Ottoman Turkish Bow, 128cm ntn, 60lbs@30"

Moinsen Arry,

finally you came :). And for the gods sake the bow will be shorter than initially planed. The dimensions look fine to me. Still it is possible to increase the length of the kassan by about 2 cm and the tip to 7 cm. The grip doesn't have to be that thick. 34 mm is sufficient. Also the Tip/Kassan bend can be made thinner (ca. 2 mm) The bow should come out at about 45-55 lbs @ 28 inch(!). I calculated 51,5. At 31'' it will be about 7-8 lbs more, so all together maybe 53-63 lbs at your draw. There'll probably be no stacking at 31 inch :).

regards Kevin

Yes, the dimensions look OK. I usually overshoot the sal thickness by a mm to adjust. I agree with Kevin the thickness of kasan/sal can be less. For a light weight bow 16mm is plenty and the width of the tip can be 8mm (or even less).

Adam

I think it would be better to reduce the width to save mass: 26mm at the beginning of sal to 18mm at the end of kasan...even less,considering the low draw weight.

Francesco

Kevin, Adam, Francesco - many thanks. I will submit slimmed-down proportions shortly. However, with all these reductions, I am starting to be concerned about stability. It is, after all, my first try.

@Francesco

for sure you are right considering speed and efficiency of the bow and looking at your bows I think you'll have no problem of building such a narrow bow :). But for someone building his first ottoman bow, I think it is best to start with somewhat wider but shorter limbs for a light weight bow. And maybe to start with a more narrow version during the drying times :).

regards Kevin

Second try. Changes are marked by bold numbers.

Even though it may reduce efficiency I would leave the kassan/tip at 18 mm width and also increase the width of the kassan itself to about 25 mm. Both for stability reasons. The rest seems ok to me :).

regards und viele Gr??e Kevin

Kevin, thanks. I have a question re your input, sent it via pm. This may result in more changes. Until then, this is the state of play. Also, I have deducted the measures of the naked wooden core by subtracting the sinew and horn layers. Do these look ok to you guys?

-Edit-: Kassan strengthened following Kevin's advice.

Attached is the latest update of the dimensions. I tried to conclude the dimensions of the wooden core from the exterior dimensions.

Also, preparations have progressed somewhat: Tepliks and a form for bending the arms, designed using the measurements that you were so friendly to confirm.

And finished:

Hi Arry,

the radius from Kasan to Tip looks too small, except you have green wood. Dry wood over about 5-7mm thick, will splinter or even break there.

Is there any sense why the Tepliks have recurve?

Peter

Hi Kyudohund,

thanks for your remarks!

Adam recommends in his book a small radius for the part between kassan and tip so the string won't touch the kassan when strung.
And yes, I am hoping to bend some green maple wood into this radius. But it is good to know that kiln-dried maple might splinter or break if bend like this.

These are my very first tepliks, so just as everything else I do, they are a bit experimental :) I thought they might be easier to tie to the sal if they are formed like this.

Please let me know if anything that I have planned so far seems strange to you.

Best,
Arry

Following Kyudohund's remark, the (hopefully) improved tepliks. Tepliks v.2.0, so to speak ^^

Hi Arry,

Tepliks now look pretty good. Will you put felt on the section where Sal is bend over?

Good success
Peter

Kyudohund, I hear and understand ^^
Thanks. There will be felt on the tepliks.

I did the bending today, supported by a cafeteria where I was able to cook the wood. The outcome seems ok to me, although a part of the sal section did not quite bend towards the form.

Looking good :)

Is there anything strange on tip-kasan crossing point ?

That looks great Arry. There should be very little or no springback if the wood was green.

Adam

Thank you all!

Yes, the wood was green.

At the bend between Kassan and tip, the wood has been weakend on the inside to prevent it from splinting. This is something Adam recommends in his book.

Got a bit nervous about the wood, though. Some tiny grains/twig dots appear bigger to me after the wood has been cooked and bent. Will these pose a problem?

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By arry_ at 2012-07-31

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By arry_ at 2012-07-31

The shape of (hopefully!) things to come :)

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:o you're fast + accurate.

