Working on this Horse bow

[kerbinator]

I started work on a horse bow a few days ago. And decided to post some picks here of what Ive done so far. When I started checking the bend in the limb I noticed a drastic bend at the fade on one limb. After studying it I realized that the wood on the back side of the riser was thicker than the belly wood. So today I glued on another belly slat. Will see how it does.

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[Pat B]

What is your belly core wood? Looks like hickory back and belly.  And what are the sayah(sp) made of and how are they attached?    She's looking good so far.    Pat

[kerbinator]

Ash back hickory core ash belly I just glued on another ash slat today

[Justin Snyder]

Looking good so far. Justin

[GraemeK]

Hi Marlin
Yes I think it looks great. I will be interested to see how the wood takes the bend when you finish it . I have built a couple of similar bows using Bamboo as the back and belly but the huge bend involved has been too great for the material and I ended up with masses of set which ruined the potential of the bow. It became easy to see why these bows were traditionally made with horn and sinew. Good luck and I hope to see some full draw photos soon

Below it a photo of my latest attempt.--------- Graeme

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[mamba]

Graem I don't think I will ever attempt or have the patients for such a bow.
 Very nice work !

[GraemeK]

Hi Ray
Yes they are a loy of work and I would not mind if I could get one to work well ---- but lets just say it has not happened yet. I would like to try it the traditional way with horn and sinew but they are not readily available in Australia. --- Graeme

[1/2primitive]

Make it wider?
   Sean

[mnewcomb59]

Perhaps you could temper the bamboo on the belly?

[kerbinator]

Very nice bow there Graeme. Reminds me of the samurai. Pat I forgot to mention that the sayas are Red Oak glued on with Bowgrip 100 I used TB3 on everyhing else.

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[GraemeK]

Hi Marlin -- are you planning to sinew the back? If so I guess it will be a while till we see it drawn.

Half Primitive -- There is a very real limit to how wide you make the Bamboo as it becomes impossible to get it to go around the curve without the edges puckering up even if you steam it or try to form it green and then dry it.

Matt -- Tempering the Bamboo belly helps and the bow shown has had this done but my guess is that the load may be something like 2 or 3 times what the bamboo will take without compressing and taking set.

Graeme

[kerbinator]

I supose I can spare the siyas and the riser. But I regret to say this bow is history. I learned a great deal though. This bow was backed with rawhide the ash lam just under the hide and on the belly failed at the fade the hickory core survived. I was triying to make a version of what a Hun warrior carried. Next time i'll use horn and sinue. 

[GraemeK]

Real sorry to hear that it did not work. Keep trying and you are bound to succeed --- at least you have access to the horn and sinew .
Look forward to your next attempt.

Graeme

[Pat B]

You got good experiences from this first bow. Sorry it went but if you learned something its not a failure...its an experiment!     Pat