Making and finishing horn nocks before gluing them on the bow?

[toomanyknots]

Anybody do this? I know some people out there know how to do this, as they sell them premade on ebay and rudderbows does too. I have been told to use a glue that is easy to nock loose, but what glue is that? In my experience, horn and wood are very compatible, and you do not need to try hard to glue horn to wood. I have thought about Elmer's white craft glue, but I don't know. I have also thought about gluing the horn to a softer wood, and then re-drilling?

[WillS]

I've not done this (yet - I am thinking about starting this technique for my new warbow though!) but I do know that any 2 part epoxy comes undone really easily with a bit of heat.  When I'm swapping nice hand-forged heads on my war arrows for cheap roving ones I just roll the arrow head over a flame for 20 seconds and the glue comes off like it was never there.

[toomanyknots]

I've not done this (yet - I am thinking about starting this technique for my new warbow though!) but I do know that any 2 part epoxy comes undone really easily with a bit of heat.  When I'm swapping nice hand-forged heads on my war arrows for cheap roving ones I just roll the arrow head over a flame for 20 seconds and the glue comes off like it was never there.

Sweet, thanks for the info.

[PatM]

The best method is to glue them onto a false bow tip with hide glue and then soak them in hot water to release them.

[Del the cat]

IMO It's madness!
That's how I did 'em when I started. It's much better (quicker, easier) to do it on the bow.
The problem with temporary gluing is that horn also softens with heat.
Del

[AndiE]

Hi

Bore a small hole into the horn, glue it on a false tip, finish the horn nocks, saw of the stick and bore the final and bigger hole.
Thats the way I do it.

Kind regards
Andi

[Bearded bowyer]

sorry but I'm with Del on this.
Why would you want to remove them?
The only reason I can think of is if you are going to do some very intricate carving, and then sell them on.
Much easier just to do it on the bow.

You could use hot glue gun??? That should hold. Then heat up the wood, not the nock because the nock may deform with heat.

Matt

[WillS]

Shaping them off the bow, on separate dowels removes any risk of damaging the bow itself while filing/rasping.  Also, if you cock up one of the nocks you don't have to go to lengths to get it off the bow, while possibly risking the limb to start again. 

It's very, very easy to be shaping away with a rasp and without realising gouge a lump out of the bow limb - at the least it will look horrible with a big hole in the bow limb, and at worst could ruin the limb itself!

It also depends how you prepare the bow before adding the nocks - if you leave the tips wide and thick then glue the raw nock on, it's relatively easy to shape the limb and nock together, leaving a nice smooth transition, but if you tiller right up to final dimensions before adding the nocks and the limbs and tips are already small enough, adding nocks and then having to reduce and sort out the transition area could result in the limbs getting too small!

It's all preference, ain't it 

[toomanyknots]

Much easier just to do it on the bow.

I know this, I would just like to know. 

[toomanyknots]

You could use hot glue gun??? That should hold. Then heat up the wood, not the nock because the nock may deform with heat.

This sounds like a good idea. I am wondering how much heat can the nock take though, especially since parts are so little? Well I guess there is only one way to find out, . I will definitely try this way out soon. I was thinking though I found a good way yesterday, if the nocks only didn't get damaged in the process (I think they were damaged in the process, not entirely sure). Well anyway, I had 3 nocks glued onto the ends of bow tips I sawed off just to try this, the bows had failed in some way or another in the past anyway. The nocks were glued on with loctite gel super glue, so I stuck them in the freezer for a couple hours. Last night I took them out and gently tapped the wooden part on the butt of my hatchet and like clockwork they all came off nice and clean. But I think a couple cracked around the base (they were feathered out real thin), so I'm not sure if this way will damage nocks for sure, or if I made the bases a bit thicker it wouldn't crack? It did spook me a bit about using super glue to glue nocks on, thinking if someone was shooting in the cold, or if a bow got real cold before stringing up and shooting...