I think you know so just in case: the horn orientation in your pictures is wrong: it's tips butt-joined at the grip

Uli wrote:

:o you're fast + accurate.

I think you know so just in case: the horn orientation in your pictures is wrong: it's tips butt-joined at the grip

Thank you, and roger that! I was a bit negligent/lazy when arranging the horn strips :))

While planning and constructing the bow, I seem to have made some progress regarding draw weight. Recently, I had the occasion to draw a 58lbs bow and found it quite comfortable. Therefore, I would like to increase the draw weight of this project to around 60lbs, which makes changes in the dimensions necessary. Would these dimensions be all right?
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Question regarding a later stage of construction: Would goat's leather be all right for covering the sinewed parts of the bow? Of all the leathers that I have seen on offer so far, it is the thinnest available.

reindeer leather is cheap and thin

but - i think raw hide is better and more authentic

Arry
I recently prepared two goatling skins for bow covers. thick after drying is 0.4, even 0.3 mm. I've never used a rawhide, hope to cope with covering of sinew layer.

Is raw hide really more authentic? Adam Karpowicz writes about thin horse leather being used for historic bows.

In the mean time, I tinkered some more regarding the dimensions, approximating measurements in Adam's book (p.43). What do you guys think, especially about the horn thickness?

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Thinning the horn could be good idea for decreasing the draw weight and usability.

About leather covering there are something written at telhis (Mustafa Kani Bey-1836) :
For basic version the bow, covered by horse leather from neck and shoulder area. This kind of leather is thinner.
For danedar (I could not find the correct english word) version the bow, covered by the leather between waist to tail area. This kind of leather is quite thick. For this reason the leather should be refine.

The reason to use the horse leather is its elasticity. The other kind of leathers are more flat and soft but there are not elastic as much as the horse leather. If the leather is not elastic enough, the covering leather could tear.

Hello Nokyay :)
I would prefer using thin horse leather, but have not found any so far. Apparently, there are not many horse hides around these days (another symptom: shoes made from horse leather are very expensive).
If somebody would happen to have some thin, elastic and suitable horse leather on sale, I would appreciate an offer via PM.

The project has moved rather sideways for a while, not forward.

I tried to laminate some extra wood to the tips and used two-component-glue for it, counting on its void-filling quality. When I heated the tips so the glue would harden faster and better, this had the unwelcome effect of reducing some of the reflex of the bow, and in an unbalanced way, too.

So I removed the additions at the tips and steamed and bent the arms again, with both of them still attached to the grip. In consequence, I had a core that had the right reflex, but was slightly twisted. Heating the core with a hot-air-gun and twisting it in the opposite direction, I managed to remove this twist.

The lesson that I draw from all this is: The bending form should lie flat on a table instead of standing upright. Putting the form down flat and fixing it to the table surface allows one to take the lath/bow, insert it into the form and then bend it while maintaining contact with the table surface. Then one can be sure that there is no torsion in the bend. If the form is standing upright, there will be slight aberrations to the left or the right, which, when combined, can result in quite a twist in the core.

Yesterday, I grooved the core and the horn. The grooves in the wood are pretty straight, but not quite as perfectly straight as I would like them to be - without me noticing it, the awl, and later, more visibly, the scraper suffered a deviation at the tip of one of the splices which was surprisingly hard to overcome.

Also, some fissures at the sides of the horn strip have reduced the useable width of the strip. Because of this, the bow could become one of 126cm ntn length and barely 3,2cm width in the bending section, including the sinew layer. So I worry about stability. Any advice on this would be welcome.

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Well, currently the horn strips and the core are being covered in thin layers of a mixture of hide glue and sturgeon bladder glue:
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Depending on the light, these brighter stripes can be seen in the horn strips:
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What do you think - are these pockets of air or just some structure in the horn that reflects the light?

Glue-up of the first horn strip. The room was not as warm as I would have liked it to be, but that could not to be helped. Horn and wood had some 45?C, glue some 60?C. It was still fluid at the last clamp, but gelled in a few minutes where it was pressed out from the joint.

Question: How long should the clamps stay on? Come on guys, I could use some comments here.

