Help Needed for My First Traditional Korean Bow

Elite members in our club who use real horn bows kept their bows in the heat cabinet almost permanently. What you need is a simple cabinet. Add some insulation and electric heater to control the temp. I think pet stores may have good offers for those temp controller.

My school use resistive electrical heater (those with heating element).  Hard to tell heating duration and distance as they move their hands by experience.

I found even experience archers also use the jig. In our school, only one who could do bare hand/knee bending is the master.

For practicing bows, my teacher suggest the low end rubber glue as removal is easy. I do not have any idea about the traditional one.

bluelake, sissara,

Many thanks.  This will actually be my second horn bow though I admit my instructions recieved for proper handling for the other one were nowhere near as intense as for the gung.  But the reflex for the other one is nowhere near as extreme.

Yes I certainly don't want to report any bad news.  I have much respect and interest in the sport of archery, particularly traditional aspects and even more particularly for the Asiatic composites.  That's what got me into this sport years ago.  I am just now starting to aquire horn composites. 

The gung appears to be quite the challenge.  They are regarded by quite a few bowyers of the horn composite tradtion as the best.  So naturally I had to get one. 

I will perhaps make a local inquiry around where I live to see if anyone participates in traditional Korean archery.  There are Korean communities around but I suspect I'd have to go to N. VA to likely find a Korean traditional archery group.

Best,

Matt

Thank you Thomas.  For gluing the grip material to my bow should I use a modern adhesive or traditional (fish glue, hide glue)?

Korean bowyers generally use contact cement.

This is precisely why I have been so reluctant to make the plunge into a Horn composite. Im fearful of not getting it right.

Also, it is rare that I have the time it takes to properly brace the bow and maintain while shooting. So, to have a bow that I can simply string and shoot...almost......has much appeal.

that is a wonderful bow though, and I would love to hear your comparisons vs the artificial materials.

Please keep us updated.

Joseph

Thanks all again for your answers and comments.  Today I just finished building the bracing device.  I also assembled a heat box and have had the bow in it since about 2pm today.  I may brace for the first time tomorrow but have just a paragraph below of questions/concerns:

I have the heat box insulated with aluminum foil in order to generate heat to the bow.  The heating source is not a low watt light bulb but actually a low watt heating pad (8 watts) placed on a wood block that is slightly suspend above the block w/ 4 little suspension pads.  It is placed in the center of the box laying in between the bows limbs just above the grip.  The bow is now luke warm but not overly warm.  I used the heating pad because it was less involved then a light bulb set up and was a little paranoid that the bulb would generate too much heat (its also very hot where I live now) and cause de-lamination.  Temperature in box is about 78 degrees F.  So I was wondering how hot the bow should feel after a day in the heat box?  Should it have a luke/mildly warm feel or more of a heated feel to it?  Should I expect it to be more supple when bracing or still with quite a bit of tension?

Sorry for the long windedness of this but I really would like to do the bow honor and make things right.

Matt

Thanks sissara but chickened out just now.  The limbs felt a little too stiff and it cooled off considerably today.  So the bow was more on the cool side.  Unfortunately the Mid-Atlantic climate where I live in is notorious for this.  I keep the box out in the garage so that's why it is so susceptible to temperature change.  I know from leaving my horn bow out in the sun for just 10 minutes how supple the bow can get from just that and the limbs weren't like that and too cool. 

Actually if I could just get a little clarification on how warm the bow should feel that would help a lot.  I may modify the heat box slightly to meet requirement.

The main purposes of heat box are driving out moisture and eliminate temperature cycles. It 's set to only some degree above room temp. Then you will need hot plate for bracing.

Remember that he is heating the bow at the time of crafting, not at the time of shooting.  If you see sinew on your bow when you heat, you've gone a little too far