Unfortunately, the fresh/frozen sturgeon bladders are out of stock at the moment, but at $65/kg I think I’ll try to wait until they become available again to purchase. The granular isinglass is ridiculously expensive. So, which part/s of the bow are glued using isinglass vs. hide glue??
Ya I got quite a good amount of good glue from these. Worth it I think and I know it wasn’t over heated and strictly rendered down the inner bladder linings. Makes a huge difference in quality I think. I did do a low temp cook on the outer bladders as well if I got another 200 grams of finished glue. It’s gel time was twice as long or more then the inner bladder glue. Interesting note. I may do more testing on mixtures of these two to regulate my open work time before it gels.
I use the bladder glue only for horn and size coats. I use my home made sinew scrap glue for my sinew layers. I guess for me glue is one of those details I can control the quality of and allow me to have one less thing to blame my failures on if it blows up. lol
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Ya I have had mixed results from these guys. I’ve ordered a couple times from them now and some were great and other not so great. Some had lots of inclusion in them and strange grain orientation too. Be sure not to bend them until you clean them up a bit and work them down to closer to desired thickness. Also don’t bend them in cold workshop. I’ve snapped a few this way! They can be brittle when dry and cold. My latest batch from them seemed little better but I just wonder where others are getting theirs.
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You might try Atlantic Coral Enterprise. They sell whole horn.
Ya they don’t do international shipping unfortunately
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I apologize for that. I didn’t know that.
Is there any way of working with a stave of maple that has a propeller twist all the way down its length?
Yes it’s possible to correct some with heat if not too bad. If it’s still fairly green and not too dry you might be able to work it down to a flor tiller stage thickness and then clamp to a form and do a mold bake. The other option is to steam correct the twist out using a series of clamps and a form. You could steam half of the bow at a time using a wallpaper steamer piped into a longer piece of abs pipe. This also works well.
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No worries. 
all good
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after some research I have found this listing from AliExpress:
Although I have not purchased from them.
Hello!
I wouldnt buy horn like that from unknown seller. Seller might not know what is good horn to use for bows. You will most likely get it better price anyway from specific supplier.
Try Nick Nguyen in facebook or just email him: pufacraft@gmail.com
Also in instagram https://www.instagram.com/pufa_craft/
I buy all my horn from him.
That’s brilliant! New to the scene here and could not be more grateful.
For 18mm thickness, what is your steaming/bending process? I tried bending 18mm and the wood pulled apart at the grain. Could have been my forms had too sharp an angle. What angles do you use for your war bow pattern?
I use kiln dried sugar maple. No soaking, about 20 minutes steaming and then bending. But I use Veritas strap clamp for bending. It is just perfect, I have had zero problems with it.
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Interesting, and you have not encountered any issues down the line due to the kiln dried nature of the maple? Is the only hurdle or issue with kiln dried wood the initial bending?
Also, has anyone used European sycamore for cores?