Mr Shelby, what about silk thread
Stephen,
In your article " The archery tradition in China" you wrote that "The assembled wood, horn and sinew was bound tightly with silk thread..."
What was actual purpose of that- to keep hornstripes tighter together to limbs, to avoid brake off's?
Could you say more about this silk thread. Was it specially made or like usual sawing silk?
How much did it actually cover of the bow? Were limbs totally covered or just zig-zag?
enno
In your article " The archery tradition in China" you wrote that "The assembled wood, horn and sinew was bound tightly with silk thread..."
What was actual purpose of that- to keep hornstripes tighter together to limbs, to avoid brake off's?
Could you say more about this silk thread. Was it specially made or like usual sawing silk?
How much did it actually cover of the bow? Were limbs totally covered or just zig-zag?
enno
I quess this is a stage I have to call forum open for all (as it was intended anyway): you are welcome to share your knowlidge. Smile
main reason for silk thread...
main reason for silk thread...
The first thing I should say is that the evidence for silk thread is all literary. The archaeological evidence that I have seen for lateral binding of bows all used sinew.
The sources of the 'silk thread' information were based in the ancient states of Qi and Chu around 300-200BCE. Both states were enjoying a warmer and more humid climate then than they do today (Shandong and Hunan.) It may have been that gluing was not sifficient on some parts of the bow and binding was required as well.
The silk would have been raw silk, like what is used in Thai silk today. I have examples of sword scabbards from that period, where a fine silk binding has been applied over bamboo before layers of lacquer. Given the weight of the lacquer, I don't think that the silk would have added much weight, and it would certainly have assisted the rigidity of the bow structure.
But as I said, I have never handled a real example where silk was present.
The sources of the 'silk thread' information were based in the ancient states of Qi and Chu around 300-200BCE. Both states were enjoying a warmer and more humid climate then than they do today (Shandong and Hunan.) It may have been that gluing was not sifficient on some parts of the bow and binding was required as well.
The silk would have been raw silk, like what is used in Thai silk today. I have examples of sword scabbards from that period, where a fine silk binding has been applied over bamboo before layers of lacquer. Given the weight of the lacquer, I don't think that the silk would have added much weight, and it would certainly have assisted the rigidity of the bow structure.
But as I said, I have never handled a real example where silk was present.