Beastie bowzz

Again bowxplosion on tumblr is faster, go here to have a look at this recently almost finished beastie bow.

A picture heavy making of will be posted soon here.

Tuktut nogait bow

Right now I came across this highly interesting post on the ELFSHOT- blog run by Lori White and Tim Rast, here is the link.

The ELFSHOT- blog is in my blog- roll since 2 years, but Lori and Tim are doing such great jobs, so I want to highlight their work today.

My interest in Inuit- bows has been heavily raised when I’ ve had finished my very fast osage- bow, maybe you remember it.

Some original Inuit- bows often made as a composition of woods and bones tied together and enforced with a cable at the back, an art at its own.

The lost and promised pics……………..bow sale………near future…………

Scythian hornbow, Persian shield, 3 arrows

The yew flightbow- 3 new flight arrows- still want to make 300f/s and 400yards!!!

The yew wood for this bow has been dried for 15 years and the hit is, that the bow didn´t got any set till now- it´s a 44″ long shortie drawing 51lbs at 23″. Can´t wait first chronos and flights………………..

The ash longbow for sale- 66″ in length, drawing 46lbs at 28″

the ash longbow- after about 18 years of heavy use no sign of set- a true companion.

First trial in cultivating flax- flax loves the salty air of the sea- the sea is far away from here- maybe the fibres will be not as strong as needed for bow strings…….

Our sheep(alpine stonesheep)-Carlos the brown ram, Frida on the left, Betty in the middle, they will provide us with wool, milk( precious cheese) and a lots of more sheep…………….

The plains double-bow for sale, braced- sinewed back

The plains double- bow- unstrung

 

 

 

Hornbows Vol.6- sinew- backing the prod

Last volume was dealing with the final shaping of the horn- lam. Now the horn- lam has to be backed with sinew- fibres. But before backing the prod has to be wrapped with bundles of sinew- fibres.

precoating the prod all over its length at least 4 times

The wrappings are enforcing the joints of the horn- slats and the recurves

After having wrapped the prod with the sinew- bundles, the prod is wrapped with cotton- or silk cloth for to press the fibres as close as possible to the prod

2 weeks later the cloth- wrapping is removed- the prod is ready for the backing

About a quarter of  prod´s thickness will be the sinew- backing,  3- 4 layers of sinew- fibre- bundles has to be prepared. According to a total length of 30″ minus the recurves about 25″ of the prod´s length and an average- width of 2″ incl. the sides of the prod , so about 50 sq.inches have to be backed. As a total that means 4-5 buffalo- leg- sinews have to be spliced, at least a job of 8h.

The backed prod- one day after the backing

Closer and better sideview at the backing- one day after it has been done. The backing is still about 1/2" in thickness, when it is dry it will have about 1/3"- 1/4" of the prods thickness.

Waiting time! At first I planned to finish the prod in April or May, that´s to less time for the polymerisation. I´ll do it at the end of August, 9 month after having backed the prod.

So next volume will be focused on the braced and ready to final tiller- work prod.

Related articles

• Hornbows Vol.5- the crossbow- final shaping of the horn- lamination (redhawk55.wordpress.com)

Hornbows Vol.5- the crossbow- final shaping of the horn- lamination

Sorry, sorry again, for this time-delayed report about the making of the prod for the crossbow. The prod is almost ready, maybe within the next 2 weeks I´ll go to do the final tillering.

The final shaping of the horn- lam is a delicious job to do, cause while drying horn-lams are more or less twisting sidewards. The job to do is to end up with a straight, symetrically prod- lengthwise, in width and in thickness with oval cross- sections. The cross- section of the recurves should be rectangular. I don´t use any machine for this job, machines are nothing else but very fast hand- tools, too fast for delicious jobs, no machine can replace the feeling I got from shaping and tillering thousands of bows by my own hands.

That´s how the lam looked after glueing- no recurves added, not shaped

A rough shaping has been done, the recurves had been spliced in, time for final shaping.

The draw- knife is my favourite tool for shaping the horn- lam

My wife will use the horn- splinters as a fertilizer in our garden. The white lines on the back are cutted through glue- lines.

.......done- isn´t it looking elegant?

I´ve even bent it some 5″ for to check an even tiller of the 2 limbs– if you do bend a horn- lam the first time, it´s a horrible experience, cracks and cracks, that´s the usual sound………when I bent my first horn bow years ago, my nerves were done.

Next volume is dealing with the sinew– wrapping and sinew- backing of the horn- prod

Related articles

• Sinew- Backing Vol. 2- nothing new on the planet- applying a sinew backing (redhawk55.wordpress.com)