Questions for MB bow.

R.Arins · Post by **R.Arins** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:42 pm

Hi lurz! Watch out for drying the cord too quickly.It may deeply affect the quality of the glue it may turnout to be fragile. I am very interested in way, you created the actual core. You splited wood or used the planer?
Dryed hazel retains the ability to absorb a good amount of glue as it turned out after my experiments because density of the hazel is not particularly high (at least in my country, I think it should be in Norway to ) so there is a place for glue in the wood if compared to the other bow woods used for cores for example, maple, ash, acacia, currant and hazel is light and have no oils in it and it is very common tree. Waiting forward to your outcome to compare with my experiments! Good job.

jkekoni · Post by **jkekoni** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:18 am

Hazel is light ?

Are we talking about the same thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corylus_avellana

It is heavier that birch and about the same as maple.

R.Arins · Post by **R.Arins** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 12:22 pm

Jep, it is the one. We are talking about dried wood only! Maple is a bit heavier and denser, but insignificant heavier. Birches is a very interesting topic. ! Density of birch and weight is very different from where they grow. It can be very light wood and havy also it depends where they grow! BUT it can be sufficiently porous ....It made me think about that when I first heard from my grandfather he said that such bows made at Lake Baikal when he was deported as a prisoner of war to Siberia and he told me the core was made from birch...Strange!! birches are generally much stronger when they are full of water , but birch retains the ability to separate the year rings one from another in laths if you cut them in winter in a bent position ( method is "very" dangerous). You mean Karelian birch ? I do not have experience working with Karelian birch only made one knive handle out of one small peace.

lurz · Post by **lurz** » Sat Aug 02, 2014 8:43 am

Thanks for feedback, all!
Yes, we are talking Hazelnut. As far as I can see there is not that much difference in density between Bich, Hazel and Maple, when you take into account that all species can vary quite a lot.
Think the core dried quite nicely, and will remember to sand when I get aroud to put new sinew on it.
R.Arins - the core was made by making flat the side away from the bark, forming, heat-bending and gluing the core. After that the bark side was made flat, and the core reduced in thikness with a rasp before horn was glued on. So, guess it would be nearest to what you call "planer"?

mikekeswick · Post by **mikekeswick** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:08 am

When the sinew layers delaminate you can tap the area with your finger tip and the delaminated section will make a different noise. Then you can investigate further.

lurz · Post by **lurz** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 1:17 pm

Hazel bow finally finished. Not much of a bow really, just 32# @23", not 100% straight, and some lengthwise cracks in the horn.. At this draw length the string angle is nearly 90 degrees, and it stacks hard. Seems I got the siyah angle all wrong. Sinew is cowered with thin rawhide, paint is egg/oil tempera and natural pigments.
But at least the repair worked, and the hazel core is holding up for now. A little more than 50 shots at full draw I would guess. Thanks for all help, think I'm finished with it now....

jkekoni · Post by **jkekoni** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:00 am

Sucesfull horn bow, is a great thing.

I have been saying hazel works, if you use wood that has been dried before immersing. This has been my experience when bending the wood.
It bends almoust as well as mapple.

Unfortunalely I have not been able to make a functioning bow for various reasons, not including hazel.

Now I would say that we have established that hazel is sound wood for core.

NOTE:If you boil green hazel or immersed green hazel that has not been dried, then it is likely to make problems and is certainly NOT recommended.

mikekeswick · Post by **mikekeswick** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 9:27 am

Jkekoni - Why do you think there is this difference you have noticed between dried and green hazel?

J Menna · Post by **J Menna** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 1:59 pm

Lurz, Nice bow. Working hornbow is always something and always can hit better whit new one.
Maybe it is risky to try more heavy bow from hazel... Or over 50lbs
Kasan angles looks quite low to my eye and thats reason for heavy stackin. I made that mistake whit my first Ottoman bow.
But it looks good!

Joko · Post by **Joko** » Fri May 25, 2018 2:22 am

lurz wrote: ↑Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:19 pm Then it's finished!
Thanks for telling me to try birchbark. It worked quite well in the end. Initially it was frustrating, because the bark would not keep down as I tried to glue it on. But after I made the bark even thinner, and found a technique to twist 3-5cm strips from plastic bags around the bow to tie the bark down as I put it on, it became quite easy. I left them on for maybe a small hour until the glue gelled, then I could remove the plastic to let the glue dry properly. The decorations is taken from early medieval belt ends finds fram Crimea, and painted with green earth pigment in egg and hide glue as binder. Thanks again all, without ATARN it would be no bow!

and I see from the picure that the arrow-pass should be moved down a little...

very nice bow! how long the seasoning time for this bow?

lurz · Post by **lurz** » Sat May 26, 2018 7:54 pm

Six years ago now I can see from the "finished" post, so it's hard to remember. But I would think somewhere between 4 and 6 moths. Probably closer to 4, impatient.
But i'm happy to say it's still my main shooting bow

, after a repair after a small delaminating close to the siyah. To short horn. Had to retiller a bit, so it lost some pounds, a bit over 40 now I think.

Questions for MB bow.

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