# 2 Ipe triple laminate warbow 120lb 32''

[Mikkolaht]

I finished the second stave, this time the longer one.
These both were supposed to be 70lb bows but i get carried away easily.
And the laminates were too thick to begin with, i had no previous experience with ipe.
Lets hope they legalize moose hunting with bows in Finland soon...

84.6'''/ 215cm long
81.5''/ 207cm nock to nock
120lb 32'' draw

This one doesn't have D cross section, it has more square cross section.






This time i wanted to make sure i grip the bow from the right position.
The plate is 1'' up from the middle.
The handle is 1''(2.5cm) up from middle and 3-1/2''(9cm) down from the middle, making it
4-1/2'' long.(11.5cm)



Ipe/maple/hickory

Ipe laminate 15mm/ slightly less 5/8''
Maple 5mm/ 3/16''
Hickory 5mm/ 3/16''
Width 30mm/ about 1-3/16''
Nock width 15mm/ slightly less 5/8''

Moose horn sidenocks, i left the to be large, i like the natural look on them.



Comparison to the previous bow:

[peacefullymadewarbows]

That's a sweet duo there. Those should be some super durable bows with the woods you chose for them. I like the unstrung profile and your tiller is already spot on.

[Mikkolaht]

Yeah, the ipe brothers there 

It looks funny, reflex middle deflex tips, kinda like reverse reflex deflex look 

Thanks alot!

[DC]

Beautiful bow. When you're bracing it doesn't the string hang up on the tips when they aren't tapered in nicely?

[Mikkolaht]

Thank you.

The bracing string stays at its place. The horns are tapering just slightly. That is enough for them to keep the sting from slipping in to the actual string groove.
 

[DC]

Of course, you're using a bracing string. Yeah that would work. I was thinking push pull. Don't think push pull would work with a 130# bow

[WillS]

Very nice!  Great full draw shape too.

Those nocks are HUGE but it's lovely to see someone else who doesn't put the second stringer groove in, when using sidenocks.  I think they look much better with just one groove!

[Mikkolaht]

Yeah, it makes the bow look more natural!
Thank you.

[meanewood]

I think you lose some of the 'authentic' look if you reduce the size of antler nocks,

Some of them have great colour and texture which is lost when filing down.

By the way Will, I'm finishing up the Yew bow from the larger of the 2 stave's you gave me.

I'm thinking of carving the nocks as close to the 'Mary Rose' nock shape as possible.

Do you think the original was shaped with a file or carved with a blade?

[WillS]

Awesome, I'm looking forward to seeing that!

There's no way of knowing of course, but I'd say knife.  It's how I do mine now, and is very quick.  You also get little "signatures" when using a knife which I believe are present on the original too. 

What a lot of people are still doing is using great chunks of horn, chopping the shape down with a bandsaw or rasp and then trying to "fake" the shape with files.  If you just use the small tip of a cow horn there's no need for any of that, you just take the shoulder down and ease the point down slightly and you're there. 

Certainly the string groove is done with a knife, as that's the only way to get the sidenock looking like the original, instead of using those horrible tile saws and trying to open it up afterwards.

[peacefullymadewarbows]

Hey Will can you describe how you would use a knife to cut a side nock? I've never heard that as a possibility before and just assumed that the bowyers had files and rasps by then. I can't imagine trying to cut the deeply into horn with a blade considering how tough it is. Do you think they had serrated knife blades?

[WillS]

They would have most definitely had serrated blades, there have been lots found.  They had serrated swords too

That said, you don't need one.  I just use a Stanley knife / carpet knife.  Remember you're only cutting into a few mm of horn, you're not trying to dig through a great chunk of the stuff.  A properly shaped horn nock should just be a thin sheathe over the wooden tip.

The problem most people have is they buy thick blocks of buffalo horn, so big they have to use bandsaws to shape the things, and then try cutting a nock groove using a tile saw or something.  That's how you make Victorian nocks with modern tools.  If you use the very tip of a cow horn, it's already shaped for you, it's nice and thin when you've bored the hole for the tip and cutting the nock is a very quick job with a blade.

It's hard to describe, really.  Try it - it's amazing what you discover when you put away the modern tools!  The other one is horn inserts for arrows.  Most people either buy massively thick slabs of buffalo horn and end up with a great black stripe down the arrow, or they use sandpaper/belt sander and remove half the strip.  As soon as you're reduced to using a simple knife blade, you quickly find a way of splitting horn lengthways to give you three perfect thickness strips from one commercial slab, or better still able to take the same thickness piece from a complete horn.

Looking at the actual artefacts gives lots of clues too - there aren't any file or rasp marks on the bows, but plenty of blade and scraper impressions.  They had a flote, which is essentially a block filled with lots of scraper blades which works really well, and I assume that's about as close as they got to using "rasps" on a bow.

[peacefullymadewarbows]

Thank you! I think I will give it a shot with my next bow. I've a few pairs of cow horn tips like you described where you just lop off the tip and hollow it. I'll have to look into a flote as well as I am guilty of using my nicholson rasp for about everything shaping between roughing out and tillering.  As always your info is appreciated.

[WillS]

There's nothing wrong with using a rasp.  I use them all the time, plus you won't find a flote in this life or the next! 

My point really was that sometimes it's worth taking a step back (if your interest is in making accurate replicas etc) and figuring out how they would have done it, instead of using modern tools to reach the same end goal.  I think we're all guilty of it, but it's only ever a problem when you use modern tools, get a slightly different result to the originals and then state/decide that the design is flawed or "no wonder we stopped doing it this way..."

[Mikkolaht]

Intresting discussion.
Alot to learn there.
I'm going to use only knife for my next horn nocks.
Just to see the end result!