Buffalo horn and sinew (update…new non traditional build)

[superdav95]

I have had good luck with these guys:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/806866450/water-buffalo-horn-long-bow-strips-50-70?click_key=c7958bedd6244f6e3cb5a66459f98410d3455c24%3A806866450&click_sum=2d8d3579&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=bufallo+horn&ref=sr_gallery-1-4&organic_search_click=1

They don't show a thickness, is there a standard rough thickness and how thick?

you dont need a lot of horn as far as thickness goes.  you will be suprised at how much you end up taking off.  for a 50-60lbs bow you will hardly need 1/8" thick strip.  If you round or dish it out maybe a little more to start out.  it will taper off out towards the tips.  near the handle more like 3-4 mm thickness.  Alot of this depends on the width of your limbs of course type of bow.  out towards the tip its almost nothing almost see through.  The last bunch of horn i got was plenty thick.  I dont make heavy war bows either so one might need thicker horn strips for war bows.  The korean style bow im working on is only about 1 3/8" wide limbs and the horn is quite thin,  about 2mm then tapering out to nothing essentially.  hope that helps

[Mad Max]

Ok thanks

[superdav95]

There is plenty of thickness with these that I found.  At least when I got mine.   

As for this project it turned out way too heavy for me.  When I got it to low brace after some time and much effort I realized that this bow would likely kill me to try and shoot or if I managed to pull it back I couldn’t trust it not to explode on me.  I may revisit this later but for now trying to pull back a 200 lbs bow is not what I’m after. 

[Robert Pougnier]

I ordered two sets of horn strips from that store. They were both mostly great, there is one with a patch that got sanded down to 2mm but its on the side and can probably situated that near the tip area. Other than that it beats processing raw horn with a coping saw and many steam and clamping sessions.