Do you typically make a "track" or "groove" in the belly core, so the horn lays flush with the wood? Or do you round the edges of the horn to make an elliptical cross section?
Stephen Selby
I believe that both of these are valid methods. Some bows (Turkish and Perian) were made with many grooves. Chinese bowyers just grossly roughen the surface of the horn and the core. Korean bows seem to be glued with smooth surfaces.
Where grooves are the fashion, the argument is that it increases the surface area over which the components are glued together.
tom sawyer
I am not referring to grooving the surfaces for gluing purposes. I typically prepare my gluing surfaces by scratching in grooves with a hacksaw blade. This is an interesting topic though, I know some types of modern glues (epoxy, urea/formaldehyde) are supposed to benefit from a rough surface and others (carpenter's glues) from a smooth well-mated surface. I would have thought that hide glue would be more like the latter, although I have always followed the advice to groove the surface of my bows prior to sinewing. It does seem to allow the hide glue to penetrate into the wood better.
I was asking about recessing the horn in the belly of the core, to make it flush with the sides of the core without having to bevel the edge of the horn. It would be a tedious task, probably accomplished with a wood chisel or small adze. It seems like I've seen something along these lines in one of the cross-section displays of a hornbow.
Bede
Ancient Egyptian bows had the horn in a channel, but it was made by gluing side strips onto the main core. Not all composite bows in Tutankhamun's tomb had this profile, but it was common.
Stephen Selby
I was asking about recessing the horn in the belly of the core, to make it flush with the sides of the core without having to bevel the edge of the horn.
Ok, I misunderstood. It does sound an awful lot of extra hard work. I don't recall having see horn in a groove like that. The Chinese bows have the horn laid flat on the core. After sinewing and finishing, they add two strips of rattan to seal the sides.
S
tom sawyer
These added side pieces were no doubt what I was mistaking for a single core. It is actually something that kept me from trying to make one of these bows sooner, it seemed like such a daunting task to create a trough or groove that would provide a decent gluing surface. The little bit of experience I've had with inletting gun stocks, let me know that I do not have the skills to accomplish this. Thanks goodness it isn't standard operating procedure.
