Jere's flightbows

[JNystrom]

Thank you guys. They are, and soon comes the hardest part, to keep your hands off of them for the next months!

NorthHeart: Well you have the sheephornbow for horseback archery also! I think is best to choose the style or original bow as you would like, but only downscale the reflex and poundage.
Like the ottomans, they had really heavy bows in the 120-140 pounds range for flight and war, also heavily reflexed. This not only demands of a strong archer, but superb skills to glue the bow so that when you start to open the full circle it wont destroy into little pieces... I know i'm not that kind of super ottoman yet () so i leave the tips a bit open, and aim lower with the poundage.
If you make any configuration bow with mild curves, reflex and poundage, you will succeed. If you want this kind of ottoman bow for shorter 26-28" draw, if not, choose some crimean tatar for 32" draw and so on. Then there are mongolian bows and such without this aggressive recurves. It's a endless sea of bows, whatever you like. 
If you are interested, i recommend you to buy Adam Karpowizc's book "Ottoman turkish bows, manufacture and design". It's a real goldmine for hornbowyers.

[stuckinthemud]

I was wondering what wood are you using for the core? Its the one thing i am having real trouble sourcing

[JNystrom]

I use maple as limbs and oak as a handle wood. This is norwegian maple, so not exactly sugar maple but pretty close in tightness.

[stuckinthemud]

Thanks, I might get more luck with that - none of the UK suppliers I talked to (I've talked to a LOT of UK timber suppliers) can get more specific than 'hard maple' when I was asking for sugar maple

[JNystrom]

Hmm, well the norwegian maple is a nordic thing. I don't know if it grows anywhere else than in scandinavia and Finland.

Basically the core only need to resist for shear forces and accept glue well. Maple is perfect for that, but if you don't have a heavy, top performer in your mind, you could go for ash, elm, rowan or such. Many of the 0.5sg woods could do. Using soft wood would maybe just make the bow take a little more set. Same thing as in a wood laminate bow. Actually elm and some other hard woods could be even more suitable for heavy heavy composites. I know some guys have made bows using birch and ash.
There is a old mongol bow found that had core made of willow. Well there are many willow species, so hard to say exactly more about it, just that many species of wood has been used if there wasn't any better.

[willie]

stuck

hardwood sorting in the US classifies maples into hard maple and soft maple, so if the wood was from there..... its most likely what we call sugar

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https://www.woodworkerssource.com/shop/category/1_domestic_wood.html
the grading specs are

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https://www.woodworkerssource.com/shop/grad.html

wood from Canada might also follow the north american standard NHLA, but these standards are voluntary, so you might have to see if your wood actually is graded

[stuckinthemud]

Thanks Willie, yes, the maple is a US import, so that is really useful info, and if I remember right, some of the UK timber merchants do import Scandinavian timbers, so I think I'll have another ring-around and see if I can come up with something.  Thanks both, am indebted to you.

[stuckinthemud]

Found a supplier about an hour from me with two 4m-long, US import, hard maple boards who will put them to one side for me until I can get up there in a few weeks time - happy days !!  Just hope they're quarter or rift-sawn....

[JNystrom]

Sounds good! Like i said, i'd try just about any "hard maple". 

I've made some progress with the bows, so now begins the hardest part of keeping your hands off of them! Well, i can at least shape the nocks while their curing....
This was the most i could dare to reflex them, on the next bow i might go tips-crossing reflex.
Sal's are 12,5mm to 13,4mm thick so there is possibility for 150 pound bow if one dares.

[gorazd]

 
Looks great !

[NorthHeart]

Looking great for sure, im staying tuned in.

[JNystrom]

Here is one flight bow that i just finished. This is the same bow that was braced on the first page.
Eventually it came out pretty light, 11,5mm thick sals, weight 300 grams and about 80-90 pounds. There was some cracks on the horn which i had to patch with sinew.
As you can see the kasan eye is pretty straight here but the kasans and tips are lighter than the previous bows. Also the bending sections are not as close to the handle as i was wishing. This will be fixed in the bows coming next. Also a mistake was made when i heat up the sals too much and lost quite a lot of reflex.

I just opened a new bow that has all these problems fixed, its almost tillered ready and with a lot more reflex and thickness in the limbs. Its also shorter. Just shows what you can do when you learn more and more.

[bassman]

Wow beautifully done.That is what I call real bow building.