Main Discussion Area > Horn Bows
water buffalo horn
mikekeswick:
I would definitely try to decide what style bow you want to make first. Magyar style bows with less than normal grip reflex might be a good place to start.
What wood do you have for the core? Sinew and horn are easy enough to get but perfect straight grained wood...well that can be another matter!
Your strips are long enough to make most styles of bow and say 35 - 40mm width, 5mm thickness will likely be enough.
RBLusthaus:
Hi Mike
I was thinking along the lines of Magyar style bow, mainly because I have been able to find more information and pictures about that style over the others. Also, they are dynamite looking. Although not decided yet, I was thinking of 160 - 170 degrees of set back at the handle with ears coming off the limb at 45 degrees. I was thinking that the limbs would be as long as the finished horn pieces turn out to be.
I had planned on making my core to match up well with the finished horn pieces. I thank you for the rough horn size estimates, as I will know if I am in the correct ballpark when thinning what I have. Currently, my horn pieces are clamped flat after my attempt to straighten them with dry heat. We will see how well they keep. If they spring back too much, my next attempt will be with steam and boiling. I am unable to use the belt sander to sand the inside of the horn pieces until they are relatively flat.
Do you think I will be able to straighten the horn at all? I mean, as opposed to flattening it. Maybe I should have tried prior to cutting the strip? If not, the finished length and width of the horn pieces will be even more limited than I thought I would get.
You asked about the core. I have a very nice piece of 8/4 rock maple, very straight grain. I had thought it was 44 inches or so in length, but your query sent me to the measuring tape. Turns out it is 36 inches in length. Think that is going to be long enough or should I seek alternative core material. I guess it depends on the horn? Was going to use the maple for the ears as well - but I am now thinking of finding a naturally curved piece to splice in. Getting ahead of myself.
Russ
mikekeswick:
Sorry i've only just seen your reply.
As for straightening horn i've only ever use boiling water for about 10 mins. Then clamp between something flat, if you want them dead flat then you will have to account for springback. Don't worry about getting them dead flat though it doesn't matter.
How thick is your maple? Doing some quick mental arithmetic it does seem to be long enough to cut in half. Finding a natuarally curves piece for the syhia's is a good bet...funnily enough i've just been out trying to find recurves for one of my Turkish cores. Also look to find something hard, dense and plum straight (no knots at all) for the grip piece. Ideally it wants to be flat sawn and the same goes for your maple core. Flat sawn wood is more laterally stable than rift or quarter.
Gaur:
Russ. Glad you are working on the bow already.
RBLusthaus:
Hi Randy - Yes, jumping in with both feet, no net. How was the trip?
Mike -- I get the advice on the flat sawn wood. I am not sure I follow the bit about cutting my board in half? I was thinking the length of the core sans the ears would be about 36 inches in length, slightly bent in the middle around the handle piece. However, slicing a piece off the end of my board as I was originally thinking would not give me flat sawn lumber, so I will have to cut my core piece out of the face of the board and then thin it to thickness. Is this what you mean? And was your mental arithmetic a metric conversion thing?
As to the horn, I hope you guys can answer some questions and / or confirm my assumptions.
The portion of the horn that was the inside of the horn before cutting (also the inside of the natural curve of the horn since I took the strip from the outside curve) is the side of the horn that gets grooved and glued to the core, right? In this way, if the natural curve reasserts itself, it would tend to increase the reflex of the bow, right?
My pieces of horn are not yet finished being turned into strips. The ruler is 12 + inches long and the last picture is the outside of the horn. Th other two are the inside.
The wider side of the horn was the hollow end near the head. The thin spots still need a little more thinning to remove completely. As a result, this end, while wider than the other, is much thinner. The tip end, while full in thickness, is less wide. Should I maximize the strip length and end up with one end very narrow but full thickness and the other thin and wide? Or should I trim them shorter and aim for a uniform thickness and width throughout?
Which end typically gets glued closer to the handle, the thin wide one or the thick narrow one? I am assuming the thinner wider one, as the handle will be non bending, and the thinner horn here would be less troublesome to the whole here than in the area backing up the ears?
The outside edges of the horn, as you can see from the pics, still have some undulations from the original shape of the horn. In addition, due to the original curve of the horn, the outside face of my horn strip is less wide than the inside face. I would say it is naturally "trapped", like you would do to a hickory or bamboo backing. Should I trim it all away leaving a strip with square edges, or leave it as wide as I can, maintaining a nicely trapped semi uniform width for the length of the finished strips?
Hope you guys can shed some light. I have been staring at the stips for a few days now not knowing what to do next.
Russ
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