Images of broken north Indian bow for study

Uli · Post by **Uli** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 11:45 am

same opinion as Jack and Chris.
the cover might have been thin leather

although its tempting to make the kasan ridge from sinew,
its amazing to see that at least the splice region must have had a sinew ridge.

.. and note how knots in the wooden core of the limb were put to the splice regions of grip and siyah.

Chris Boyton · Post by **Chris Boyton** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:09 pm

I'm still undecided about whether to expose more of the hidden parts of this bow.
I faintly remember a conversation with a friend many years ago about broken or disected bows he had studied, and in some cases the ridge was part of a splice which was left in the square, with the corners and ridge filled in with sinew to get the shape needed. I personally think there is some timber in the ridge, but it's only a guess.

Uli, you mentioned knots, but there is only one small pin knot, which as you say is near the grip. I can tell from the feather of the grain that the timber in the limb is taken from a small diameter stem or branch, where one might expect to find a few small pin knots.
Chris Boyton.

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:38 pm

What a dilemma, to further destroy the bow to gain some information or to leave the remaining evidence of the bow's once finished state.

I was also wondering of the joinery hidden under the last of the sinew but would also be reluctant to finish off the old work.

Dusan · Post by **Dusan** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 7:26 am

Thank you Chris. great pics !

PAZUZU · Post by **PAZUZU** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 10:10 pm

Chris
do you have an idea where to spread the horn in kasan?
thank you
PAZUZU

Chris Boyton · Post by **Chris Boyton** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:19 pm

PAZUZU wrote:Chris
do you have an idea where to spread the horn in kasan?
thank you
PAZUZU

The sinew covers the kasan right up to the shoulder, so it's hard to see where the horn terminates.
Chris.

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:47 pm

At the broken point of the "sal", where the grip V-splice ends, what would you say the thickness of the horn and the core is? On the overview-picture of the bow, the horn seems to be quite thick. I bet there are large differences from bow to bow regarding this, but it would be nice to adjust the horn/wood-ratio to something authentic (for my/our to-be crab bows). Most bows does not seem to give off this information easily, but this one seems to be quite willing to tell...

Chris Boyton · Post by **Chris Boyton** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:54 pm

Kviljo wrote:At the broken point of the "sal", where the grip V-splice ends, what would you say the thickness of the horn and the core is? On the overview-picture of the bow, the horn seems to be quite thick. I bet there are large differences from bow to bow regarding this, but it would be nice to adjust the horn/wood-ratio to something authentic (for my/our to-be crab bows). Most bows does not seem to give off this information easily, but this one seems to be quite willing to tell...

Measured next to the end of the grip splice, the horn is 5mm and the wood core is 4mm. These measurements were taken with a tape measure, not a vernier caliper or micrometer, but I was very careful, so they are resonably accurate.
Chris.

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:36 pm

Chris; You could make a razor blade cut along the ridge of the siyah and take off half the remaining sinew and leave the other side intact. The joinery would be visible as would be the sinew remaining.

Uli · Post by **Uli** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 8:56 am

hehe

good idea ..

Adam Karpowicz · Post by **Adam Karpowicz** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:29 am

I do see shallow, parallel grooving on the horn/wood surfaces, which were put on after the random (or diagonal) marks left by rasping the surfaces. And the surfaces of both horn and wood were rasped/filed under sinew on the back and the belly.

I think it should be possible to poke into the sinew on the ridge with a needle to follow the existing damage. This way the depth of sinew could be estimated. I saw a sawn section of a crab bow at the ridge where the ridge was mostly moulded in sinew. The horn went up the kasans about one third of the way and was very thin there.

The "leather" may actually be an undercoat or a priming coat. I do not see the "leather" to form a distinct layer, which should be retained as such and separate from paint. The fibrous texture of leather could be seen under a magnifying glass. These bows were usually only painted.

Great pictures, thanks Chris

Adam

Chris Boyton · Post by **Chris Boyton** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 6:02 pm

Adam Karpowicz wrote:I do see shallow, parallel grooving on the horn/wood surfaces, which were put on after the random (or diagonal) marks left by rasping the surfaces. And the surfaces of both horn and wood were rasped/filed under sinew on the back and the belly.

I think it should be possible to poke into the sinew on the ridge with a needle to follow the existing damage. This way the depth of sinew could be estimated. I saw a sawn section of a crab bow at the ridge where the ridge was mostly moulded in sinew. The horn went up the kasans about one third of the way and was very thin there.

The "leather" may actually be an undercoat or a priming coat. I do not see the "leather" to form a distinct layer, which should be retained as such and separate from paint. The fibrous texture of leather could be seen under a magnifying glass. These bows were usually only painted.

Great pictures, thanks Chris

Adam

Adam,
I did try with a needle, but the sinew is very hard, and the needle started to bend under the pressure, so no result there. Jack's idea of cutting half way with a scalpel sounds good, but I will have to be completlely relaxed and in my workshop to do a decent job of that, but I will give that one some thought, and post back pictures if I do.

Regarding the finish you might be right about not being leather, although it is hard even with a lens to tell, as the surface looks frazzled as if the bow was exposed to heat or steam at some time in the past.

I re-measured the thickness of the horn next to the end of the grip splice using a micrometer, and it is 5.7mm, and a total of 9.6mm with the core.
Chris.

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 6:55 pm

Hehe, what a coincidence! I just checked, and my bow actually has the same core+horn thickness at that point - 9,6mm!
But it seems that your bow has more horn than I used, a little contrary to what I have gotten the impression of before with these bows, although it is not surprising that there was some variation to these bows too. Thanks for the effort again!

Chris Boyton · Post by **Chris Boyton** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:05 pm

Kviljo wrote:Hehe, what a coincidence! I just checked, and my bow actually has the same core+horn thickness at that point - 9,6mm!
But it seems that your bow has more horn than I used, a little contrary to what I have gotten the impression of before with these bows, although it is not surprising that there was some variation to these bows too. Thanks for the effort again!

Glad to be of help.
Chris.