240's sheep horn bow build with Tom Lucas

[NorthHeart]

I also cut grooves in the nocks which really gave me confidence that the string would remain where it belongs.

[NorthHeart]

Latest numbers. Drawing around 49# at 18.5” shoots 525gr at 143fps. 455gr goes 153fps. A couple days I’ve tested these numbers for consistency’s sake. Each time I braced the bow I had to make slight corrections to get positive tiller from the upper limb. I did this with either a bit of heat on the upper limb, or by simply pushing and holding the string up to the belly of the lower limb a few times at brace (to flex the upper limb more). It seems to be holding the shape better each day, requiring less correction upon stringing it. I’ll continue to keep shooting and monitoring it.

[JNystrom]

Good job! Actually you got pretty decent fps out of it, cause as i've understood these tiny bows lack a bit of that long power stroke.
"It seems to be holding the shape better each day" - exactly! I've noticed the same thing, when you keep a longer brake from bracing a hornbow, it might take a lot of time to correct it, sometimes with heat.

For the next one i would try to make it bend more from close the handle up to the tips.
By the way, did you sinew bind the bow fully, or just in the nocks and handle?

[NorthHeart]

JNY-i fully bound the bow, in order to hold the sinew backing down.  I believe i did a few too many heat corrections or simply got it too hot and it started to separate in some area along the limbs-i didn't trust it.  Now i do

[NorthHeart]

I did some work on the large horn bow over the past few weeks. Currently 72# at 19.5”. 😲 Quite a different bow than the smaller one. More to come...

[NorthHeart]

Just received some water buffalo horn and sinew for my attempt at a composite.  But ill hold off on that for now, as there is still work to be done on these sheephorn bows 

[bassman]

Excellent bow build along. Nice bow.

[NorthHeart]

Only after I’ve shot a bow hundreds of times, and added the art, will I consider it “finished”. Tiller adjustments on this one, which is my first sheephorn bow were required now and again, via pressure by hand on one limb, or with gentle heat. I decided to keep the art simple for incase alterations are necessary down the road. Oal braced 33.5” ntn. 51#@18.5”, 520gr arrow at 145-150fps. Done.

[NorthHeart]

more pics...

[NorthHeart]

last pic...

[gorazd]

Very nice bow !  Congratulations !
What is the the finish on the sinew (red and black) ? 
Is it just paint ?

last pic...

[Pat B]

That is an extremely nice sheep horn bow. You did an excellent job on it.      
 I've never made a composite bow or a horn bow but I was wondering if it is necessary to wrap the entire bow in sinew. Seems to my uneducated eye that that extra weight would restrict the cast of the bow. Maybe that's just the way they have always been made. 

[NorthHeart]

Thanks gentlemen!

Gorazd- first i coated the bow with TB3, then i used artist grade acrylic for the paint.  I finished it off with spar urethane.

Pat B- it is not usually necessary.  However, i added heat after the sinew was already on, and i got away with it a few times but the sinew started to separate from the horn in some areas.  I bound the entire bow so i would never have to worry about that again.

[gifford]

That 'build along" was quite a journey in bow making. I knew the horn bows were complex to build. Kudos to you on your efforts and the photo documentation was outstanding. Thank you for taking the time to do it for all of us here on Primitive Archer.

[loefflerchuck]

Nailed it!