Turkish style bow

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 11:19 am

I have recently strung and am slowly drawing my first attempt at a Turkish style composite. It was loosely based on bow MAC 1994-0982 in the Grayson Archery Collection (one of the few with a style of decoration which I could attempt to copy).

It is shown below strung and drawn to 20 inches. I would be grateful for any comments on any tweaks that may be necessary before I try to pull it back to full draw. The shape does not look to bad to me, but others who have made this type of bow before may have some useful comments.

Any advice gratefully received.

Andrew

Adam Karpowicz · Post by **Adam Karpowicz** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:27 am

Andrew:

The left limb flexes too much in the kasan/sal area. I imagine this limb was more reflexed when the bow was still fresh. You can allow it to regain a bit of this reflex by unstringing the bow and warming the limb until it comes back into some reflex, then letting it cool (with the bow unstrung). It may be enough to balance the bow, unless the limb is weaker for other reasons.

Alernately, you can weaken the right limb by warming it (or scraping if too thick) while the bow is strung, but the first option is better, because the bow will not loose its cast.

Adam

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:10 am

Adam

Thanks for the advice. I will try warming and reflexing the kassan/sal region.

One of the limbs developed more reflex in this area during sinewing.

Regards

Andrew

Redbow · Post by **Redbow** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:18 pm

Please Andrew let us see your bow unstrung !!
Nice work !

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:51 pm

Redbow

I am half way through gluing a leather covering on the bow at the moment and I will take and post more photos when I have finished decorating it, but here is a photo taken before stringing the bow.

It developed a slightly uneven bend during sinew seasoning, with the right limb reflexing more in the kassan/sal region and the left throughout its sal. It has lost a bit of reflex with use, the sals are roughly straight now.

Andrew

Redbow · Post by **Redbow** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:31 pm

Thank you Andrew Hall
Now i wonder what your bow was looking like before sinewing.
Anyway thanks again !

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:02 am

Redbow

Here is the bow before sinewing. Ash core and grip, rowan siyahs with horn inserts.

Regards

Andrew

Redbow · Post by **Redbow** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:16 pm

Hi Andrew,
Thank you this is very helpful !
It seems the very final shape of the bow depends on many tricks.
I suppose that there are at least 6 ways to modify the final shape of the bow :
Before sinewing :
1 shape and 2 thickness of core plus horn
When sinewing :
3 length of the sinew and 4 placement on the limbs.
5 use or not of a string to help shrinkage
6 thickness of the sinew (number of layers)

What do you all think ?

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:43 pm

Redbow

I would think the most significant things would be the shape and thickness of the core and horn, followed by the thickness of the sinew. The lengths of the sinew fibres and the placement of the bundles might affect the overall strength of the backing, but probably not the shape. The use of a string to pull the bow into reflex when stringing would increase the overall reflex, but should not change the strung shape.

An additional trick to changing the shape is by heating and bending the bow as suggested earlier by Adam.

Regards

Andrew

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:25 am

I adjusted the bow as per Adam's advice, and got it bending more evenly. Though after a few hundred arrows, one limb is starting to look weak again at brace. I may have to do some more adjustments, although it appears to shoot OK (the arrows come out straight without any vibration from the bow). When used with the weaker limb at brace as the top limb, the drawn photos make the lower limb look weaker. It could be an effect of canting the bow, I will have to take some photos on the tiller again for comparison.

As mentioned before, I based my bow on MAC 1994-0982 in the Grayson Archery collection. This was picked because it was one of the longer Turkish bows with by far the simplest decoration.

The bow has come out at just under 50lbs at 27" (I do not have a very long draw length with a Mediterranean loose, and the bow is too heavy for me to use a thumb draw). The limbs are 1.25" wide and the bow is 46" nock-to-nock - a bit shorter than the original due to a miscalculation when making the core. Core is ash, siyahs naturally curved rowan, water buffalo horn belly and deer sinew on the back. I added wooden bridges - the originals were walrus ivory.

The bow is covered with the thinnest leather I could find - strangely kangaroo leather. It was dyed blue before gluing. The ears are painted yellow and the sides of the bridges green. I applied gold leaf lines and stars on the back and signed and dated it in Arabic. I also painted thin pink borders and dashes on the leather as it wrapped over onto the edges of the belly. I found that the application of the gold leaf is much more difficult than I was expecting - it is very difficult to see where you are painting the glue. I am not happy with the quality of my gilding (hence the lack of close-up photos), and I have a lot of respect for the artists who decorated the originals.

Regards

Andrew

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:30 am

More photos

Reto · Post by **Reto** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:01 pm

Andrew, well done, very well done!

Reto

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 1:48 pm

Andrew,
Put some pigment in the glue so that you can see it when you are drawing your designs for the gold leaf. Nothing with show through the metal.

Bede

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:07 pm

Beautiful !

Alessi Francesco · Post by **Alessi Francesco** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:01 pm

Hello Andrew,very nice work.I decorated 3 bows so far but I've never tried to use golden-leaf.Which glue did you use to apply the golden leaves?What kind of varnish did you use to seal the bow?Thank you and congratulations.

Francesco