recommended videos?

[stuckinthemud]

Hi Everyone,

 I have been looking for a while, but there is an ocean of stuff on PVC, shooting, and manufacturers publicity stuff to wade through and I can find very few good quality "how-to" videos. Bearing in mind the warnings about direct links, what on-line videos would you recommend to someone (me   ) starting out on their first horn-bow?

[DC]

There is a "Korean Bow Maker" one on youtube that I've watched a couple of times.

[mikekeswick]

All you need to do is get Adam Karpowzi book
The Korean videos are the best there is. Thomas Devernay (spelling?) made a video of a Korean bowyer making a bow from start to finish. The sound isn't great but the information is all there.

[loon]

Code: [Select]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cicYRzWss74
from koreanarchery.org/punbb forum

A bit unrelated, but.. I've seen talk of a "Korean bench", that is nice and useful, what is it?

man, I need a good adze

[stuckinthemud]

Thanks guys, those videos answered so many questions, although I am un-nerved by the number of times they point out that only the most experienced bowyers are able to do this.....

I guess the Korean bench is the little wooden vice-thing they are sitting behind? I think you could get a blacksmith to re-purpose an old hammer-head into an adze like the one in the video

[loon]

Thanks guys, those videos answered so many questions, although I am un-nerved by the number of times they point out that only the most experienced bowyers are able to do this.....

Don't worry. The Korean target bows are just incredibly difficult to make compared to other types, such as the M Balka bow, Magyar, early Mongol, and even Turkish. Apparently the narrow limbs and tons of reflex just make them very unstable, so they have to be perfect.. at least that's what I've been told.

so the korean bench is also the thing used to put on dojigae? huh

[stuckinthemud]

Yes, its looking more and more likely I'll try a Magyar first; I know Karpowicz reckons grip-reflex bows are inefficient compared to Turkish but it seems to me they might be more straight-forward as a first horn-bow and the dimensions and materials in Benscik's booklet are a huge help too.

[High-Desert]

A YouTube video called "how to construct the Asiatic bow," an eight part series is extremely good as well. It definitely has some good tips.

Eric

[mikekeswick]

A YouTube video called "how to construct the Asiatic bow," an eight part series is extremely good as well. It definitely has some good tips.

Eric

Whilst this video is well meaning, they do do a lot of things 'wrong'. Or at least in a way that means you are more likely to run into trouble later.
Loon why do you think you need an adze? It is actually a very difficult tool to use the way you have seen it used! Plus the way the Koreans use them with abandon is only really possible because of the way bamboo works. You could very quickly ruin a core with one. Just use rasps/files.

[stuckinthemud]

I have had the dubious pleasure of adzing, and I have to agree with Mike, they are really difficult tools to master, an axe is much better for most jobs - I'd have thought a carving axe or a side axe would be a better investment.  Equally I am not sure the Koreans are using them with abandon - the bowyers seem to be breaking the grain to prevent splitting on the first pass, then coming back and removing the bulk of the waste on the next pass.  Videographers like the 'spectacular', I bet the final passes are done much more slowly and carefully, wouldn't mind betting there's a smoothing/finessing section to the process we didn't get to see - the videos always miss bits out - like where the bowyer (subtitles) says he is sculpting the sinew 'like a muscle' but we don't get to see the finished profile - raised edges and a raised centre maybe? or flat-ish centre with raised edges? In fact all the really important sculpted profiles are omitted which is a little frustrating if you have no way of examining the finished product

[mikekeswick]

Yep these videos tend to raise more questions than they answer!
you are correct in that the first pass with axe or adze is to make 'breaker' chips to limit the depth of any cut. Then go over and remove down to the depth of these chips. The core of a hornbow has to be shaped very precisely or else you will end up with twist that is very hard to correct (different thcknesses of materials in the cross section). I guarantee that they smooth out the core with a rasp then a file then probably a scraper.
The back of the core should be curved and the finished sinew layer dead flat across the whole width of the back.

[stuckinthemud]

Thanks Mike.  I put my money where my mouth is and went onto that auction site after I posted yesterdayand bought myself an old hatchet for a tenner that I intend re-profiling for carving as soon as it arrives