Water Buffalo Horn

barney

Member
Grinding down the outer arc of horn.

Where the horn is thickest by the tips and I have more choice in removing matter should I grind off more material from the inside or outside of the arc?


Which way around should I orientate my W.B. horn once it has been steamed and ground flat into a nice laminate? I?m presuming I should glue it so the pre-steamed curvature follows the recurve of the bow, tip of the horns at the tips of the core?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
WB horn does have a faint 'grain' like timber and can be a bit flakey on the outer surface. I'm not sure, but I'd tend to follow the outer arc.
I agree with your assumption about which way around to glue it.
I'm eventually hoping to progress to making a horn/wood/sinew bow.
I'd give serious consideration to making a grooving tool so that you can get matched grooves on the core and horn for optimum gluing. I've been giving this some thought and I think if you saw down the length of a large coarse threaded bolt (or threaded rod) the resulting cross section of the thread will be a perfectly symetrical form, if the sawn face is then filed flat it should make a nice scraper.
Shove a wooden handle on either end of the bolt and you have a great tool. :) If this is used on the core and the horn they should mate together perfectly.
I've been using WB horn as reinforcements to the nocks/Siyahs of the f/glass Asiatic bow I'm making...I wasted endless time with a rasp, untill I found a chisel was great for removing the bulk.
I'm not sure how much steaming should be necessary as it's pretty flexible anyway??
Hope this is of some help.
Del
 

bobnewboy

Member
For a grooving tool, why not make use a thick/large (machine) hacksaw blade with a piece of hardwood fixed to it at 90 degrees? The hardwood block would follow the edge of the piece to be grooved, and the hardened teeth would do the business on the workpiece.

You may even be able to blag a worn machine hacksaw blade from a metalworker's shop.

//Bob
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
I think hacksaw teeth may be too fine, and are the teeth symetrical such that the two grooved parts will mesh perfectly together? I don't think so, but I'm not sure???
That's why I suggested a screw thread.
 

bobnewboy

Member
You can get machine saw blades with very coarse teeth, aroun 8 Tpi. However, I can see what you're getting at, but I'd be very suprised if you can get the two workpieces to mesh together exactly. The usual reason for grooving as far as I understand it is just to increase gluing surface area, rather than to fit the pieces into each other.

//Bob
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
Yes you are right(ish), but increasing the surface area implies they must mesh, else you are just filling the grooves with glue and increasing the volume of glue, not the surface area of the glue line.
I suspect that on a highly stressed composite bow such a small, seemingly trivial matter could be the difference between success and failure. (the devil is in the detail as they say)
(Please don't read this as me being argumentative...it's not s'posed to be)
Del
PS. Hoping to test my latest bow (glass fibre lams on Maple core, with Ash siyahs) in the next day or two, I've used some old g/f lams and I'm trying some new 1hour Epoxy, so it may well explode :( ...wish me luck.
I'll video it on the tiller, so if it does blow, at least you guys han have a laugh :eek: .
 

myownslave

New member
good luck Del. as far as having a laugh, id never laugh at a bow failing... unless it was really funny, and i had a good lead away from the bowyer. again good luck.

dustin
 

^HUN^

New member
The horn is glued to the limbs with the tip sections meeting at the handle. As for removing material, this is best taken from the outer surface where cracks and splits can travel a fair way into the horn wall.
 

barney

Member
Thanks for the advice.

After posting the same question on a couple of other forums too. I've learned that the horn points should go at the handle .This made sense when I actually tried the orientation (the choicest horn is near the tip, so you want this near the handle where most of the bending will ultimately take place).
 
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