goat horn-any good for hornbows

Hello Zora,

I don?t know about goats horn, but the American Indians made bows from mountain sheep horns. It is quite a task to get these spirals flat (I did it once), but the horn is as good as any other. I recommend you try it to find out;-)

Mongolian bowyers use Ibex horn. Ibex belong to the capra family (goats). It seems to work.

I have two Ibex horns, but here they are so expensive, I hesitated making bows from them for now.... I think in Mongolia they must be cheaper.

JJ

thanks jj,
in my country there are sheep and goats. so i thought that goat are more suitable, since they have more straight horns. i will give it a try

i would ask a moderator to move this topic on right place to be, i have opened it on technique by accident

Zora,

I think that sheep horn maybe is more suitable for bowmaking, because it is more massive (or it seems to me).

JJ

Hi everyone,
Actually there is a very interesting article on the subject availabe online you may really like to read:
?Sheep Horn As a Material in Composite Bow Making?

thanks ashbow, i have read this article and it's interesting , but i think that goat horn might be more suitable than sheep for me (a beginner), because sheep horn is heavily twisted and as it is said quite often that horn remembers everything and will try to go back to it's original position. that might cause limb twist, which i would like to avoid (since reflexed bows are also prone to limb twisting→at least that's what i have read about)

Apologize zora, I read the topic's subject incorrectly :oops: and thoguht that sheep not goat horn is what you are after.

Goat and sheep horn are probably very similar in strength and elasticity. I thought of using Merino sheep horn myself, even better would be a barbados sheep (being longer). At this point though i haven't found a good cheap source for either, even though there are probably thousands of them.

I think that among the more inland tribes of horn bow people, the sheep and goat horns were probably more often used earlier on. It is easier to bread large numbers of sheep and goats than it is to bread cattle. The fecundity of Goats is almost proverbial, and sheep are notoriously proliphic breeders. Food for them is also easier to obtain for they can graze on much more diverse foilage, especially goats. Thus they would seem to me to be a more reliabel source of horn.

Considering that Mongols in particular were herdmen of goats and perhaps sheep, they must have had an abundance of them. They had cattle also but not as many. I am not certain but I think the Turks also raised many sheep and goats.

More experimentation is in order here, for I think that we could create a better supply of horn if we looked in this direction. Australia and New Zealand are famous for obscenely large sheep herds. And wool production globally must also provide a large horn supply. Someone needs to research the market for these horns if our interest in horn bows becomes more popular. Demand may outpace supply of horn.

As far as I know, here in Australia, sheep and goat horns are not used commercially for anything and are probably discarded. I have seen very large goat horns, but I am not sure that the species here are suitable for bow making. The horns have multiple curves and some large horns have a twisted, wavy profile.

Most of the goats and sheep raised in Mongolia have relatively small horns. However, wild caprines (sheep and goat relatives) exist and were hunted. Elsewhere on this site you will see pictures of animals with large horns curving in a single direction. I have seen film of a Mongol bowyer hacking off the large knobs on these bows to make a belly lamination. Aside from raising the five animals (horses, sheep, goats, cattle and camels), pastoral nomads hunted and traded so they had many possible sources of horn.

I have use Mouflon successfully. Make the belly out of two long pieces and work the bends against eachother. This will neutralize the twist.

Jack, that?s really right, I?ve used moufflon 2 times for hornbows. I love to work it. But as you stated, take one pair from one moufflon for to make the string crossing the grip of your bow.
The chance to get sheep horns for lower prices is rising, cause many shepherds have realized that they have to cross in the ancient breeds again. Many sheeps are suffering from different diseases, caused by breeding them for wool and meat only.
The upcoming spring my wife will get 2 or 3 sheeps from Austria, it is an ancient small race, with big horns, originated from the mountains of Croatia.
We want them for wool and milk, no bows?

Michael

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A bow that I made once from American mountain sheep horn. Worked well but was a lot of trouble to get the strips straight. The beauty of the horn was exceptional.

On the availability of wild goat and sheep horn in central asia I recommend Dusan?s thread here http://atarn.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1554.

JJ

JJ, I think I?ve seen this bow somewhere during a tournament, maybe in Engen, some years ago? I guess it is done without a core in the Native american style
I?ll add a pic of one of my moufflon- horn bows, the other one is buried with his owner.
I agree, to straighten a sheephorn- slat is a delicious job, to be honest:it is an almost totally enerving job, but it works.
The look of these bows is great, their smooth draw too.
So I guess, Germany is now the country of the sheep-horn bowyers?

Nice Native American horn bows guys.

I love mine. It is the only horn bow which an idiot cannot break. I once pulled it so far that the string came off. Was very painful to my wrist but no harm to the bow. draws #59 at 21".

thank you all for your input, i think i will try goat horn. at the moment this seems to be the best solution for me

Zora,
Please, could you tell me where can you find long goat horn there in Croatia?
Also, is this suitable for larger hornbow replica? Did you already find it?
Regards,
Zoran

it can be found by goat breeders (probably the best way to find em in serbia also), only male goat horn are long enough. can't say if they are good for larger replicas, because i don't know what size of the horn do you need. these biggest are cca 50cm long.

50cm, it could be pretty good for some replicas that i need to do. I hope to find some goat breeder here in Serbia.Anyway, thank you for replay and information.Cheers!

would like to be able to help more,
?iv bio i sretno!