Jere's flightbows

[JNystrom]

In january i started my first hornbows. I decided to try to make a ottoman flightbow and managed to succeed with 1 out of 2. Other one come out twisted and delaminated, but the little longer one survived.
The bow is around 43" long and manages some 360yards with ~80# @27". I haven't actually measured the poundage, but i think 80 is close. Its not yet shot to its complete potential as i didn't have a way to dry it dryer than in 50% rh. Also siper should do wonders, with 24" arrow. I have couple different sipers on the make and im learning thumb drawing. The bow weights 350 grams and is 31mm wide at sal.
But as you can see, the shape is way off from a real flight bow. Thats why i'm making a bunch more bows, with a lot less reflexed kasans. I'll post some images and funny stuff on the way. Its nice to see the bows progressing a lot faster now that i have one under my belt. 

[JNystrom]

Here is couple of pictures about the new bows. Also some highland horn that im about to test in one (atleast) of these bows.
Ok, i figured out how to post properly...

[DC]

Those are sure nice straight grooves

[JNystrom]

Thanks. And that tooth plane blade is perfect at making them! Never going back to cabinet scrapers, at least with straight glue line. Took maybe 25% of the time compared to cabinet scraper? Well my old scraper had a bit deeper grooving... This is pretty shallow at 1mm.

[bosko]

Very nice, good looking bow. I hope you enjoy it.

[JNystrom]

Now the bow got its last sinew layer. Profile is round with "stacked" sinew, so i think the bow is "sinirsek" style ottoman bow... We'll see if its as fast as the originals.
I got couple of nasty cracks in the tip bends, but i just glued them down and now covered with sinew.
Can't wait to open it already.

[JNystrom]

Ok, i changed my photo hosting to flickr so lets have a second go...

The bow is now seasoning with all sinew layers glued. 42" long weights 350g and thinnest spot in kasan eye is 12,4mm. Hoping for over 100 pounds.
I had to put a small sinew patch on the other limb, since it somehow got weaker and developed cracks in the horn belly. I still feel confident its good, after all we bend it the other way.

I'm also preparing some other bows to be made, with buffalo horn and also atleast one with highland cattle horn.

[BowEd]

Nice work shown JN.Nice clear pics.It seems your hooked.Those horn bows are just as addicting as any other bow.Hope the 100 pounder turns out good for you.That highland horn looks very nice too.

[JNystrom]

That might be the case! Hah... Thanks.

I'm also very optimistic about the cow horn, it might be a bit softer than water buffalo, but i have it plenty since i know the local butcher house. 50 horns coming around these days.

[JNystrom]

I got too anxious and opened the bow allready. Fixed a quick tiller and i really like the overall shape. It felt soft, like underweight because of the short curing time. So i'm quite confident it will pick up weight to tip 100-110 pounds at 28" of draw. After the brace i took a lot of wood from the kasans and got the weight to 327 grams. Now it should be good to wait until march or so, seasoning in pretzel shape when i heated and reflexed it again.
Obviously i'm out of work, so i started to size 3 more cores. These will become a bit narrower and heavier. Maybe 10,11,12mm cores? Should be 120-140-160 pounds then. I need a bow press i guess.

[willie]

Very Sweet,

and thanks for posting here at PA  (I keep trying to follow along at the Finnish site, but your first language is not the easiest)

[JNystrom]

Oh, thank you Willie,  i'm not really expecting you to understand anything from our finnish forum! Though, i like the discourse platform more than this smf.

I processed the horns for the 3 new bows. Sadly my horns are pretty short and i need to join a ~3" piece on the middle to close the gap at handle. Its ok, since that area doesn't need to bend really and horn can end at mid kasan. Actually i haven't seen a lot of people having the horn end at mid kasan, even though it saves quite some mass and should benefit the flight bow.
One of the bows will have highlander horn, two others normal buffalo horn. Lengths will be 101cm, 106cm and 108cm (39,5", 41", 42").

[JNystrom]

Here is some progress pictures. Actually i just sinewed a second layer, only the third left. I'll show some last phase pictures after that in the prezel shape.
The bows ended up with cores capable of 100 to 120 pounds. We'll see.

[Aaron H]

Very nice Jere

[NorthHeart]

Those bows are super intriguing! 

Once i get the know-how im gonna try to make a similar composite bow for horseback archery, so things can be as they should

Is there a particular bow "style" that you recommend for a beginner composite horn bowyer...and if so why?