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50" Stone Sheep Horn Bow

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ChristopherHwll:
Hey all, my name is Christopher and I am new to the PA community.  I have been making bows for over twenty-five years, since I was about ten years old.  I thought it was about time to join in and share some of my bows.  So for my first bow building post I thought I would post a bow that I have wanted to build myself for many years.  Acquiring the right horn took some time.  So here is a build along for my current 50" stone sheep horn bow.  I am about two thirds done at this point so I am going to bring this post up to speed quickly.  This bow is constructed of stone sheep horns, elk leg sinew, elk backstrap sinew, and a glue I make of elk, bison, and white-tail sinew.  For the finished bow I am considering naturally dyeing white-tail rawhide to a deep red and having it fade to black at the tips.  So here we go...

The horns as I received them.  One is 33 1/2" around the curl and the other is 33 1/4":

ChristopherHwll:
Starting to process the horns.  Same method discussed in TBB. Drill holes and go slow so that you do not ruin your horns.

ChristopherHwll:
You must look for any imperfections in your set of horns like this one and remove material until the horn is solid.

ChristopherHwll:
Once you have established a smooth surface around the outside curl it is time to reduce and uncurl the horn.  Start at the open end and work your way to the tip.  This process is slow.  I use a dry heat method and apply oil or fat grease to the horn to help heat and evenly distribute the heat without burning the horn.  Over the years I found that "boiling" almost always dries out horn to a degree. Even with short simmering times.  This has always been the case with sheep, bison, and elk antler.  The dry method is faster and much easier to control with excellent results.

ChristopherHwll:
Once you have worked your way close to the horn tips you can remove any lateral horn from the widest portion of the horn staying inline with tip.  For this bow I am using every bit of the horn possible all the way to the tip of the horn.  The horn on the left still has the tip for comparison with the one on the right being final length.  Dr. Grayson talks about this in the TBB. I worked slow and finally have the horns nearing final shape before splicing.

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