jessamygriffin
Well-Known Member
The Bow continued
After the curving and painting was done, the next bit was to add the leather for the grip and the tips of the bow.
Happily, my father had given me his original 1961 copy of Leather Braiding by Bruce Grant.
It's a really authoritative book, and there's a reprint available on Amazon as well here, if that's something people are interested in. I needed it mainly for the grip and for the Turk's head braid that finished it and the tips.
I cut some leather thongs from a thin ladies' dress shoe leather that I'd bought cheap and settled in with some elastics and ties to start. Some flat leather pieces were attached with glue beforehand to cover the joins and the nuts and bolts that hold the parts of the bow together, unglued at the tops so I could still bend it back to access the bolts. And the weaving began.
When I was mostly finished, I went back over the weaving with an awl to lift and tighten the leather so it strapped closely to the bow. This took a bit of time, but I didn't want the leather to be sliding around everywhere. I probably should have started with wet leather so it would dry and tighten even more, but it wound up not being necessary.
The Leather Braiding book talks about using sinew to tie off weaving of this tight, wetted so it shrinks as it dries and clamps it down. Being that I only had synthetic sinew, I used heavy thread in black, cut off the ragged ends, bent them back and added spots of glue to keep it in place.
Next was the Turk's Head knots that circled the bow and covered the cut ends of the weave. It's hard to explain the Turk's Head, except to say it's your basic three strand plait but with the ends of the leather worked back into the braid and then cut off so they are hidden and the braid looks like it's all of one piece. I gotta say, it is a bear to do, and my version was not perfect. Close enough, though. Below is one example, before I cut off the re-woven end of the leather.
However, it was still too loose and prone to sliding, and I was afraid it would slip off and expose the cut ends of the woven handle. My old friend Hot Water came to the rescue, to shrink (and incidentally harden and darken) the Turk's Head knots. It wound up shrinking and darkening part of the grip as well when I poured water over it, which was fine since the leather was a touch too light. The pic below is after the water-shrinking when the leather was still wet and you can see the Turk's Head knot tightened up beautifully.
Next was the tips of the bow. I'd actually managed to angle cut the tips to be thinner and more like a real bow, but unfortunately it left me with the exposed curved inner side of the PVC pipe. Thank goodness for these tip covers - they hid the essential pipeness of the pipe.
For these, I wrapped a piece of the same fancy shoe leather around, marked where it should overlap, and hand-stiitched it into tubes which slid over the tips. Again, hot water helped shrink the leather until it was impossible to slide off again. More Turk's Head knots, in a thinner strands and finished with the same hidden ends and hot water finished the tips.
The string is a round covered elastic I had bought to make hair ties with - it comes in 1 m lengths at the 100 yen shops in Japan. I'll be replacing it at some point with light brown, which is more like Bard's bow string. But for the look of it, I looped the ends, glued about 5 cm and wrapped it with thick yellow thread like Bard's. The elastic here is double looped over the bow tip, but that's mainly because I'm in mortal fear of it slipping off and whacking someone when I pull too hard. The elastic is very stretchy, and even when I pull back with an arrow and release, the arrow just flops. So, it's completely un-dangerous and thus should satisfy any convention management.
I guess the next part of the build thread will be about arrows, the quiver and boots.
I have mocked up some arrows, but I need to find longer dowels, sculpt arrowheads and nocks, and dye the feathers I ordered whenever they come in. I can't find brown or rust coloured feathers in Japan that aren't $3+ a feather. The arrows are not going to look very professional, I'm afraid, but since they are for a cosplay with a non-functioning bow and I wouldn't trust the dowels to hold together if fired from an actual bow, I'll learn to live with it. Arrow-making is tricky.
Ditto the boots - I need to find Ugg knock-offs in my size here. This isn't an easy task.
None of the above are up for immediate making, so the thread will update sporadically from here on, I guess.
Next update - probably Bard's Quiver!
After the curving and painting was done, the next bit was to add the leather for the grip and the tips of the bow.
Happily, my father had given me his original 1961 copy of Leather Braiding by Bruce Grant.
It's a really authoritative book, and there's a reprint available on Amazon as well here, if that's something people are interested in. I needed it mainly for the grip and for the Turk's head braid that finished it and the tips.
I cut some leather thongs from a thin ladies' dress shoe leather that I'd bought cheap and settled in with some elastics and ties to start. Some flat leather pieces were attached with glue beforehand to cover the joins and the nuts and bolts that hold the parts of the bow together, unglued at the tops so I could still bend it back to access the bolts. And the weaving began.
When I was mostly finished, I went back over the weaving with an awl to lift and tighten the leather so it strapped closely to the bow. This took a bit of time, but I didn't want the leather to be sliding around everywhere. I probably should have started with wet leather so it would dry and tighten even more, but it wound up not being necessary.
The Leather Braiding book talks about using sinew to tie off weaving of this tight, wetted so it shrinks as it dries and clamps it down. Being that I only had synthetic sinew, I used heavy thread in black, cut off the ragged ends, bent them back and added spots of glue to keep it in place.
Next was the Turk's Head knots that circled the bow and covered the cut ends of the weave. It's hard to explain the Turk's Head, except to say it's your basic three strand plait but with the ends of the leather worked back into the braid and then cut off so they are hidden and the braid looks like it's all of one piece. I gotta say, it is a bear to do, and my version was not perfect. Close enough, though. Below is one example, before I cut off the re-woven end of the leather.
However, it was still too loose and prone to sliding, and I was afraid it would slip off and expose the cut ends of the woven handle. My old friend Hot Water came to the rescue, to shrink (and incidentally harden and darken) the Turk's Head knots. It wound up shrinking and darkening part of the grip as well when I poured water over it, which was fine since the leather was a touch too light. The pic below is after the water-shrinking when the leather was still wet and you can see the Turk's Head knot tightened up beautifully.
Next was the tips of the bow. I'd actually managed to angle cut the tips to be thinner and more like a real bow, but unfortunately it left me with the exposed curved inner side of the PVC pipe. Thank goodness for these tip covers - they hid the essential pipeness of the pipe.
For these, I wrapped a piece of the same fancy shoe leather around, marked where it should overlap, and hand-stiitched it into tubes which slid over the tips. Again, hot water helped shrink the leather until it was impossible to slide off again. More Turk's Head knots, in a thinner strands and finished with the same hidden ends and hot water finished the tips.
The string is a round covered elastic I had bought to make hair ties with - it comes in 1 m lengths at the 100 yen shops in Japan. I'll be replacing it at some point with light brown, which is more like Bard's bow string. But for the look of it, I looped the ends, glued about 5 cm and wrapped it with thick yellow thread like Bard's. The elastic here is double looped over the bow tip, but that's mainly because I'm in mortal fear of it slipping off and whacking someone when I pull too hard. The elastic is very stretchy, and even when I pull back with an arrow and release, the arrow just flops. So, it's completely un-dangerous and thus should satisfy any convention management.
I guess the next part of the build thread will be about arrows, the quiver and boots.
I have mocked up some arrows, but I need to find longer dowels, sculpt arrowheads and nocks, and dye the feathers I ordered whenever they come in. I can't find brown or rust coloured feathers in Japan that aren't $3+ a feather. The arrows are not going to look very professional, I'm afraid, but since they are for a cosplay with a non-functioning bow and I wouldn't trust the dowels to hold together if fired from an actual bow, I'll learn to live with it. Arrow-making is tricky.
Ditto the boots - I need to find Ugg knock-offs in my size here. This isn't an easy task.
None of the above are up for immediate making, so the thread will update sporadically from here on, I guess.
Next update - probably Bard's Quiver!
