working on Assyrian bow

[leehongyi]

well, it's nearly morning here in China and I have to go sleeping or I cannot prepare breakfast for my son before school.
This assyrian bow initially was made as an American flat bow for my boy but during steaming I found this mulberry stick absorbed too much water and bent. I didn't want to waste such beautiful yellow wood so I cut it into two parts as limb, and used Russian ash as grip and Chinese osage as siyahs.
Total length is grip10cm+limbs46cm*2+siyahs15cm*2=132cm. Not finished yet and the siyahs are going to be shortened after tiller.

[leehongyi]

After gluing up, the shaping of siyahs and preparing back sinew

[leehongyi]

Then I flattened the elk horn piece of grip and added more sinew to make it more reflex.

[leehongyi]

After 4th layer it looks pretty transparent. I use a musical instrument silk string for tiller. After all it doesn't appear as a triangle maybe because of the slight deflection of grip.
It's about 35lbs or so and decoration is to be draw later.

[BowEd]

Interesting bow leehomgyi.Very nice work.I like it.You did good in your spare time from your family.Mulberry is beautiful wood.How thick was your core intially before sinewing?These middle eastern style of bows are unique as an egyption angular type bow.A triangle is usually expected as you said at brace.Could be the handle is longer or longer fade stiffness overall?From the belly side of your bow though there is not much deflex overall in the handle.I'm not a follower of the step through method to be bracing bows.Would a peg board work well to brace?I imagine no grooving of horn & core was done.They look very pleasant to shoot.Show more pics too when she's all finished up.

[Stick Bender]

Your bow looks very nice and thanks for all the detailed pics ,  I'm sure your son will love it when it's done, I'm glad you posted we don't get many posts from your side of the world ! I'm curious how long you let you sinew cure ?

[leehongyi]

Interesting bow leehomgyi.Very nice work.I like it.You did good in your spare time from your family.Mulberry is beautiful wood.How thick was your core intially before sinewing?These middle eastern style of bows are unique as an egyption angular type bow.A triangle is usually expected as you said at brace.Could be the handle is longer or longer fade stiffness overall?From the belly side of your bow though there is not much deflex overall in the handle.I'm not a follower of the step through method to be bracing bows.Would a peg board work well to brace?I imagine no grooving of horn & core was done.They look very pleasant to shoot.Show more pics too when she's all finished up.

thank you for your advice.
Before sinewing the thickness of core+horn was from 9mm to 7mm of the bending area and gained 2mm of sinew. There is no groove of the bow because the rope walker gave huge pressure to the horn than the clamps. I don't have experience about peg board as Turkish bow but used bent wood sticks as forms to tiller the limbs. We call this sticks Nuozi in Chinese but they also have the Turkish name. I will post more pics after decoration.

[leehongyi]

Your bow looks very nice and thanks for all the detailed pics ,  I'm sure your son will love it when it's done, I'm glad you posted we don't get many posts from your side of the world ! I'm curious how long you let you sinew cure ?

Not too long just 2 weeks after last layer. The next stringing will be done after 3months of cure. Thanks.

[Peacebow_Coos]

Great looking bow, thanks for sharing the process!

[ohma2]

Yes thanks and please do post more pics,if you have friends who also build please tell them they are welcome here.
we all really apreciate bows from all over the world.lots to be learned from each other.

[NorthHeart]

Thanks for sharing your work Lee. Lovely bow!

On that last pic, did you draw the bow that far back after only 2 weeks of the last layer of sinew being put on?  Then you plan to wait another 3 months before stringing it up and drawing it back again?  Id like to understand your method better.

[leehongyi]

Thanks for sharing your work Lee. Lovely bow!

On that last pic, did you draw the bow that far back after only 2 weeks of the last layer of sinew being put on?  Then you plan to wait another 3 months before stringing it up and drawing it back again?  Id like to understand your method better.

Actually it was me eager to success. I could still feel the bow was not dry enough. Thus a 3 months seasoning is essential for drying and stability.

[leehongyi]

Yes thanks and please do post more pics,if you have friends who also build please tell them they are welcome here.
we all really apreciate bows from all over the world.lots to be learned from each other.

Thanks.

[BowEd]

With a 2mm thickness of sinew curing time is reduced considerably compared to 5 to 6 mm thickness.

[leehongyi]

more pics added. Now I applied some birch barks on it. The background is my gourds and banjo.