Indian Steel and Bronze/Brass Bows

mongolianarcher · Post by **mongolianarcher** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:49 am

Has anybody in the asian archery industry ever succeeded in making mughal metal bows such as those mentioned in Kay Koppedrayer's article in ATARN? I don't think Jaap has really done anything with it.

Zack · Post by **Zack** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:14 pm

There is one right now on eBay.
Cheap too.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:03 am

I have an old one. They are really different from the twentieth century steel bows. The limbs are very flat and the siyahs are reduced in size.

I saw a bronze bow that Jaap made. I didn't shoot it, but he said it worked well, but not comparably to a normal bow. It was very heavy in the hand.

mongolianarcher · Post by **mongolianarcher** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:13 am

And by normal bow you mean a horn bow?

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Tue May 15, 2012 5:38 am

I think Jaap was referring to any recurve or wooden bow. I found my steel bow quite pleasant to shoot, but I always used comparatively heavy arrows. The draw was short and the bow was heavy in the hand, but the release was smooth.

suomialex · Post by **suomialex** » Fri May 25, 2012 7:13 am

This is my firs post, but I go straight to the point.

Bede,

Since first time I heard about bronze bow I have had a certain urge to make one. Problem is that there's not much information available about them. At least not for me. You have one and I crave for information. Pictures, dimensions everything... If you could find time to provide me with these you would have my endless gratitude.

With kind regards,

Alex Suomi

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed May 30, 2012 7:55 am

Sorry Alex,
I have a steel bow. Jaap Koppedrayer has made the bronze one. You could contact him through http://www.yumi-bows.com/

suomialex · Post by **suomialex** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:01 am

Thanks Bede I will look in to it.

I don?t write here a lot but follow the discussions here with great interest and appreciate your views and knowledge.

I?m a sculptor with bronze my main material and have been discussing about the bronze bow with my senior colleague at the foundry I work in. He had said that it should be possible but we have to play around little bit with different alloys. Shape and dimensions are also very important but those are impossible to find on the internet. As I see it I?m in front of extensive studies before even starting to cast testing peaces.

-Alex

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:22 am

Alex; The shape of the cross section of a steel Indopersian bow is very shallow lenticular about 3 by 36 mm mid limb by my measurement.

I guess a rockwell test of hardness could determine the temper if this were to be allowed, which it is not.

Bronze would have similar problems.

I have always wondered about the references to metal bows in the Old Testament.