Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs
Asiatic Composite Build-Along
tom sawyer:
Hard telling, but that is probably a reasonable estimate. My experience with sinew, is that it takes a few weeks to get reasonably dry and then it still changes for months afterwards. You can shoot it in the interim, but I learned my lesson and don't try and chase a perfect tiller on sinewed bows because they look different every day regardless. The good thing about them, is that they perfrom well regardless of what they look like on a given day.
I will need to wrap several areas with string or sinew, to keep things from delaminatiing. I'm probably going to cover this bow in silk if it survives. I only give it a 50/50 chance of becoming a bow.
Another thing I read on the ATARN site, is that it is possible to get sinew TOO dry. It is supposedly more likely to fai if this happens. I always tried to get mine bone dry through rapid drying, could explain some of my failures in the past. I always just attributed it to bad prep of glueing surfaces.
Rich Saffold:
Looking good Lennie! Its great fun watching you and Thimo dive into these, because I know I don't have the time yet to try one, but soon enough will.
thimosabbv:
Looking good Tom. I know exactly what you mean about trying to "unglue" stuff. I had to saw a handle off yesterday and that wasn't even epoxy.
By the way your workshop is starting to look like mine. :o
tom sawyer:
Rich its really not much of a stretch from doing a backed bow. Just a belly lam that happens to be horn, and a sinew job. The siyahs really aren't a big deal. The "fun" part is yet to come, getting the bow lined up properly. I'll make tepliks for that.
This one is practice before I do one the old fashioned way, with hide glue and following a more aggressive and authentic pattern.
Thimo our workshops have that "lived in" look eh? My dog hung out with me last night, she chewed up six chunks of 2x4 and ate a big piece of leather while I was busy sinewing. We both had a good time.
The sinew is drying slowly, the edges are clear but the center is still white. No sign of cracks though, I'm not going to speed anything up with the drying box until the sinew is clear. Then maybe I'll cook it awhile.
tom sawyer:
Time for an update. There are a few new pics on the photobucket site, I think they are the first three. There's an unbraced side profile, and a couple of the bow being pulled with a long string.
The sinew is reasonably dry now. I added another layer to the handle/fades and inner limb area, it seemed like the first layer was heavier at midlimb and I sure don't want to stress the handle area any more than necessary. I got my handle spacer piece fixed as well, I ended up cutting the loose part off (1"), repreping the surfaces and then reglued it with a shim to take up the space from the kerf. It seems to be good and solid now. I cut some nocks into the siyahs, I am either going to reinforce those with horn or make my string with a little leather strip at the nocks. Maybe both. Also thinking about reinforcing the siyahs themselves, lashing something like bone plates on either side like the ancient bows had. The walnut just kind of scares me, then again the whole bow scares me!
First I attempted to make tepeliks and tried to tie those to the bow's limbs. It worked OK but I couldn't really get the limbs cinched down all the way with my rope loops. I have to research how that is done, a little more thoroughly. I bagged that for the moment, and used a long string to see if the thing was going to stay together when bent. So far so good. It is going to be one heavy beast though, I worry about it staying together becuase of that. I did just a little scraping on the horn, with not much effect. I think the bottom line is, my core was a little too thick at a good 1/4", and I'm going to have to live with the higher poundage. I might try narrowing the limbs a bit, but the width gives them stability and I'm scared that narrowing will make them want to lean and that will be the end of the bow.
I'm also less than happy about the angle on the siyahs, I didn't make them real radical but I was hoping they would show about perpendicular at brace. They seem to be bending a little past that though, hard to tell with a long string I guess. I tried to string it using a nylon cord for a string, but the string stretched too much. I'll have to try making a linen string tonight. But I'm maybe going hunting after work, and there's Monday night football too.
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