Thoughts on making a hungarian hornbow...

[Jerry K]

Hello, everyone.
Perhaps I should start with introducing myself.
My name is Jerry, and I live in V?rmland, Sweden. I have been shooting with a Kassai fibreglass bow for three years, and just recenently got myself a Scythian fibreglass bow from Gr?zer.
I have been visiting this site for many months, and I have found much useful information, and many exciting projects.

Anyway, I?m planning to eventually building an hungarian hornbow.
After what I?ve read and seen, these shouldn?t be too hard to make (in comparison to an korean hornbow, for example.) I have been looking at differnt types of hungarian bow, and I would like to try to make an mixture of these two models:
http://nomadbows.com/htm/G4_Baskir/g/index.html
http://nomadbows.com/htm/G5_Osmagyar/g/index.html
(I want the bow to look like the "Bashkir", the first one, type when it?s strung, but like the "Old hungarian", the second one, when it?s unstrung.)
I do have some thoughts of making the siyhas longer, though. I?m planning to make the bow in about 60# strength, because I?ve read that the bows design starts to "work" better at this draw weight, am I right?

Anyway, my questions to you are the following:
Can I use hide glue to glue together the whole bow? I have been eperimenting with making glue from some dogchew?s (spelling?) and it seems to work. I know that there might be some better glues around, but I have limited resources.

Is ash a good type of wood to be used as a core?

Is "Highland Horn" a good shop/ site to get some horns from? About how much does two horns cost, usually?

Well, I have some more questions in storage, but I?ll think that these might be enough for now.
Have a nice day!
/Jerry

[mikekeswick]

Hi Jerry, first off I'll start by saying that I am far from an expert!
I would strongly recommend getting Adam K's book it tells you everything you need to know.
I get my horn from Highland Horn - the horns I have got are good quality but don't get them pre-cut - they cut a strip that is too thick = lots of waste.
Hide glue is good but make sure you skim off all the fatty stufff when you are making it.
I don't think ash is upto the job from what I have read. Try and find some maple.
Hope this helkps

[Jerry K]

Hello Mike, and thank you for the quick answer!
I have been thinking a bit more of what you wrote, + my very little experience of hide glue, and came to the conclusion that I perhaps should try this kind of glue and sinew on an experimental bow first, like a simple longbow or similar, rather than run right on a horn bow.
I think that I?l get my hands in one of those books and read it carefully before I try to make a real hornbow.
But, I might be ordering some horns from Highland Horn anyway, they might become usuable in the future!
Anyway, thank you!

[jack farrell]

Jerry; Spend your time before you spend your money.

[Peto]

Jerry; Spend your time before you spend your money.

Exactly my words (and my way)...

[Botondbow]

Hello everyone,

Before I would post a reply for Jerry K, please let me also introduce myself ?cause I?m a greenhorn here however, I?ve been reading ATARN forums for years.
My name is Peter Bencsik and I live in Hungary. I?m really interested in Hungarian archery and bows. I always make personally all my archery staff (bows, arrows, quivers, ect?) and it gives me the only satisfaction. After some fiber and laminated bows, roughly two years ago I finished my first horn bow. Frankly, still I do not know a lot about how to make a ?good? HUN horn bow but I?m chasing the success.

For Jerry K:
Some says that one of the easiest bow to make is the HUN bow. Additionally, the performance of HUN bows cannot be comparable with later ?invented? bows such as Turkish or Korean.
However, based on not just my pure experience but also some great authority HUN bows can have also a very high performance (regardless the heavy and long tips) if it?s made perfectly.
So please believe me, making an acceptable quality level HUN horn bow is not a snap work! The biggest challenge is how to make a high performance HUN bow keeping the authentic feature.
Unfortunately, I had to re-invent nearly every steps of bow making which was an uphill struggle! That?s why I?ve made a lot of mistakes because nobody helped or advised me!

I would also suggest like others:
? first, buy Adam?s book (I received it last week, thanks Adam!) ?cause its brilliant,
? study and read as much as you can (ATARN and other forums),
? and finally, dare to start the bow making because theory is very different from practice! Only the practice (and sometimes mistakes) educates effectively you!

