Made my first cores today. Didn’t expect that V joints are that hard to make, I was quite sad from 1mm gaps. Then I saw original joints 
There are for 60 and 80 pound bows
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Great start! Splicing the tips is easier than setting up a bending system where you can bend thick tips evenly. Fresh cut wood would be easy, but its not so easily available.
How long are those bows? The kasan eye looks really balanced for your first try.
I think 44-45 inches. I’m trying to copy this bow, but got a little springback. And tips are really thin - 13mm so I need to glue at least 5mm of wood to them.
I see. Take into account that these old warbows have developed a lot of reflex in the kasan eye over the years. Its because the warbows had flexible kasan eyes with lot of sinew and horn.
Therefore, if you now copy the shape 1:1, you will end up with a bow that has a lot more acute kasan angle than the old bow. In my opinion.
From this view it is quite significant bend in the kasan eye. If it was less it would be easier to balance when you are a first-timer. Are you?
What i like about the original bows, they many times have even the tip parts a little bit reflexed. It would be one small detail to copy into our replicas. I have some bows made like this but sometimes i forget…
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Yes I am first timer, and I notice reflexed tips in the originals as well. I can straighten it a bit with the heat, if you recommend it. I really have struggle with making these lower draw weights, I want 100+ . But I understand that is not realistic in the beginning.
Just to make sure, i meant the nock/tip part that is curved. Below nock groove.
If you want a 100# bow, its not really a problem. I don’t think its extra hard if you can glue the horn properly, leave enough width (finished bow 33-35mm wide) and you can get it balanced well, meaning the kasan eye isn’t so reflexed.
Also tools are important. If you have a good pegboard, you can control the tillering process easily and end up with well tillered heavy # bow.
But yeah, accidents happen and stresses in 50# bows are a lot less than they are in 100# bows. Important is also to have the bending distributed over longer area when core is shaped.
I failed in many bows when i tried to make heavy bows and i didn’t have room to tiller them properly.
Yes! Super. You wont regret. I recommend to do the same for the other core. But try to keep track how much you open them so you can adjust the both limbs equally.
I actually have one similar case at hand right now, a mongol bow that i reflexed too much. I was thinking of measuring the distance of the tips from each other, then opening 1st kasan, measuring again and then opening the 2nd kasan to make them exactly the same.
Ok, thank you for your help.
I tried to make sinew glue from scraps. 14 grams of glue from 50 grams of sinew (28 %) After 24 hours of cooking at 70 C.
I expected better yield 
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Yep yep. But also for best quality, cooking time should be longer for what i know. Its time consuming and takes so much effort, that i’ve found best to buy hide glue from dictum. A kilo costs some 10e.
However sinew glue is authentic and the consistency might be a bit different. Its good glue.
I did some calculations that i have used 10kg of hide glue making hornbows, sinew backed wood bows and all wood composites. With 30% yield that would mean over 30kg of sinew scraps… uh!!
30% is still only half of the collagen content of sinew. Next time I will soak the sinew for a few days and boil it for longer. If that doesn’t help, I will try lye.
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Second try. 119g of sinew scraps, 3 days of cooking at 70°C (Kani also wrote that bowyer would cook tendons for several days, until the tendons become like leeches), straining every 24 hours.
Yield was 62%, 72 grams of glue, 20% per day.
At the end it really looked like leeches, it was gross to touch
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Cool! That is a proper setup. Makes it a lot faster, i bet.
10 minutes with adze and 15 minutes on this and it is ready for grooving.
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New core. First I didn’t like the shape, I thought that kasans are too short.
Then I discovered this bow, so everithing is ok and shape is perfect now
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It looks good. What is something you might not see at this shape is, that when you add horn and start shaping the core, the side view changes also.
You take almost all of that wood of from sal-section, but at kasan you keep much more wood. This effectively makes your core a little bit more reflexed, if you know what i mean. At the core shaping stage you can fine tune with kasan eye. If the core was reflexed in more even c-shape, you would have even more possibility to decide where the kasan ridge starting point is.
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Lets revive the daily topic.
These past days i have had my manchu bow braced and drawn to 93# @ 33". I need to do some final work and draw it to 34 or 35". Seems pretty legit, quite heavy in mass (1000g) but crazy energy storage.
Looks like i will be able to shoot it by hand my self, so thats a positive.
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