ATARNarchive

Indian Steel and Bronze/Brass Bows

9 posts2012live thread
mongolianarcher
Has anybody in the asian archery industry ever succeeded in making mughal metal bows such as those mentioned in Kay Koppedrayer's article in ATARN? I don't think Jaap has really done anything with it.
Zack
There is one right now on eBay.
Cheap too.
Bede
I have an old one. They are really different from the twentieth century steel bows. The limbs are very flat and the siyahs are reduced in size.

I saw a bronze bow that Jaap made. I didn't shoot it, but he said it worked well, but not comparably to a normal bow. It was very heavy in the hand.
mongolianarcher
And by normal bow you mean a horn bow?
Bede
I think Jaap was referring to any recurve or wooden bow. I found my steel bow quite pleasant to shoot, but I always used comparatively heavy arrows. The draw was short and the bow was heavy in the hand, but the release was smooth.
suomialex
This is my firs post, but I go straight to the point.

Bede,

Since first time I heard about bronze bow I have had a certain urge to make one. Problem is that there's not much information available about them. At least not for me. You have one and I crave for information. Pictures, dimensions everything... If you could find time to provide me with these you would have my endless gratitude.

With kind regards,

Alex Suomi
Bede
Sorry Alex,
I have a steel bow. Jaap Koppedrayer has made the bronze one. You could contact him through http://www.yumi-bows.com/
suomialex
Thanks Bede I will look in to it.

I don?t write here a lot but follow the discussions here with great interest and appreciate your views and knowledge.

I?m a sculptor with bronze my main material and have been discussing about the bronze bow with my senior colleague at the foundry I work in. He had said that it should be possible but we have to play around little bit with different alloys. Shape and dimensions are also very important but those are impossible to find on the internet. As I see it I?m in front of extensive studies before even starting to cast testing peaces.

-Alex
jack farrell
Alex; The shape of the cross section of a steel Indopersian bow is very shallow lenticular about 3 by 36 mm mid limb by my measurement.

I guess a rockwell test of hardness could determine the temper if this were to be allowed, which it is not.

Bronze would have similar problems.

I have always wondered about the references to metal bows in the Old Testament.