Sorry for the long post!

v/r

Peter

[Jerry K]

Thank you all for you replies, especially yours Peter, it gave me a lot of thinking of.
I sure will get my hands on one of those books, and read it carefully before making any complicated bow.
I sure will spend time before spending money on buying things I really cant handle.

[Botondbow]

Sorry for my poor English, I wanted to say under the last bullet:

? do not hesitate and dare to start the bow making.....(I encourage you)

v/r

Peter

[jkekoni]

>I have been eperimenting with making glue from some dogchew
Dogchew is rawhide, thus glue made of it is hideglue.

[jack farrell]

Botond and Jerry and all; Welcome to the forum. Peter; I saw your site. This is an interesting beginning. Keep up the good work.

It seems like you have finished some hornbows. have you shot them? How do they work? I am wondering if the straight grain in the siyah has become a problem? And what are the poundages of your finished bows?

I would also like to point out to the others that satisfaction is the whole point in this type of archery. It would be difficult to be satisfied reconstructing Magyar/Hunnic archery using another style of bow.

[Botondbow]

Botond and Jerry and all; Welcome to the forum. Peter; I saw your site. This is an interesting beginning. Keep up the good work.

It seems like you have finished some hornbows. have you shot them? How do they work? I am wondering if the straight grain in the siyah has become a problem? And what are the poundages of your finished bows?

I would also like to point out to the others that satisfaction is the whole point in this type of archery. It would be difficult to be satisfied reconstructing Magyar/Hunnic archery using another style of bow.

Jack,

Thanks for your welcome, I really appreciate it!
So far I?ve finished six horn bows and other two are under the seasoning process.
All six bows are working, I broke only one bow during the tillering in the past.
Me and my two sons are archers and we participate on different type of competitions with my horn bows.

Honestly, the performance of my bows still a little far from my expectation however, e.g. the my birch-barked bow (68Lbs) reached 186fps with a 29g arrows and last months during my first fly-shooting competition (there is a video also available) I shot 186,9m distance with the snake-skin one (70Lbs) using 45g arrows.

I know that these results are still poor and cannot be comparable with records but it satisfies me and I?m learning a lot during my study.

Concerning the poundage:
? birch-barked HUN ? 68Lbs (28?)
? bamboo-core HUN ? 52Lbs (28?)
? painted HUN (kid) ? 34Lbs (28?)
? barren type (kid) ? 36Lbs (26?)
? short-tipped HUN ? 40Lbs (28?)
? snake-skin HUN ? 70Lbs (28?)

Frankly speaking, at the beginning I did not dare to give any reflex to the grip-limb section resulting the strange strait feature and maybe the poor performance. Now, I?m getting braver and braver and I use bigger reflex (challenging the borderlines of possibilities).

In my country, my aim is to popularize the HUN horn bows among traditional archers. In the near future I?m gonna create an English version of my site also but it needs time. Until then if you have any question I?ll answer or should you use the google (or other) translator hopefully you might also understand a little my challenging language.

v/r

Peter

[Ponty]

Hi everybody.
Here is my Hun bow, and if interested I can give you an info how I did (not necessarily the right way....)

[Botondbow]

Hi Ponty,
I'm interested in all details (ntn size, lbs, etc?) and the construction.
Would you also show some pictures of your unbraced and braced bow.

[Botondbow]

Reply for Dusan:

Concerning your bows? show, well? I do not understand the reason of your decision but I should accept it! You may be so shy or there is something else behind it!
Personally, I do not like showing my product (and six bows during three years are not a mass product) but in my country I feel it as a mission. My mission is to build an efficient HUN bow, advertise as well as popularize it among the thousands HUN archers.
I?m basically a traditional HUN archer and possessing a non-Hungarian bow (e.g. an efficient Turkish one) is not a solution for me (does not give me a satisfaction)! That?s why I continue my study regardless It?s gonna be an uphill struggle!

I?m happy that you ?...fully know all about Hun bows?, honestly I?m quite far from this feeling!

Peter

[Dusan]

Peter you dont read precise - i wright " I cant say , fully known about Hun bows "
Your motivation about Hun bows is your personaly desire and i respect this.Like others must respect mi decision.
Ponty bow is good example, whi i dont show bow like this or maybe better but not that , like i think. And your reaction is- show us more- very interesting...Only if you see in handle/or ears.../ part, you must know about this bow all. Nothing interesting.