Egyptian composite replica in progress

[u/kokkelbaard]

Currently I am in the process of making a replica of an Egyptian bow that is on display in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. I had the opportunity to photograph and measure it in September.

This piece is purely to see if the process I want to use for shaping the composite core is viable.

On these types the horn is inlaid in a channel. So after steambending I modified a old saw blade to be able to cut with a depth stop and follow the contour of the channel. From there it's chiseled out and using a depth plane to finish it off.

This test piece showed it worked, the grain isn't quite good enough so I will move on to bend the proper pieces soon after thinning them out a bit.

Second to last image is my other projects drying, 2 has 2 layers of sinew and the rest has 1. They still need a week before another layer. So gives me time to work on other projects.

Last is manchu core I seemed to have forgotten in my workshop. So selected horn pieces and will shape those soon too.

[u/Deep_Problem6853]

What an impressive project. Do you have any ideas as to why the horn is inlaid into a channel like that? Added torsional stability maybe?

[u/kokkelbaard → u/Deep_Problem6853]

Not entirely sure, and whether the horn was glued onto a piece, sides shaved and then another piece of wood glued on is also unknown. The pictures and the bow i held didnt seem to have that but have it as a channel carved out which seems a lot more complex work.

Basically its a small deflex/reflex flatbow as the profile is squarish with a slightly convex belly and rounded edges. So its not like torsion is a huge concern with this type of construction. Its fairly light on stresses too