Cheers,
Arry


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What do you think - are these pockets of air or just some structure in the horn that reflects the light?[/quote]



Hi Arry!
I like the grooving job you made on core & horn.
I had the same coloration change on one strip of horn & it became evident just after grooving. Unfortunately for me this place were just in kasan eye area so it developed 2 cracks.
Anyway I hope your horn will survive!

Thanks Vonegelut!
That would be bad news - both horn strips have color changes in the future kassan eye area...

Arry wrote:

Thanks Vonegelut!
That would be bad news - both horn strips have color changes in the future kassan eye area...

Arry mine cracked during the glueining process & probably wasn't heated well over the heating element. The horn cracked but the core is right. I took off the horn & start all again. Anyway, never give up man!

nice grooves and good core.
well I think these are airbubbles and you could have coated the hornstrips a litte more (though its difficult to judge from photos) - how many coats of glue did you apply (thin glue I guess ?)
a greyish discoloration can be from too much stress but you havent put the horn under stress yet.
otherwise horn itself can have yellow-white stripes of color. personally I think the white horn is softer than the black one, but its not technically proven.
:wink:

Hi Arry, nice work. I usually leave the clamps on for 3-4 days.
I would use 0,5-0,75 mm more sinew and less wood.
Francesco

Uli, sorry for the quality of the pictures. Had just the smartphone on me. The thin glue was about 15%, 5 coatings which I thought covered the horn well because of the sturgeon bladder glue. And boy do I hope you are wrong ;)

Thank you Francesco!

Glued the second horn strip yesterday. Next steps: Celik and shaping the core.

More bad news for you (just to give you confindence with your bow :wink: ): 15% glue is too thick for coating horn, I generally use 2,5-5% glue for this process. Well, I hope everything turns out nicely.
Francesco

Many coats of very thin glue - that would be the Korean method?
Do you use hide glue exclusively or a mixture with sturgeon bladder glue?

both is possible
I like the fish glue for the sinewing because it gels slowly so you can arrange the sinew for some time.
..and of course the fish glue looks nicely transparent :)

I use 2/3 hide glue and 1/3 fish skin glue (to slow down the gelling). The hide glue I have gels very quickly: the Bloom strength is not given, I think it's around 300.

Thanks Uli and Francesco for your advice!

Well this is the state of play:
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At one place, the glue line seems awfully thick:
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This is close to the kassan eye, unfortunately. Not sure whether this is just an optical impression due to the fact that the horn strips already have an unwitting breadth taper - or whether the pressure when clamping was not high enough here...
I tried to heat this part selectively with a heat gun in the hope of re-liquefying the glue and clenching the part again, but the glue was totally unimpressed by my efforts.

I suspect that the thick glueline is just where a groove tapers out. I wouldn't worry about it too much yet. When you reduce the core you will see the true state of play.
Cross your fingers regarding the horn glue-up! You may be ok at 15 % but personally I prefer many thin coats. I normally do about 20 or so until the surface is glossy.
I also have had problem with getting horn that is wide enough. You should be ok with the width that you have. My first bow from memory was 29 mm wide when finished. So again don't worry too much about it. What is really very important is complete accuracy regarding reducing the core. The closer you are to perfectly straight and square the better when it comes to tillering.
Good luck.

agreed 8)

Thanks Mike and Uli!

So I started shaping the core. I thought I had a decent understanding of the form, yet at the moment of actually using the rasp on the core, I had to think hard of how the transitions Kasan-Bash and Kabza-Sal should look. So there is some more work to be done. But all in all, it was great just to see the bow emerge from the clumsy wood. Just holding the reduced grip in the hand felt hugely motivating :D
Anyway, here a few pics:
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:)
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Fine progress so far. Is that a piece of bone or is it ivory?

Hi Bj?rn, thanks! Yes, it's bone. Camel bone from Dictum.

I'm worried about the following things, though:
Glueline
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Horn flaking I
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Horn flaking II
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Opinions welcome! I'll finish the bow anyway (ie, put the sinew on it) since I learn so much doing it.

