Boiling cores or dy heating??

[Bede]

There is an English translation of a report on the workshop of the last bowmaker in Chengdu in the 1940s. T'an Tan-Chiung, Investigative Report on Bow and Arrow Manufacture in Chengtu, a reprint from the Soochow University Journal of Chinese Art History, Vol. XI July 1981. It describes the working practices, had photographs and diagrams of tools and workmen in the shop plus many details of the processes and bows and arrows.

The basic bow core is made from a strip of bamboo with v-splices at each end for the ears. The handle is glued onto the back of the core. The ridged part of the ear (the "brain" in translation) is cut into a wedge to fit into the core fishtail splice and has a smaller v-splice at the other end for the tip. The brain is usually made from a naturally curved piece of wood. The tips are cut with a slight concavity on the back and a slight convexity on the belly.

Counting the glued on riser at the handle, there are six pieces in the core. There is a small amount of set back in the handle caused by the shape of the riser. The bamboo core is thinned where the riser is to be glued. It was not unusual to have an extra piece glued into the tip for the nock to be carved into. This was often horn and the joint was a fishtailed splice. All the wood was cut when green and seasoned when partially finished. The report notes that historical bows from North China had a wooden core instead of a bamboo one.

[Jake Levi]

Your suggestion is what I am doing this week, I have two cores I amnot going to use except for pcs to make siyahs from. I am going to soak both in a stock tank for a couple of weeks, then let them dry for a day, then dry heat one end at a time and clamp into a form, then heat and clamp the other end, and leave in the form at least a week. After a week or two in the form I will unclamp and see how they are. To date I have never had a problem with dry heat bending, even without the soaking. So we shall see, I will post back on this as to how it works.

The form also allows for deflexing the handle an inch, and the tips reflexing about 3". The siyahs I will splice in after the reflexing. They are long after the Manchu style.

Adams book has been a great help to fill in anything I cant find on the Manchu/Mongol construction. I do have Thomas Duvarneys videos on building the Korean Bow, but in length they are much closer to the Turkish Bow. Wheras within the Mongol Bows I find both short horse bows and longer bows.

[Bede]

Adam's book is a great resource and generally the techniques he describes can be applied with little change to other types of composite bow. The order of constructing the core was to apply the riser to the central bamboo section and then add the tips, but the book is not clear about whether the two parts of the ear were glued together before being fitted to the core or were added one after the other. What is emphasised is that at each stage of construction the straightness of all the parts were checked and any deviation was corrected by heat.

There are also some problems with measurements; sometimes mm is written were cm is meant, but it is easy to spot the inconsistencies.

[mikekeswick]

Could you post a picture of the bow you intend to make?

[Jake Levi]

Mike the best photos online for the profile is on Justin Ma's Cinnabar Bow site, cinnabarbow.com, just google that, then click onto the Mariner Bows, and the Qing Bow #2, its the same overal length of mine.

Mine though composite, these are glass and bamboo. I put some pairs of test splices to soak yesterday, for different gluing tests, Titebond 3, two kinds of hide glue, and smooth-on. All same size and thickness, I will glue them and let each dry a couple of weeks and see how the two commercial glues do after then and the hide glues go for a month.

Meanwhile, I am working on one piece core forms, should have them done this week, and can heat treat each end separately and bend. Boiled or dry heated.

I am aiming for the profile of the Qing #2 bow. At least for the first 3 . I have the horn coming for the first 2 bows from Stivintiger. The forms will have sides for belly and back for putting on the horn then the sinew. Whitetail hind leg sinew from last seasons hunting. Ours and some from friends.

Adams book is a treasure chest of information, I refer back to it continually. I have had some suggestions from a couple bowyer friends who make composite bows also. I am in no hurry on these, I do hope to have one or two far enough along to take to the Chinese Archery workshop in Odom GA next March. For critque, not shooting, I will give then ample time to season as there will be a lot of sinew on them.