Moshcheveya Balka Bow
Below is a photograph of my fifth composite bow. It is based on one of the circa 8th century bows found at the Moshcheveya Balka site in the northern Caucasus, Russia, (the bow kept in the St. Petersburg Hermitage). It is fairly close in dimensions and angles to the original, although the limbs are thinner.
The bow is about 49 inches between the inner nocks and about 1.5 inches wide mid-limb. It has an ash core, cherry siyahs with "bone" plates made from holly. (The original has a core made from a single piece of cornel wood).
With the difficulty I had with the initial bending of limbs and stringing I was expected the bow to be quite heavy. But with the leverage of the long siyahs the draw weight came out at a lightweight 37lb at 27 inches. I am intending to put another layer of sinew on the back. As well as increasing the draw weight, it will enable me to stiffen up the inner limbs a bit.
Regards
Andrew
The bow is about 49 inches between the inner nocks and about 1.5 inches wide mid-limb. It has an ash core, cherry siyahs with "bone" plates made from holly. (The original has a core made from a single piece of cornel wood).
With the difficulty I had with the initial bending of limbs and stringing I was expected the bow to be quite heavy. But with the leverage of the long siyahs the draw weight came out at a lightweight 37lb at 27 inches. I am intending to put another layer of sinew on the back. As well as increasing the draw weight, it will enable me to stiffen up the inner limbs a bit.
Regards
Andrew
The bow in action. The arrow was patterned after one found at the Moshcheveya Balka site.
Andrew; Very nice bow with good curves. I noticed the arrow in the last post, the one with blue paint as on the origional.
Do you find that the sayahs want to lean over in an unstable manner? Did you say that you made the core as origional? Thanks.
Do you find that the sayahs want to lean over in an unstable manner? Did you say that you made the core as origional? Thanks.
The picture of the drawn bow looks exactly like those shown in many of the old chronicles.
Without the leverage provided by the siyahs, what would you expect the draw weight to be?
Without the leverage provided by the siyahs, what would you expect the draw weight to be?
Hello, I want to make one of these too.
What is the thickness of the core you have used and the lenght of the syahs?
Thanks!
Jaroslav
What is the thickness of the core you have used and the lenght of the syahs?
Thanks!
Jaroslav
Another thing: the siyahs are angled away from the bending portion when at rest. So, when the string is released and the arms pull forward, what is the effect of the siyahs in propelling the string/arrow?
Jack, It is not that visible in the photo, but the bow has a slight hinge on a narrow section of the inner limb next to the grip on the left limb in the photo. It is not obvious as it tends to cancel out the increased grip/limb reflex on that limb (the original was slightly asymmetric in grip/limb angles). I hope to be able to stiffen this section with more sinew as it worries me.
Most of the documented arrows were painted red, some with a blue/green band. Mostly birch, heavily barrelled and quite stiff.
As long as I do not introduce any twist in stringing, I have not noticed the siyahs leaning over. I have left it strung for a couple of days without problems.
I did not make the core as per the original. This was reportedly in one piece - no splices are visible on the belly where most of the horn is missing. I was not sure how I could bend the core into the quite sharp angles at the base of the siyahs, so spliced in separate siyahs. The core is steam bent into a curve at the grip and an additional riser piece added to fill it out (this may match the original).
MJuingong, When I gently flexed the limbs before I strung the bow, it felt quite stiff compared to my previous bows, so I was expecting it to be in the 60+lb range.
When I was initially trying to string the bow, it was too reflexed to be able to bend the bow by pulling from the tips of the siyahs. I had to try to bend the bow pulling from the base of the siyahs, and I had difficulty in bending it to brace position. I assume that the bow has loosened up with exercise - not something I had noticed with my previous bows.
For the effect of the siyahs on the arrow, B.W. Kooi has done some mathematical analysis of various bow designs in "Functioning of ears and set-back at grip
of Asiatic bows", Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquities, 1996, pp73-77. This is available to download from http://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/users/kooi/#soaa . He has a number of other articles which may be of interest.
Jaroslav, The core is of the order of 1/8" thick mid limb. Lengths - grip (to ends of bindings) 6", limbs 14", siyahs 10" with nocks at just under 8 and a little over 8.5" from the knee.
Regards
Andrew
Most of the documented arrows were painted red, some with a blue/green band. Mostly birch, heavily barrelled and quite stiff.
As long as I do not introduce any twist in stringing, I have not noticed the siyahs leaning over. I have left it strung for a couple of days without problems.
I did not make the core as per the original. This was reportedly in one piece - no splices are visible on the belly where most of the horn is missing. I was not sure how I could bend the core into the quite sharp angles at the base of the siyahs, so spliced in separate siyahs. The core is steam bent into a curve at the grip and an additional riser piece added to fill it out (this may match the original).
MJuingong, When I gently flexed the limbs before I strung the bow, it felt quite stiff compared to my previous bows, so I was expecting it to be in the 60+lb range.
When I was initially trying to string the bow, it was too reflexed to be able to bend the bow by pulling from the tips of the siyahs. I had to try to bend the bow pulling from the base of the siyahs, and I had difficulty in bending it to brace position. I assume that the bow has loosened up with exercise - not something I had noticed with my previous bows.
For the effect of the siyahs on the arrow, B.W. Kooi has done some mathematical analysis of various bow designs in "Functioning of ears and set-back at grip
of Asiatic bows", Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquities, 1996, pp73-77. This is available to download from http://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/users/kooi/#soaa . He has a number of other articles which may be of interest.
Jaroslav, The core is of the order of 1/8" thick mid limb. Lengths - grip (to ends of bindings) 6", limbs 14", siyahs 10" with nocks at just under 8 and a little over 8.5" from the knee.
Regards
Andrew
Thanks Andrew!