I think it will be fine. Depending a little on what weight you are aming for, you could probably scrape away a lot of those cracks in the horn. The Nr.2 ones seem a little worse than the first. I would not worry about the first.

The glue line could also be fine. I use some very thin super glue like the red labeled "hot stuff", to "test" the glue line. The glue has no surface tension and flows very easily into any cracks. If it does not run into what looks like a crack, it is probably ok. You could in fact also fill some of the cracks in the horn with this glue, with a little luck. As long as the air escapes, glue runs in. http://www.caglue.com/

Thanks Kviljo, an interesting tip! I'll give it a try with a similar super-glue. Or do you think it has to be exactly the same that you recommend?
Edit: Someone recommended a thin, slow-drying epoxy. Do you think it would work, too?

I did alot of tinkering lately and found that various epoxy glues are too thick to fill small cracks like what you have. Superglue is the best stuff for that job. If there is a crack, it will seep in.

Would even this here be too thick?
https://shop1.r-g.de/4DCGI/ezshop?actio ... T=72299601

I would assume that most epoxys are way too thick to do the trick with small cracks. The glue I suggest is really thinner than water, and behaves really exceptionally. I have not found similar ones, although I have not tried all superglue brands. :) They actually suggest to hold broken pieces together and then put a drop of glue on the outside of the crack, so that it will seep in. I really like it, as it has saved a lot of bows for me.

Cool, they even have a distributor in Germany.

Got the superglue recommended by Kvilio and applied it. The glue really flows and crawls into the smallest fissures. But apparently, the places where I applied it have no such openings/fissures, since they look the same - apart from a superglue coating :?

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It looks quite good Arry, congratulations!

How can you estimate draw weight as 60 lbs at 30" ?

Hi Nokyay,
good to hear from you! Thanks! So far, the bow does not have its final dimensions yet. So it will be a bit thinner here and there for the estimated 60lbs.
Arry

Well, some progress. I shaped the core to its final dimensions. My big thanks here to Cem D?nmez who jotted down an excellent set of measurements for this bow during a lunch in Dresden - incredible!
Here some impressions of the shaping:
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Hope this is of interest. If you have any comments - shoot!
Cheers
Jarek

Ah, and a question: The tips are only 15mm thick (back to belly). What do you think: Should I reinforce them or rely on the fact that the bow will not be terribly strong?

They may well be thick enough plus 1 mm or so of sinew but it's better safe than sorry! I'd glue a 2 mm thick wedge onto the front of the tips. Afterall you can always reduce it from the back of the tips once sinewed.

maybe use some sinew binding under the nocks like in the original bows

thumbs up ! and good luck
:D

agree with Uli. should be enough.

Peter

Guys, your advice came too late. I reinforced the tips :)

Also, my first experience with sinewing! I'd say it went so-so. It was incredible how the sinew fibres become smooth and flowing once they are submerged in hide glue. But when I combed and flattened these bundles, it was not possible to me to lift the flat bundle up and keep it this way. As soon as I had it in my hands, it became much narrower and thicker.
So the sinew layer got much thicker than I had anticipated.

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Sinew and glue shrinks tremendously when it dries. Getting your sinew laid neatly takes practice but you can greatly tidy the job by wrapping the bow with thin cotton strips and re-warming the matrix with a hairdryer.
A lot of glue will ooze out and the whole matrix can be shaped by running the fingers along the warmed backing.
After it has cooled you can unwrap it and examine your handiwork and re-do it if necessary.

Thanks Pat!
But somehow, I am hesitant to use a wrapping?
I gave it another try, this time on the kasans:
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And tonight, another layer on top of the sal and kasan.

And here we go:
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The last picture shows the bow pulled some more into reflex after the glue had gelled. As you can see, there is a slight inbalance between the limbs? Can anything be done about that at this point?
Also, I don't think I'll arrive at the tips being only 4-6" apart which is Adam's recommendation?

Because of a faint zig-zag line that I see under the sinew, and which I fear might be a tear in the wooden core, I decided not to wait too long. So here we go, opening the bow.

That looks very promising!

Except a small tip asymmetry (maybe it looks so because of the camera angle), It looks perfect, congratulations!
In this much short time, very good job!

