How do you put on Siyah/String pads?

[DuBois]

Just wondering how you guys fix the leather or other type of pads that the string rests on and strikes when released.
What materials do you typically use for these and what glues?
Ever use them on working recurves?
Thanks,
Marco

[BowEd]

Dubois....Lots of times super glue soaked and layered vegetable tanned leather filed and sanded to likeable shape works very well.I've used horn before too.Any good durable hardwood can be used I'd think too.
I've never put them on working recurves.

[Bjoern Sofeit]

You can use leather, but antler is the authentic material for that. Just score it and glue it with hideglue, heating and sizing a couple of times with very low % and then 10% and finally thick glue.

[loon]

Tried duco cement, it failed
super glue gel worked.
It was a rather rubber-like string bridge, glued onto wood. so it's strange that the duco didn't work, unless it was some sort of soft flexible plastic. Maybe I just didn't wait long enough (over an hour). But the super glue gel made a very strong bond, very quickly
Leather was authentic on Korean bows. Maybe crimean tatar. And in manchuarchery.org it says that the tsagaan khad bow had leather string bridges. I guess antler was more authentic on Manchu bows

[Bjoern Sofeit]

Antler is without doubt the authentic material for CTs and turkish bows. The bows with bridges from Dresden, Vienna (HGM & Rüstkammer), the Skokloster, the Grayson collection, National Museum of Bargello and the Topkapi all have antler bridges.

It depends what you mean by old korean bows, the ones that are less than 100 years old definitely have leather pads. The one in Crepy and the one in the military museum in Seoul seem to have curiously high string bridges that could also be wooden. I'll find out what it is.

[Bjoern Sofeit]

Asked both the guys that handled these old korean bows. It's very thick leather.

[JNystrom]

May i ask, what is the purpose of string pad? Does it help to track the string better? Or lessen the shock for bow & string? I've never used them before, even though i have built many recurve bows (wood and sinew only).
There obviously is a good reason, since the artifacts have them...

[DuBois]

Thanks folks,
This is a osage sinew bow with working recurves and I am using the pads for both reasons you mentioned JNystrom.
The string is tracking good now actually but I have sort of trapped belly area on recurves/tips and didn't think it through ahead of time to groove them made them thin and a little wide so just gonna pad it to give a little extra stability.
My first string pads so I'm sure others could give mucho mas info than I.

[Bjoern Sofeit]

They're effectively shortening the bow early in the draw, until the string lifts from the pads. Until then, the bow acts as if it was as long as the distance between the pads. Some (longer) hornbows need them to be stable enough to be shot. Check out where Manchu bows have them. Catching and thus centering the string is one of the other reasons why to have such pads.

[JNystrom]

I see, thanks. Must try them someday! I think everyone of us have had that narrow recurve bow which likes to twist way too much...

[DuBois]

I have one curve the string lifts off of when drawn about 3/8" before the other curve does.
Planning to put a thicker pad on the one that lifts off first to get them to leave the pads at the same time.

Does this sound like the right thing to do?

Kinda workin my way up to a horn bow