Thanks! - those are some valuable numbers for my mind to adjust to. The amount of string follow is quite surprising, considering the curled up shape of some original bows. But I guess this is to be expected from this design then, after similar reports from three bows. Alex Wittenaars bow being the third.
Do you think it would be possible to make these bows with a tip-touching core before glueing the horn? To me it seems like most composites only creep back to the shape the horn+core had before sinewing. With the horn thoroughly covered by sinew, there might also be less of a problem with the horn popping off because of the glued in reflex in the bending portions.
Historically I thought stringing time of more than a week would have been quite common for most composites? What air humidity could the crab bows mainly have been used in. Bede?
crab bow (nearly) strung
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Kviljo
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Adam Karpowicz
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I do not see the string follow to be so extreme as you suggest. Right now, afte a day and a half, the bow returned back to about 6 inches of reflex. And, if the heat treatment I used on the kasans was not done, the bow would now have about 9-10 inches of reflex.
In bows having so much sinew as these ones, I actually expect to see more reflex after years of storage (unstrung of course). It is because the sinew with glue are the most "reactive" materials in a bow. Both react to the humidity changes more than horn or wood. The reaction, when the stress is removed, is directed to contract the sinew layer as the former strains are released - both (and especially so) in high humidity and in higher temperature. So, after years of fluctuations the bows re-acquire a lot of reflex, possibly even more than first tillered.
I think it is possible the bows were made with tips touching from the start, similarly to the Korean bows, because the stresses in the limbs are not very high in the relatively thinner limbs and longer sals.
Adam
In bows having so much sinew as these ones, I actually expect to see more reflex after years of storage (unstrung of course). It is because the sinew with glue are the most "reactive" materials in a bow. Both react to the humidity changes more than horn or wood. The reaction, when the stress is removed, is directed to contract the sinew layer as the former strains are released - both (and especially so) in high humidity and in higher temperature. So, after years of fluctuations the bows re-acquire a lot of reflex, possibly even more than first tillered.
I think it is possible the bows were made with tips touching from the start, similarly to the Korean bows, because the stresses in the limbs are not very high in the relatively thinner limbs and longer sals.
Adam