Vol. 4 of “Hornbows” is posted right now!

The first bracing of the crossbow will be soon, I think it will be in April, my report about its making of is time delayed.

After having “puzzled” pieces of horn to a solid block, the block needs to be roughly shaped and the recurves have to be attached. I wanted to use antler as recurves, but I can´t get any antler solid enough for a heavy hornbow, so I ended up in using tips of the waterbuffalo- horns I´ve used anyway for the bow.

Checking the horn- body of the bow- sideview

There is a slight reflex in it, that´s what I wanted, don´t care about any imperfections here, the hornbow needs to be shaped, it´s still to wide, to thick to long.

Rough layout of the final shape for to attach the recurves matching the centerline

The bow has to be cut according to a centerline at 23″ in length, width is 11/2″ in the center, tapering to 1″ at the beginning of the recurves, thickness is about 3/4″ . Thickness and oval cross- section will be worked before wrapping and backing bow.

The recurves will be spliced in, the splice measures 3 3/4″ in length, the recurve itself is 4″ in length. So the bow will end up at 31″ in length.

The v- splice for the recurves

A v- splice is stable enough, even at such high draw- weights, the bow will be wrapped with sinew- fibers completely and sinew- backed. When the splice is cut the recurve will be worked for to fit in the bow.

Even I prefer hand- saws I use my bandsaw with a slaughterhouse- blade for to splice in the recurves

The v- splice is finally worked with a rasp and a handsaw

Checking the fitting of the recurves- the tips of the recurves have to be in line with the handle- section of the bow

For a proper glueing all glue lines are criss- cross hatched with a saw- blade, before final glueing is done, the glue- lines have to be coated with a thin solution of hide-glue.

Next volume is dealing with the shaping of the cross- section, the wrapping and backing of the bow with sinew.

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