Fine progress so far.

Thanks guys! Since most first projects fail, and this is a first project, I try not to become too optimistic.

I took a few days to just look at the bow and try to see where it needs to be corrected with heat. Because apparently, I was quite shoddy when applying the sinew, resulting in non-symmetric forces when it dried. Now the bow has some interesting deviations from the bending plane. First of all, there is a bend sideways in the grip. Then, a sideways deviation in one of the sals. So, the sal makes a tiny curve when seen from above. Not sure how to correct that. Last but not least, a torsion in both sals really close to the Kasan eyes.

Cheers
Arry

Hey, i don't know how did i miss making your bow from very beginning :) very nice done, bravo for your great patience and skill.

Thanks Zoran! You are very kind.

Today, another step forward: Tepliks! Never thought I would get this far. But no reason to get too hopeful, of course.

Looking good!

I'm monitoring this thread 8)

Looking good so far.
You can certainly remove quite a bit of material from the tip thickness.

Thanks guys!
Yes Mike, I will shorten and thin down the tips. Not sure yet how long to make them. Longer tips should improve the drawing curve, but will mean more mass at the end of the limb... I was thinking maybe 9-10cm overall tip length, with the nocks 1,5cm below the end of tip?

A few more impressions: a glimpse along the bow on Tepliks, revealing a slight twist in one of the Kasan Eyes, removing the sideways curvature in one of the Sal, glue cracks at the edges (Poisson effect?) and a first tiller impression.
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I did not dare to go further :D

Should I open up the Kasan Eyes further?

If you do it will help with stability a bit. If it's stable enough then I would probably leave them along for now. Are the kasan eyes flexing at all when drawn?

Mike, I can't really say whether they straighten or not - I have not drawn the bow far enough...
I will measure the brace height with a shorter string and give it another look.

I'm not a specialist, but I suggest you cut half of the tip.

Yes I agree the tips do look long. Adam gives an average length of tips in his book somewhere but off the top of my head I can't remember the exact length?

Yes, I suggest to cut the tip to size now, before stringing the bow. Longer forward tips can cause stability issues - not worth the risk.

Most tips were between 2.5 and 3 inches measured to the nock from the contact point of the loops with the belly, plus 1 - 1.5in above the nocks.

Adam

Looking at the photograph of the braced bow, I think the string is too long as well. Too much of the string is in close contact with the belly of the kasan. With a properly tillered bow, I have had the string slip off a braced bow because it was a little too long. With the great degree of forward recurve and the length of the tips, I think that a dramatic unbracing could happen when the bow is shot or let down after a partial draw. A shorter string is safer and, once all of the tuning is done with, you can always make a longer one.

Thanks Adam, thanks Bede!
Any thoughts on whether the Kasan eyes should be straightened some more?

If you find the bow to be unstable as is, or the brace becoming too high (over 8in), or the bow is too heavy and you do not wand to reduce the thickness/width of the limbs, then it will be best to straighten the bends at the kasan eyes a little.

Adam

Braceheight at 19cm:
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Right tip/kasan is still a bit off:
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Right tip/kasan when drawn:
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The bow at 20" - does not really look symmetrical. The tips come to the same level, but by bending different parts of the individual arms...
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This is what the string looks like after being pulled to 20":
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Please let me know if you have any tips.

I'd open the kasan eyes a little and correct the twist at the same time with heat. Plus it seems the left kasan eye is little more recurved than the other.

All that can be done by puting the bow on the asa gezi (rather long one), heating both kasan eyes at the same time, but the left one a little more, so it will straighten a bit more. All the while the twisted arm can be corrected by un-twisting in the opposite direction.

Once it is all done, a longer string can be used for the bow for 7-7.5 in brace and the bow will be more stable.

If the twist is affecting more of the sal, you can train this arm on the tepelik by tying it on a little sideways to force bending in the desired direction.

Adam

I proceeded as recommended: 15min of warmth (45-50?C) for the less problematic and 20min for the twisted Kasan Eye. Then, I clamped the twisted tip down in the opposite direction.
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Going through the entries before, I realised that the offending tip actually was twisted to the opposite direction a few days before, when it was on the Tepliks... Strange!

