Cut my laths and grip piece today. Laths 3.4mm wide and 1.5mm thick, 22 inches long. Grip piece 1inch by 1inch and 14 inches long.
Red Oak. Found an article by Adam online saying the kind of core wood was not as critical as the horn/sinew so while it’s not traditional ottoman bow wood, I’m working with what’s available to me. We’ll see how it goes. May fail terribly. Had to cut new angles on straight grained square dowels with my table saw to get flat grain.
My reason for wanting to make an ottoman bow is that it’s compact and powerful - perfect for the close in archery hunting I do in the woods. Warriors of old made their own weapons and drew blood with them, and the challenge of that appeals to me. Gun hunting is too easy, and compound bows are too precise.
Oak is not suitable for The core, or at least I’ve never seen a bow with an oak core, I think oak might be too brittle/not very flexible. Woods that are suitable are maple, bamboo, Mulberry, elm, ash
Definitely concerned about it being brittle. I test bent a 4mm x 30mm x 36in strip by itself with nothing added for strength and it bent to about 90 degrees without cracking or splintering. Curious how it will do with sinew/horn on it. I suppose the shock/vibrations from string release is really what I need to be concerned about?
I would worry more about whether such a bow will survive than whether the bow will vibrate when shooting, the wood for the core must also take glue well, I have not seen a horn bow with an oak core but I remembered that medicinebows made a Turkish bow from black locust which also does not seem to be the best choice
Osage orange grows where I am. Anyone know if that’s good wood for an ottoman bow? I know it’s sought-after for self bows but haven’t heard of anyone using it for composite bows, especially ottoman bows
No A sycamore maple is different from a plane tree/sycamore, I don’t know if it is suitable, it would be best if you looked for a maple: Norwegian, sycamore, sugar or Tatar, maybe try to buy it dried in a drying room, It should be fine. The maples you don’t want are the ash-leaf maple and the field maple (although I heard that the Turks used the field maple and Karpowicz wrote about it) I tried to bend it and it came out very badly
I too am making my first Ottoman/Turkish style bow. I was intending on using hickory for my project, but it did NOT like being recurved. So, I broke down and bought a stave of sugar maple. I’m not able to purchase many raw materials. So, I have to go about getting them from my area as much as possible. I have plenty of hickory, oaks, black locust, and elm down here in the deep south. All of my sinew is harvested from our deer hunters, and hide glue as well. So far, I’ve only had to purchase the stave of maple, and the buffalo horn. It’s definitely been an amazingly difficult task. I’m hoping that it’ll turn out ok. From all the information I’ve gathered from reading/watching videos, I’d try to stay away from too many unknown materials. In other words, if you’re a poor person like me, I’d try not to waste money on a lot of raw materials on a piece of wood that may not work. It’s very disheartening to have worked on something so long and then it snaps because the wood was free. At least, it was for me.
Anywho, welcome to the world of such an exciting and adventurous journey that is making an Ottoman bow!!
Being in the states you should’nt have a problem getting proper sinew on line or locally.Using local deer can take some time though as their tendons are just not as thick as larger animals like elk and moose.Using the deers’ back strap is the largest amount gotten.Even so many will have to be gotten.After drying it should be shredded over a nail point bed to get fluffy enough to absorb glue well.
Proper horn will need to be acquired on line although for a short bow it makes it easier.
Local hickory here I usually boil the wood itself for tight bends.Even close to 90 degrees on 3" tip bends.Corners rounded well and around 9/16" evenly thick.Dry heat tempering after dry to prevent any pull out of recurve.It takes glueing well and has the proper elasticity.
Local wood can be bent while it is greenish also making it easier.
I can tell you with confidence that hickory is more elastic than ash or mulberry.Elm is more elastic yet than hickory.
Using local iron wood or HHB is another option.An undergrowth tree with thin bark and diffous pourus having the proper elasticity usually around 3 to 6 inches in diameter.Finding a clean piece can be the problem as that is imperative for such highly stressed bows.This is where hickory excells as it is not hard to get a clean piece of hickory.
You should do well with your maple.
Here’s what is done to hickory.
Thanks, gents, appreciate all the advice. Question about horn. What should I look for in raw horn? I know length I need, but anything that I’d be able to look for to indicate suitable piece of horn?
I would also prefer anything else over oak. The reason is shear forces to the core, not so much anything else. Maple is best at taking it.
I think most of the selfbow woods work just fine in 50-60# hornbow. Its a different thing making heavy bows or really short.
Also when good horn (thick) is available, not much wood is needed in the bending sections.
Mid bending section i have only 3-4mm of wood in my flight bows!
Yes my bows Burch are made for target and hunt shooting using the woods besides maple that I do.After many made no wood failures yet or even a hint of one.
I agree with Jere that the stress level is a lot more on his style of bows and are made to shoot light arrows far.
I’ve found a happy medium length on mine also for my purpose.In the 50ish inch range for shooting heavier 10 to 13 grain arrows fast with stability and accuracy.
Shorter working sections for better efficiency is a relative likeness of each and each of us pursue that goal the way I see it.
Bending sections in my limbs are composed of close to 5 mm thick of wood also.The remaining thickness gotten from close to 4 mm of sinew/glue and horn each.
I’m still always amazed at what composites do for bows.
Good luck with your projects.
Yes Burch for the type bows that I make to ensure good tiller and alignment pre measuring and pre bracing will help.Right down to the exact thickness tapered measured at least every 2" along each limbs length prior to horn application.No further drawing than bracing.
Reverse brace tillering can get you to balancing also.I like to use as dense a whitewood as I can get for a core,but with good elasticity and glueing qualities.
Making self bows to extreme designs enlightened me as to what whitewoods can handle extreme designs better than others.So really not just any self bowwood is used by me anyway.What’s good for self bows in some ways I think is good for horn bows too.
I use C clamps to apply the horn with buffer strips so no twist happens.From observing the amount of pressure that the rope wrapping method does I put a lot of pressure on with each C clamp every 2".The horn is slightly oversized to reduce mess and ensure good coverage.Some slight crowning of horn is done down to 1 to 2 mm edges.Then reverse brace it to create a perry reflex induced reflex.Let cure.
I’ve always gotten good invisible glue lines this way.The edges of core and horn need to be sharp and square.
Minor corrections in tiller can be done to the back of core reverse bracing it if needed before sinewing.Usually not needed though if your horn strip is true and even thickness.
With rope binding wrapping back the opposite way can help reduce twist,but there’s always a little minor straightening done after wrapping with the rope.No big deal if overlooked properly.Using thicker stiffer core I agree will definitely help with that.
