Making a magyar style bow

core: manchu ash grip and siyahs, elm limbs.

Glue up v-splices

Groove the core by hand.

Groove the horns

that looks professional. :idea:
(use hide or fish air bladder glue for the horn-core joint.)

Sure~
Titebond is perfect for woods joint but not best for wood/horn or wood/sinew. However some one claims that it would work fine on sinew applying. In my opinion horn bow is not a stable construction, unlike a glass laminated bow. The socalled "stability" of a horn bow is base on repeated adjustment and limited in a period. Thus hide or fish glue's reversibility fits the repeated heat adjustment well rather than unreversible glue like TB.

I would use fish glue to adhere horn and sinew. I bought 1 jin(equals 500 grams) including 9 bladders. I cannot upload any picture?Only 2Mb in total for this post?

Good project. How will you prepare and heat the air bladders? Markus.

Markus wrote:

Good project. How will you prepare and heat the air bladders? Markus.

I've taken some pictures but i cannot upload anymore. the main procedure goes like this:
1.soaked in could water over 12hrs
2.heated in water bath over 1hr so the temperature never go exceed boiling point.
3.crush the bladders in electric extractor and then reheat the mixture with half bowl of water over 1hr.
4.filter the liquid glue to a shallow pan, and the dreg should be reheated with added water.
5.cut the glue gel into small pieces and dry them in air.

Thank you and keep us posted how you move along with your project.
Build alongs are always interesting . Markus. :D

Made it. High class seefood~
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How did you cook the glue (temperature and time)? I have cooked some bladder glue, but those were darker. I think the more light the better. Maybe It's also about species. I used catfish.

Sorry, I just found your description about cooking, but how long did you heat the dreg?

robinhoodfromhun wrote:

Sorry, I just found your description about cooking, but how long did you heat the dreg?

Although most glue has been taken away by water, the dreg also contains some glue. Wasting should be avoided so I usually reheat the dreg and water for another hr. the second glue is very thin so you have to heat the filtered liquid long enough to concentrate.
Btw, the liquid glue is always whitish and the dry glue yellow and transparent.

just finished applying thin glue on core and horns. it needs more repeated glue applying.
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and here are my CAD teeth knives.

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glue up.

good weather!
So i cooked another 300g fish bladder for glue.

thumbs up.

if you dont use an electric blender to crush the bladders the glue will stay clear.

one can let the undissolved rest of the bladders sediment and use the supernatant clear glue. the undissolved rest can be heated again with more water to get the "2nd" glue.

dont know if that matters but looks nice. IMHO the first clear one is the best.
:wink:

Uli! Don't you think that, bladder sediment in glue enhance the gap filling properties? I haven't tested it yet, but I think it may helps if one doesn't use matching groves for example.
I think I will do some test with bladder sediment contained glue and "clear" glue.

this is only my personal opinion.
in fact we need the experiment :? - I d like to hear your results !


PS: be careful, if the glue is white like in the pictures it can be because of FAT remains, which will make bad glue (!)

No. The white appearance is just right what i want, there is no fat left. When completely dry the glue is transparent. Of course the longer keep the bladder in cooking, the more transparent looking of the liquid glue, but the more hydrolysis of it. I took only 3 hours to completed the procedure so as to reduce hydrolysis. the juice extractor helped me a lot. And i know the ancient chinese used the glue came from repeatly pounding bladder and an old saying?A good man cannot pound 3 liangs glue per day.? (3 liang eqals 150g)

the following...
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nice 8)

Very very nice, very professional. :D

Any updates ?

What is your core width?

Bulletwood (Manilkara bidendata) ?

Beautiful work. I really like those knives, how many teeth per cm?