My horn bow build-a-long

[DC]

Waiting for the laths to dry. This part sucks.

[bownarra]

Yup.....

[DC]

OK back to it. That's long enough. Lathes on the form. Lathes off the form. Sanding the lumps off the workbench so it's nice and true and marking the centreline on the lathes. I had to spend some time getting them nice even width and straight so they didn't rock back and forth on the workbench. I need a straight centreline so I can saw the "V" accurately.

[DC]

The handle section is Ocean Spray. It was nice having the lathes way to long so I could use both handle section points on the centerline. Trial fit and an idea of what it may look like. Not glued yet. I can't get used to the short working length of the limb. Right around 8". Crazy.

[DC]

And here it is glued.  5 or 6 sizing coats of 10% and glued with 30%. Boy, I'm having trouble trusting this hide glue. I've glued a few things and they've stayed together but it's sure tempting to use epoxy

[bownarra]

Collagen glue is the only sensible way to go. Don't use epoxy you will be glad you didn't later.
The sals look short and the kasans too long. On your first it is best to go with a less stressed design as Adam mentions.

[DC]

I thought the sal looked short but I couldn't find any measurements anywhere. I thought I was roughly following the two examples Adam gave(the 47" and 41" examples) but I guess not. This whole build is starting to pi$$ me off. maybe I'll just make shoehorns out of the horn.

[DC]

Last couple of days have not gone well. I've been trying to cut matching grooves in the horn and core. Even if you make a form for the grooving tool to follow the teeth follow the grain of the wood and the grooves don't end up straight. It's easier to groove the horn as it's grainless but still, all that has to happen is for the tool to jump a groove once and then from then on that's where the tool goes. Seems rather strange that the tool would rather follow a crooked line than a straight one but that seems to be the rule. Same thing happens on the wood. Fortunately Adam says that with a light bow you don't need matching grooves so I will forge on with sorta matching grooves and sals that are too short.

[Woodely]

Be interesting to see how you tiller such a beast and brace it.  Hopefully it turns out well. 

my last one piece bow broke.. so I decided to make 2 sets of limbs for a takedown,  that way I know at least one pair of limbs wont break.   That bow had perfect cast, smoothness and draw.  After 9 years of doing this it was the best.   

[DC]

I had a little talk with myself. I'm better now I think. I watched some of JWB's videos on grooving and he does it exactly as I was so I gave it some thought. All I could come up with was my scraper may not be sharp enough. I resharpened it as best as I could paying particular attention to face where the burrs are from filing. I ran it over a stone to get it nice and smooth. That seemed to help quite a bit. It's now sharp enough to cut new grooves rather than just follow what's there. I managed to straighten out some wiggles on the horn.
 I decided that the sal/kasan bend could be a little less abrupt so I heated it while stretching out the bow. It looks a little better now. After it cools I'll try the sharpened groove cutter on the wood. If worse comes to worse I have enough to sand the old grooves off and cut new ones.
 I also made up this little tool. I just bent the tang on the same size file I used to cut the teeth in the grooving tool. The file lays in the partly cut grooves and I can straighten out slight wiggles.

[DC]

Be interesting to see how you tiller such a beast and brace it.  Hopefully it turns out well. 

my last one piece bow broke.. so I decided to make 2 sets of limbs for a takedown,  that way I know at least one pair of limbs wont break.   That bow had perfect cast, smoothness and draw.  After 9 years of doing this it was the best.

This is the toughest bowyering project I've taken on. It's brought me to my knees a couple of times so far. Bracing and tillering scares me but I'm not there yet by a long shot. I'll cross that bridge if or when i get to it

[ohma2]

DC you got this ,know you have the skill and desire so hang in man and i for one bet you build a fine bow .
i just got out of the hospital again and i guess i bought a little more time ,BUT i sure want to see it together and you standing  in the yard at full draw. 

[DC]

Thanks ohma2 I'll rush as much as I can but a lot is just waiting for stuff to dry. You hang in there

[DC]

Groovey I'm happier with this. I managed to correct the horn but I had to sand off the core and start again. It went straightforward this time. Now I can start sizing.

[DC]

OK the first horn strip is glued up. My gut says the glue was a little thin but it's the 35-40% "the book" says. It was dribbling all over. I used clamps instead of the rope. I figured speed was the thing, gitter done before it gels.