Kviljos second hornbow "M. Balka"

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 9:51 am

Ken, hehe, I'm starting to understand the low-weight bows too now, and at the same time considering making a shooting machine for the heavier bows.

I haven't been able to find the time to practise enough to be shooting the heavier bows.

Actually the 30-ish pound MB has been hanging in a museum exhibition for the last years, as a representative of one of the horn bow types. Maybe not the best representative, but fair for the non-expert.

Arry, yeah, one limb is a bit stiffer than the other. I kept having to put my knee against the weaker limb to balance it, but it seems to be alright. That's the cool thing about making the bows symmetrical, so it is possible to flip it around to let the weaker limb point up. I guess the effect is more pronounced with a three finger draw than a thum draw though.

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:01 am

By the way, as you may see from one of the pictures, I have used a horn strip that is quite a bit narrower than the wood core in the limbs close to the grip. Like in the crab bows, I filled in the gaps on both sides of the horn with sinew. I used rabbit skin glue there, as I thought it would cope better with the compression then, and it seems to have worked nicely. For the back I used a mixture of hide and bladder glue.

10mm horn + core and 3mm sinew on the bending sections close to the handle.

Kyudohund · Post by **Kyudohund** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 12:49 pm

Congratulation! Very fine bows!

Peter

Arry · Post by **Arry** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:54 pm

Kviljo, do I understand correctly: Your horn strip has a thickness of 10mm in the bending section?

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 3:04 pm

Thanks, Peter

Arry, the horn and wood core is 10mm together, with an overall thickness of 13mm. Not sure, but I think the horn alone was 5,5mm at the bending section close to the handle.

Arry · Post by **Arry** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:36 pm

Ha, all right, thanks!

KenH · Post by **KenH** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 6:28 pm

"shooting machine"?? Some of us call that a crossbow prod

Mount it on a tripod!

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sat Apr 27, 2013 6:55 pm

Hehe, yes, I guess it will be sort of ballista-ish

I was a little off with my estimation of the draw weight of the bow, by the way. It's 70 pounds at 28 inches, and not 50 as I thought

The string is 49 inches long.

I've been shooting some 30 arrows from it tonight, and must admit I'm a little impressed by the performance. After the shooting I did some measuring and plotted a graph of the draw weight. I think it looks fairly alright, with "let off" quite early in the draw.

Todd the archer · Post by **Todd the archer** » Sun Apr 28, 2013 11:50 am

Great work, did you put any bone plates on this bow?

Todd

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sun Apr 28, 2013 12:57 pm

Thanks - no bone on this one, except for the "celik" butted inbetween the horns in the grip. Siyahs are ash with natural grown angle at the tips, while the limbs are maple, and a small piece of oak for the grip. Don't think there's any bone in the original either.

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sun May 05, 2013 6:50 am

Yesterday I shot three arrows for distance yesterday with the mongolian bow, and got these distances when drawn my maximum drawlength (30"?) with three fingers:

* English "Standard" arrow made of ash, weighing 55 grams = 189 meters
* 1/2" English "Livery" war arrow made of ash, weighing 82 gram = 137 meters
* 11/32" Parallell pine shaft with bodkin and 2,5" long parabola fletchings = 208 meter

Uli · Post by **Uli** » Sun May 05, 2013 7:17 am

very nice bow ! and thank you for data.

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sat May 18, 2013 8:01 pm

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Sat May 18, 2013 9:49 pm

I strung and tillered the hungarian today. After being strung for half a day, it settled to a little over 80 pounds at 28 inches. It does stack more than the mongolian, but it has very little hand shock. - the mongolian on the other hand has more hand shock, but is very smooth to draw.

I'm wondering if this could be expected due to the angles of the bows. Much of the movement on the hungarian is outwards due to the high grip and siyah angle, while the limbs on the mongolian move more forwards-backwards when drawn and shot. Similar experiences?

The tips still need some final adjustments, and the bow need to be covered.

Botondbow · Post by **Botondbow** » Sun May 19, 2013 10:40 am

Kviljo wrote:I strung and tillered the hungarian today. After being strung for half a day, it settled to a little over 80 pounds at 28 inches. It does stack more than the mongolian, but it has very little hand shock. - the mongolian on the other hand has more hand shock, but is very smooth to draw.

I'm wondering if this could be expected due to the angles of the bows. Much of the movement on the hungarian is outwards due to the high grip and siyah angle, while the limbs on the mongolian move more forwards-backwards when drawn and shot. Similar experiences?

The tips still need some final adjustments, and the bow need to be covered.

Congratulations for your bow!
Should I give you an advice the tips would have triangular cross-sections and possible finalized with antler applications like these type of bows from that era.

Examples of triangular cross-sections (Magyarhomorog, grave 103 reconstruction):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6dq3qqf4z0vf44o/AB7.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hejjx3v17mfi90p/AB8.JPG