Post
by jack farrell » Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:32 am
Uli; Do you know the maker's name of this bow? This is important to me.
Here is how the Mongolians repair such a bow. Whether or not you repair this bow depends on whether you want an origional, untouched artifact of Mongolia, which it still is; or if you want a shooting hornbow, which it can still be.
Some years ago, a famous woman archer of Mongolia, Munkhstesteg, came to Ft. Dodge with the bow that she had won 6 national championships with. This bow had three repairs for this exact problem, besides another repair for a lopsided siyah. She shot the bow for 5 days and drew it fully! It was slightly uneven in bend, I would have been afraid to shoot it. But it did not break. I examined her bow closely. She let me measure it, etc.
At each of three weak places, the bow had a horn patch on the belly, 3 to 5 inches in length, the full width of the bow, lozenge shaped, and tapered on all edges. Then the entire bow was wrapped in large, monofilament fishing line from one end to the other. Many people here have seen Mongolian bows wrapped this way. Let us say that it is traditional.
String or sinew wrapping is the MOST common way to repair a horn bow, worldwide. Check it out.
I have a hornbow that I made that has two repairs of horn patches over weak places and the bow is balanced and shootable. In my case, I wrapped the patched area only with heavy thread and painted the repair.
So you decide for yourself to preserve the origionality or the shootability. Jack.
if I continue to use the bow.
