Next try

So, I have had some progress on Christmas time..
I have been drawing down to 18 inches, with about 48 lb at that point.
It is still not really in balance, I have the feeling, it could throw away the string.

Here also pictures...

My bow also was a little out of balancebut it became better when I started shooting it. Shooting seemed to teach it bending. Anyway, it does not shoot through the middle.
It´s a nice bow, I like it.

Looks good! A really short bow, though. What's the black stuff on the side of the ears? More horn?

Thanks, I even shortened down the tips, in order to get more stability(?).
It is about 107 cm nn. I draw it down to 20 inches today, having 52 lb there.
Tips have some horn on the sides, just wanted to see, how it works.
But I am still not sure, if the string is gonna stay on place, wenn I shoot it...
And actually, this may be too strong for me. :)

Wow, that is strong. Maybe 87bs@28"? Good luck, looks nice. Really forward pointing tips.. you don't need string bridges so it doesn't unstring itself? maybe small, wide ones.. or maybe not if the kasan itself is wide at the end what
is ntn a straight line when braced or contour?

I do hope to get it down to 26-27", but 87 is definetly too much for me..
It has already small bridges. Ntn is measured alongside (contour ?)the bow, so it really is a short one. That's why i don't think to get it down to 28"

So, I'm coming slowly forward. I had some trouble to get it in balance but now it is better. I think I can start shooting now. I also had to make it weaker, because I am not strong enough... Now it has some 60 lb by 25".
One more picture also :)

Niice

Hi again,

I was hoping to be able to shoot this one next week,but....
Again, like my first attempt, it broke around the kasan eye. I already had put leather on it (goat) and could throw it down to 27“, having about 70 lb there. Actually, I wanted to shot a picture of it on full draw today, as it happaned..

Now it splitted on twenty cm around kasan eye. It seems again just to have splitted between horn and core, I can’t see if the wooden core has cracked or not, there seems to be a weak spot , but I am not sure.
I try to put pictures of it hier.
Maybe somebody could give me some advice or figure out the reason, why this happaned again. Could it be, that the pure hide glue doesnot work hier, should I at least mix it with fish bladder glue?
I will try to glue it again( if I don’t find out, that the core is broken). What would be the best way?
By my first attempt, that also cracked, I glued it with soaking it in 10% hot glue and sofar it seems to work.
But if somebody could give some positive experience in such
Issues, it would be great!

Sorry to see that. I had problems with horn delaminating on my first few attempts as well.
How many sizing coats did you use? What percentage of glue?
I use a minimum of 20 - 25 coats and I use really quite thin glue. It takes about 10 - 15 coats before it starts to turn glossy after drying.
When you did your glue-up were the parts sufficiently hot so that the glue didn't gel before clamping? I use a syringe now to continually keep flooding the area that is about to be clamped so I know for certain that the glue is still liquid.
I think that the hide glue by itself should be plenty strong enough. The fish bladder glue will help if you are having problems with the glue gelling too quickly. I think it's also meant to be better at resisting humidity than the hide or sinew glues. I have been meaning to order some kroaker swimbladders but I can't find anybody who sells them here in England. I'm a bit wary of ordering them from China!
The cure for horn delaminating is to follow Adam's advice in his book to the letter!
As for sticking it back together I managed to do that successfully once. again follow Adam's advice on this and you should be ok.

Thanks mikekeswick! May be your are right. I only did seven or eight coats with 5% glue and I did it all within one day. So maybe this was not much enough.
The room temperature was something like 25-28°C, I tried to warm both parts
before adding a lot of 25%, 55°C hot glue. The glue was still liquid as I clamped the parts together, there was a plenty of glue coming out of the joint.
So now I just have to try to rescue this one and go on with the next try.
I have already wood for next core and have to contact Highland Horn for more horn. And then try to avoid some failures...

hello veki,
I've had a similar problem. exactly the same place. I work with convex core, and concave horn . I guess I "caught" air bubble in adhesive process. I do not redo this bow. just disassembled and preserved horn plates. I make 15-25 layers primer of glue for 2 days. use total gluing process with sturgeon bladder glue. incidentally you ever tried to buy a horn bands of diktum? my friend bought perfect quality. i also will order.

lol dude just wrap it in sinew there
Would that work?

Good luck, hope you build an even better and long lasting bow soon enough

I feel like there should be more nicely coindensated information on glue, seems rather sporadic.

Thanks for the posts guys!

PAZUZU, maybe I have to now order by Dictum, because it seems Highland Horn only deliveres UK and Irland(why?)
Where do you get your sturgeon bladder glue?
pcutin, yes, I wrapped it with sinew now. I will now wait some time and then
try my luck...
It would be interesting to here how many of all these bows here still are shooting.

Hi! How do you glue the horn? You should use at least 10 layers of 2-3% hide glue then finaly a lot of (about 40g) 30-35% glue.

Hi,
as I already told, I did not add more than 7 or 8 coatings with some 5% glue and then I used lots of 25 % glue. Next time I will do this better with also more time. Maybe I also mix the hide glue with surgeon bladder glue. Or is this not a good idea?
Thanks for these posts guys!

Sorry, I didn't read ewerything. :oops: Your way is not that bad. Perheaps you can optimize it. Hide glue should be good enough. I wouldn't blame it.
How deep are your grooves? Are they matching or not?

I'm using matching grooves, they are some 2mm deep (triangle). When I put the parts together before gluing, they really go together and seem to match.
But, anyhow, I just have to be more careful with all things.
Does somebody have experience with mixing hide glue and surgeon bladder glue?

I'm sure it would mix ok although I've never actually done it myself!
Different collagen glues gel at different rates (temperatures) so the main reason to mix glues or use one over another would be if one types gelling didn't suit your workspace temperature. I have problems with hide/sinew glue gelling too quickly as it is rarely above 10 - 15 degs in my workshop. I'm about to get some yellow croaker swimbladders as I've read that this glue gels more slowly than hide/sinew.
As far as strength goes I think that any of these glues if they form a firm gel are amply strong.

Hi, here an update for this one.
I just came home from shooting with this.
Everything went good, it works like it should.

After the break I glued it, wrapped it (to be sure I wrapped both sides)and put again leather on. I made it again a little bit weaker( I'm not that strong), I think it has now some 55-56 lb at 26".
I haven't drawn it more until now, I'm just happy to be able to shoot it.

Hi,
one picture of this one in 24" draw.
It has blue goatskin on.

I'm glad it has worked for you :)
Now pull her back to 28!