The correction should best be done on both arms simultaneously. The one whch is is heated first will open more, since there is more stress on it from the asa gezi. Once the first one has opened up, the other is under less stress and may not open as much any more. At the end the bow may become unbalanced.

Adam

Thank you once more, Adam, this is a valuable tip.

I did some more straightening and de-twisting, using a method by Francesco Alessi for the latter.
Afterwards, it looked straight enough to me to try pulling it a bit more:
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I THINK the kasans are now at the same angle to their respective Sal, but the right tip is still at a slightly steeper angle. Do you think it might be possible to bend it down a bit, maybe combined with bending a bit more reflex into the left tip?
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This is 30". The right arm seems to me to bulge a little more than the left. Might this be because of the steeper angle of the right tip?

Symmetry is not everything. Sometimes, you need in the bow *imperfections* to function properly. just shoot!
The bow looks really good. Congratulations!

Congratulations! That bow is certainly bending!
Yes maybe the difference in tip angles, the amount the kasan eyes are opening and maybe the left limb is bending into the handle a bit more than the right.
However I would definately be shooting it by hand now and ideally taking pictures of the tiller when drawn by hand. I suspect that once you start actually shooting it you will notice one limb (lower) acting weaker.
Again well done!

Grats Arry, you did it.

How many pounds is it? Ok, nm. Is the title still an estimate?

Thanks guys!
It is currently around 57lbs@30".

You are "born to be bowyer" :wink: amazing first attempt. How looks string follow and total mass. Lose a lot of reflex?

Simply fantastic work! I bet it has some flight shooting potensial too :wink:

You are all very kind! Of course, this is more testament to what can be done when supported by an expert internet community rather than to any intrinsic skill on my behalf.
Next steps: Shaping the tips, sinew tip wrapping, putting on thin leather and decoration. I decided on decorating it following the pattern of bow no. 35 of the T?rckische Cammer (p.65 of the catalogue). I will use acrylic paint, though.

Here a few impressions of the tips. They are 10mmx18mm now. Probably too clumsy. Just how narrow and thin would you make them?
In the background, the T?rckische Cammer catalogue with bow no 35 on the right page.
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The last image shows the bow after a night's rest after two days of staying strung and being pulled to 30" repeatedly.

Lovely! I think you got the shape of the tips very well. If anything, perhaps to make them look slightly more elegant, I would consider reducing the thickness slightly towards the very tip. Like shaping the keel on the belly of the tip in a slight arc, when seen from the side. But not by much, perhaps 1,5mm as a start.

Also, you will probably find that you will have to make the nock somewhat bigger, to fit the leather in it.

Hope you are already planning on making more, as this looks very promising 8)

Looking Goooood and amazing to see such a short bow drawn to 30". Markus :D

Thanks Kviljo, thanks Markus!

Kviljo, thanks for the tip regarding the tip - err... ;)
The bow I chose as the decoration template has sinew wrappings under the string nocks, not leather inserts, as far as I can see. I am quite happy with this since I have no idea how to get a piece of leather to sit tight in the string nock AND be bent around to the front and sides of the tip...
A proud owner of a Karpowicz bow informed me that on his (stronger) bow, the tips are roughly 10mm x 15mm. So I think I can reduce the "keel" of the tips without much risk.

Markus, at 128cm, this bow is rather long! According to the formula in Adam's book, 119cm would be sufficient for 30" draw length. But I think it was wise to build a first attempt which is less ambitious.

Aha, I see :) Fitting the leather is in fact easier than one could imagine. It's just a matter of wetting the leather and forcing it to adapt the shape. Start with a big piece and cut it down once it has got the correct shape. This works nicely with vegetable tanned leather, at least. 1,5-2mm thickness seems to be fine, and allow for some final sanding.

Approaching decoration. My wife fancies this here as a template. It's from the Catalogue of the T?rckische Cammer Dresden. Any thoughts on this decoration pattern? It is a bit different from what I have seen so far.
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Maybe it's the picture, but the flower pattern doesn't look especially well executed (more like the doodling of a child tbh). Look at this beautiful pattern for example, that should be doable with practice

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I collected pictures of turkish fabrics from turkishculture.org, pick one of these and make your own design. Aiming too high doesn't do any good if you're not painting alot, the simpler and iconic patterns on fabrics and tents are doable without unreasonable effort and look great.

