Lilac or (Syringa vulgaris ) for bow ( for siyahs)

Lilac is one of the best woods there is. It's fine for siyahs too.
It is frequently more dense than Osage. Many have said that if it grew to larger size and wasn't generally twisted they would probably only use it.

Hi, lilac is much to heavy for this purpose. Look out for a grown siyah of wild cherry, maple.....there are lots of siyahs growing...............

Michael

ok. But i have unlimited Lilac growing here. But if I used it only in (wood + sinew ) combination?

It is HEAVY.

It is possible to find suitable pieces for ears that do not require bending, it has frequently heavy so heavy curves. Finding 2 with similar is harder tough.

I do not know if it can be boiled and bent or not.

Vonegelut,
as Patrick said is lilac one of the best (rather unknown) woods we have, but
fine for selfbows,not for syiahs.I agree with redhawk it?s simply to heavy!
What kind of syiahs are you planning to make? I used to do a lot of steambending but I had trouble with re-bending syiahs when the wood
became to thin. Stefan

The weight of the material is of no consequence. You end up using less material for the same strength when choosing lilac over another wood.
This is just basic bowbuilding.
They got away with bone for siyahs so ANY wood can be used.

Bone plates were used for to avoid sidewards bending or twisting.
If siyahs are to narrow they could much more bend sidewards, a certain amount of width makes them stable.
The weight of the siyah is the big problem of any kind of hornbow, cause it is decreasing performance.
A closer look at the evolution of hornbows is telling us that siyahs have become shorter and less wide, finally the Ottomans solved the problem.
Michael

But in practice the siyah does not want to bend sideways if the bow itself is constructed with any degree of stability.
I have used "blade" siyahs on many bows and reduced them as the bow was trained to bend without twisting.
You can also T the cross section a bit to provide lateral stability.
You'll never make them invisible.
Is the Ottoman warbow really superior to a Mongol or Hun bow?

Patrick, you?re right, but anyway that?s a very delicious job and I know how often I?ve failed when having reduced the width of a siyah for getting some more f/s.
According to my knowledge Ottoman bows are outperforming any other kind of hornbow by far. I estimate the Ottoman bow to be one of the greatest bow- designs ever.
Michael

But as a warbow was it really better? We're seeing plenty of Ottoman style bows made on here and none of them are shooting any better than a piece of wood.

I?m speaking of flight- bows, I?m not to much interested in warbows.
Some years ago the hornbow in general was my favourite type of bow, but as soon as I?ve discovered the things some members of the PALEOPLANET told me what to do with a simple piece of wood I left hornbows very quick.
A clever done selfbow will easily outperform almost any hornbow, well done a selfbow is such an easy natural way to do a great performing bow. Hornbows are usually to much sophisticated and much more a painting job than a great performing bow.
But the Ottoman flightbow is really a masterpiece of bowery. Very well thought over and hard to outperform.
Michael

Patrick Menzies wrote:

But as a warbow was it really better? We're seeing plenty of Ottoman style bows made on here and none of them are shooting any better than a piece of wood.

Did you tested them?

Obviously not but people making them are being open about the results they are getting.

Patrick Menzies wrote:

We're seeing plenty of Ottoman style bows made on here and none of them are shooting any better than a piece of wood.

I bet most of them are superrior compared with wooden bows with equal length. Which of them are superrior from wooden bows with unlimited length is something less certain without testing.

I would say that most of people who have managed to make working bows have not made very many or did not even try to make superior performer, since making a working horn bow is huge effort.

Adam writes in his book, that it takes only 10x the effort. I would say that that it is highly optimistic assumtion without understanding how easy it is to make a wooden bow.

This funny question was here many times repeat.All of us who can make hornbow, was only in start line.I say long time ago here,time when each new hornbow Atarnets praised ended. Its about who makes at least some good bow like the Ottomans ...

Hi Raf, I bet almost any wood will do the job. some accept glue more readily than others, some are historically exact. if you are clever you can use naturally grown forms to save time and work. most important is no knots in bending section. "hornbow" is more about horn, sinew and - glue. you'll see how much difference a sinew backing can make.
8) good luck !