Second bow

There is nothing wrong with bending that way. The only reason to bend the other way is that an intact growth ring has less chance of cracking when bent.
It isn't stronger or better in any way.

Thanks, That is reassuring.
Anyway, I glued up some grips this morning. I decided to make them out of two parts as I don't have any suitable wood that has a natural bend. I used heat on some dry lathes of maple and mulberry to bend them to the right angle and applied pieces that had lesser bends to give thickness.
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When these are dry I will be splicing thess to the limbs.

That looks like it coud be a good idea, haven't seen that one before. Anyone else?
Good luck, keep us posted!

I've cut the grips to shape and now I'm fitting the limbs. The splices fit nicely but there is some twist so I have a little more work before I melt glue.


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Yesterday I cut the splices for the siyahs and last night I glued them in. looking at the photo, the bow looks a little asymmetrical.
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Today, if I have time, I will start flattening the horn.

I've prepared the horn strips and am now applying thin layers of glue to the core and the horn. The grooving does not match so my goal is to fill the grooves with glue and re-flatten the strips. Then I will glue the parts together with thicker glue.

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The glue is beginning to smell a little even though I have been keeping it in the refrigerator. I'm wondering if I should mix up a fresh batch.[/img]

I ended up scraping off all the glue on the horn and the core and made a fresh batch and filled in the grooves with thin layers. By the way, if you think, as I did, that making non-matching grooves in the horn and the core will save you time, think again. My first bow had matching grooves and it did take much longer to prepare the horn but that was still way faster than painting layer after layer to fill the grooves and re-flatten between each coat.

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I also had more trouble positioning the strips without the matching grooves. I heated the horn and the core before I applied the glue and the horn relaxed into its original curved shape and so it slid all over the place when I tried to clamp it down. Eventually I got it clamped and I think the glue joint is very good but one strip is a little mis-alligned, which means that I might have to make this bow a little narrower than I had wanted. Also I found that because the horn relaxed when I heated it, it twisted back to it's original shape, and because my cores are really thin, that twist was transfered to the limbs. I'm sure it can be corrected, but for now I will let the glue cure.

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Thanks for sharing and being so honest about problems! Good luck with your bow, I hope it works great!

nice project ! keep us up to date

Today I started shredding sinew. I'm using Elk backstrap. They form nice long strands. I'm using a florist's frog as a shredder, screwed to a board and held in my shave-horse. It seems pretty quick but I'm open to other methods. I'm using gloves to prevent grease from my fingers but I have a feeling the sinew is pretty greasy itself.
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I don't think there is any need to use gloves when preparing sinew because you can always degrease it once it's all processed.
For backstrap I split them in half by hand so I have two pieces, split each of those in half again and repeat until I get them fine enough. Then I will use a frog like you to remove any thicker pieces that are hanging on to the ends of the strands, this will also help to taper the ends.
Backstrap really needs to be reduced to very fine strands if you want a smooth back. I find leg tendons to be smoother and softer, possibly the glue can also wet the strands better(?).

I was wondering how fine to shred the sinew. I guess I'll process it a couple more times through the frog.
I do have a question about shaping the core. As I said earlier, I got a mild twist in the bending section when I glued the horn to the core. Should I try to get this out now or should I wait until the sinew is drying and try to compensate by twisting the limbs the other way?

I'm getting close to finishing shaping the core. I want to reduce it another 5 grams to get it down to an even 300grams. That might seem a lot but the bow will end up being around 58" long. The limbs are going to end up around 13mm to14mm thick and about 32mm wide. I'm hoping to end up with a bow that pulls around 50- 60 lbs.

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Looks like very exact work. nice. :D

Take the twist out now before sinewing.
When I said above to split them in half and repeat I meant to do it until the strands start snapping and you can go no further. So as a final thickness you are looking about 1mm to get a smooth, flat sinewed back.
It's best to do this and only then use the frog to taper the ends. You will get much longer, more consistent strands doing it the way i've recommended. Using the frog all the time will just snap the strands and you won't be able to get them fine enough.

On your next bow make the core much thicker to start with. It will help you make good joints and more importantly it will be stiff enough when gluing the horn on to not twist on you.

Thanks Mike. I managed to get the twist out with a little heat. It was actually easier than I thought it was going to be - only light heating on the horn side seemed to fix the problem.
I applied the first layer of sinew over the weekend. I tried to work as methodically, gently and quickly as I could in a very hot room but I did have problems in laying down the sinew evenly. It's a little lumpy right now, maybe after a little drying it will flatten out. I bought the yellow fish bladder glue, advertized here on this forum. Despite the high temperature of the room I was working in, it gelled really quite fast. I could barely get the next strip on before the previous one gelled. I'm not sure if I got the consistency right but I measured out 50gms of dried glue to 200gms of water. It looked really thick to me. But this is what I have used throughout the bow.

Two days of drying and the sinew is lying much flatter now. I will put on the next layer over the weekend.

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Consider using gelled bundles. It's smart to have an electric element close, so that you can warm them up before putting them on the bow.

Gelled bundles - You mean kind of like the Korean bowyers do it?
Also the bundles were warm enough when I put them on the bow but they cool rapidly once I have smoothed them down. It's just the nature of evaporation (I remember something about "latent heat" from my physics classes) Anyway, the room was super hot. My wife is a ceramisist and has 4 industrial kilns. I was doing the work in the kiln room with two of the kilns firing at the time.

Yes, the korean method of gelled strips. It's extremely easy. Comb and saturate until the strips are perfect. If you feel insecure about hitting the right width for the strip, you can get a translucent plastic plate and mark it on the other side.

Let them rest on a plastic plate until they feel like leather. Before you put them on the bow, warm them up over the electric element until they get softer. When they have a consistency like uncooked salmon filet, they're good to go.

Well, for the next layer I need to build up the edges and flatten the cross-section. I may try it for the final layer.

Yes i've run into problems with my sinew layers when trying to work in somewhere too cold and the bundles gelling almost as soon as they were laid down. I'm certain it's why my last couple have failed.
Next time i'm going to use the Korean method as well.

Over the weekend I applied the second layer of sinew. Again I struggled with it gelling too quickly. After two days of drying it looks a lot better than when I had just finished applying it.

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I added the third layer and left it to dry.


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It has been drying for over a year and yesterday I began tillering it and working on the twist that appears to be still quite considerable.
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I have had it on the tillering stick and the bends in the limbs are actually quite even,

Nice precise work, fingers crossed. 8)

good luck
Second horn bow, and looks like a Korean. Wow.
Maybe you should alternate the sides the clamps go on next time?
May get more feedback on the ATARN facebook group if you need any..