I don't know about you, but to do something like this here, I'd need many many months of practice and preparation:

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Kyudohund also posted pictures of bows from Burg Forchtenstein a few years ago, as far as I can recall, those had some effective and simple decoration (pictures are gone, but you could ask him)

I think your bow is looking very good, it should be a beauty when you finish, stay your course.

The catalog, T?rckische Cammer catalogue , where is that available from? I have seen some really beautiful bows from it.

It's magnificent work Arry, Congratulations!

If I were you, I would use more traditional paints instead of acrylic paint. Acrylic paints includes chemicals. After 40-50 years, these chemicals could hurt the leather. But if you use more natural paints, the decoration could be fine for hundreds of years.
(for this subject, you can examine paper marbling art. Using natural paints is quite important for this traditional art)

Hehe, thanks, guys!

Any more thoughts on the pattern of the bow from Dresden?

Dear Nokyay, I am afraid the traditional varnish and lacquer are too difficult for me. It's a whole science... Maybe for the next bow project. For this one, I have chosen some high quality acrylic paints as used by artists.

Cheers
Arry

I've had good experience with this one, no solvents, only natural ingredients. (linseed- and tung-oil) Does not smell much and dries in a couple of days. I just put on the bow with a rag. Only downside so far is that it has started to congeal in the halffilled can after a year or two...
http://www.letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk/

I added string bridges, made of water buffalo horn. Effect: The string does not touch the Kasans anymore, meaning the upcoming decoration will not be damaged. And the bow now sounds like a musical instrument when it is shot :D
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thumbs up ! hope to see it decorated soon :-)

Here's a teaser as to the decoration :)
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And here, the draw-weight diagram. Any thoughts on this?
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Looks pretty sexy tbh.

Haha a Turkish bow with a longer draw! good! sexy indeed.

Hi Arry, your draw-weight curve is quite linear for an Ottoman Bow. Almost there is no stacking! It seems, you can draw 32" and stacking starts at this point..

Congrats again...

candy :D

Many thanks to all of you who gave me good advice and encouragement while this bow was built! I hope you enjoy these pics of the decorated bow.

Regarding the sides and the belly, I had to make an educated guess. The catalogue of the T?rckische Cammer does not show them, and unfortunately, the museum did not have additional pics. So I extrapolated the decoration of the back. Of course, I could not resist placing two medallions on the kasan bellies - one saying "Work of Jarek" and the other stating the year of the production, 2014, in the Islamic calendar. Many thanks to G?nhan B?rekci from the Tirend?z, who helped me with that!

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Again, congratulations.

Very neat job. Congrats!

Excellent work. I would be very proud of that bow. :)

Thanks guys! It seems I need to change the date in the medaillion - time flies, and it's 1435 already.

excellent !

Very much impressed! :D

Excellent, beauty!

Very fine work in each detail - congratulations!

Peter

very nice work, indeed.
You have mentioned that this was your first try, so if this is so, my jaw dropped really ;-)
The draw curve is very interesting, namely the several depressions along the way. Possibly they are pointing to flexible kasan eye....

Thanks guys!

lukostrelec wrote:

You have mentioned that this was your first try, so if this is so, my jaw dropped really ;-)

Yep, it really is the first try.

lukostrelec wrote:

The draw curve is very interesting, namely the several depressions along the way. Possibly they are pointing to flexible kasan eye....

I wish it was so, but am not so sure the kasan eyes actually came out flexible. Most likely the wobbles in the draw weight curve are due to measurement mistakes.

It's very impressive :) Thorough work!

Have you started the next one?

Hey Ivar, thanks! There is another Ottoman core waiting, but I have to re-glue it. Also, I would really like to reproduce this Crimean Tatar: http://turcica.museum-kassel.de/204317/ ... bjekt.html

Very good first bow ! Bardzo ti sie udało.