

All the more impressive that you have been able to make such a fine example without having an antique to copy!

I'd be happy to exchange information with you, I'm also very interested in learning more about the construction process.

I can indeed be reached through the site you mentioned or "dekkerpeter" at gmail.

-Peter[/quote]

That's a great looking bow with a nice shape to it. Thanks for sharing these pictures.

..when I use cattle tendons for backing (sinewing), it will split lengthwise on the limb, how do you prevent this, deer leg sinews do not have this problem.

Maybe it's because cattle sinew tends to be greasier than that of wild animals.Specially if they never move around. I used acetone to removed all grease from the my domestic cow's (ox) sinew. I also read somewhere that Chinese bowyers used to spit on the sinew when preparing it (don't know how it could have a positive effect, but you never know - maybe enzymes...)