Andrew
I just admired your Moshcheveya Balka reconstruction.
It's really a very nice one.
Boneplates from holly--isn't holly a kind of palm tree?
Salaam
I just admired your Moshcheveya Balka reconstruction.
It's really a very nice one.
Boneplates from holly--isn't holly a kind of palm tree?
Salaam
This bow is very well done. I have been looking for examples of it and am so glad to see this one.
Did the originals have horn on the belly or antler splices?
Well done! Is the material for the siyahs wood- probably it is, but the pic. could even say its bone.
Thanks for the complements.
Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is evergreen shrub or tree, fairly common in the UK. It has a hard and dense wood. I picked it for it's white colouring, which I hoped would look like bone from a distance.
Thimosabv, the original bow had cow horn on the belly, mostly nibbled off by rodents.
Regards
Andrew
Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is evergreen shrub or tree, fairly common in the UK. It has a hard and dense wood. I picked it for it's white colouring, which I hoped would look like bone from a distance.
Thimosabv, the original bow had cow horn on the belly, mostly nibbled off by rodents.
Regards
Andrew
Nice bow, Andrew! Were you able to obtain detailed measurements of the original? The reason I'm asking is that I've been looking for more information on this bow for some time but have not yet been able to find any useful publication.
Tomaz,
The most recent source for information on the bow is my article in the Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries (A.F.Hall, "Some Well Preserved Composite Bows", JSA-A 48, 2005. I have promised Stephen Selby that I will repurpose the article for ATARN, but here is the section with the measurements (data from archaeological reports - I have not measured the original):
The complete bow in the St. Petersburg Hermitage collection (catalogue number Kz 6730) is 53.1 in. long. The end of one siyah is missing and 7.6 in. remains, the other is 9.75 in. long and has an unusual double nock. The bases of the siyahs have a triangular cross-section, which is worked from the sides so that the side plates touch at the tips. Unlike the Gogops bow, the antler side plates are shaped so that they do not overlap the wooden core. The core is cornel wood and made in one piece.
The limbs are about 14.4 in. long, 1.4-1.5 in. wide and segment shaped. The grip is 5.2 in. long and 1-1.2 in. wide and reinforced by a pair of bone plates. The horn belly plates from the limbs meet in the handle.
The original source information is from:
E. A. Milovanov and A. A. Ierusalimskaja ?Bow from Moshchevaya Balka [Luk iz Moshchevoj Balki]?, Communication of The State Hermitage [Soobshchenija Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha], XLI, 1976, pp. 40-43. [Russian]
Anna A. Ierusalimskaja The Graves of Moshcheveya Balka [Die Gr?ber der Moscevaja Balka], Editio Maris, Munich, 1996. [German]
There is also a photograph of the bow taken from the belly in Nicolle and Turner, ?Armies of the Caliphates?, page 20.
A photograph of the original bow and bowcase can be seen on the Harvard web site http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~cla ... rce/3.html .
There is more discussion of the MB finds in:
V. N. Kaminsky ?On the Construction of the Bows and Arrows of the North-Caucasian Alans [O konstrukcii luka i stel' severokavkazskich alanov]?, Brief Communications of the Institute of Archaeology of the AS USSR (Moscow) [Kratkie soobshchenija. Institut archeologii AN SSSR (Moskva)], Issue 170, 1982, pp. 48-51. [Russian] See http://arc.novgorod.ru/asgard/libri.php3?cont=_bows
Regards
Andrew
The most recent source for information on the bow is my article in the Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries (A.F.Hall, "Some Well Preserved Composite Bows", JSA-A 48, 2005. I have promised Stephen Selby that I will repurpose the article for ATARN, but here is the section with the measurements (data from archaeological reports - I have not measured the original):
The complete bow in the St. Petersburg Hermitage collection (catalogue number Kz 6730) is 53.1 in. long. The end of one siyah is missing and 7.6 in. remains, the other is 9.75 in. long and has an unusual double nock. The bases of the siyahs have a triangular cross-section, which is worked from the sides so that the side plates touch at the tips. Unlike the Gogops bow, the antler side plates are shaped so that they do not overlap the wooden core. The core is cornel wood and made in one piece.
The limbs are about 14.4 in. long, 1.4-1.5 in. wide and segment shaped. The grip is 5.2 in. long and 1-1.2 in. wide and reinforced by a pair of bone plates. The horn belly plates from the limbs meet in the handle.
The original source information is from:
E. A. Milovanov and A. A. Ierusalimskaja ?Bow from Moshchevaya Balka [Luk iz Moshchevoj Balki]?, Communication of The State Hermitage [Soobshchenija Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha], XLI, 1976, pp. 40-43. [Russian]
Anna A. Ierusalimskaja The Graves of Moshcheveya Balka [Die Gr?ber der Moscevaja Balka], Editio Maris, Munich, 1996. [German]
There is also a photograph of the bow taken from the belly in Nicolle and Turner, ?Armies of the Caliphates?, page 20.
A photograph of the original bow and bowcase can be seen on the Harvard web site http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~cla ... rce/3.html .
There is more discussion of the MB finds in:
V. N. Kaminsky ?On the Construction of the Bows and Arrows of the North-Caucasian Alans [O konstrukcii luka i stel' severokavkazskich alanov]?, Brief Communications of the Institute of Archaeology of the AS USSR (Moscow) [Kratkie soobshchenija. Institut archeologii AN SSSR (Moskva)], Issue 170, 1982, pp. 48-51. [Russian] See http://arc.novgorod.ru/asgard/libri.php3?cont=_bows
Regards
Andrew
Andrew thankyou so much for this extra info. Bloody good stuff that I doubt I would have been able to find on my own.
Same here, Andrew. Thanks for all the good information. I will be on the lookout for those articles.