Zeng Ming’s Manchu hornbow - a brief review (Pt.1)

#manchubow #traditionalarchery #compositebow #hornbow #각궁 #만주각궁
A brief review series is where I present a very concise impression of my gears.
- Bare in mind that these are 'impressions', not analysis, which I neither aim to, nor am capable of providing. However, please do feel free to leave anything you'd like to ask or inquire in the comment section, and I will try to answer to the best of my capabilities.

[@user-sh4tg3ff5g]

만주활에 대한 깊은 애정이 느껴지네요.

[@생각메커니즘-n9b]

각궁, 소의 뿔로 만든 전통활, 활쏘는 사람이라면 갖고 싶은 활을 드디어 손에 넣으셨군요! 축하합니다.

[@SmithLouis]

Nice to see you finally got your horn bow Minty! As always really nice decoration work from Lee Fan. The bow definitely needs a good bit more training though. Please keep a good eye on the balance of the bending of the limbs! Especially that bottom limb, it's being overpowered by the top limb., looking at the draw profile around 4:05 in the video that bottom limb has quite a scary "hinge" rather than a smooth well-spread-out bend. Train the bow for a couple weeks and see how it develops, if it doesn't improve you might have to scrape a tiny bit of horn from that top limb. Best regards, Louis Pastoors

[@solhoibaturu]

Thank you Louis, and I am sorry I am not as responsive as before; I think this year in particular is not leaving me be in one place...as per the bow, yes I am incredibly satisfied, but in the same time trying to work on balancing those limbs. If you would have any suggestions, I'm all ears! It's my first hornbow and I am open to any advices offered. In any case, I wish you a wonderful Summer 🙂 Best, Minty H.

[@SmithLouis]

@@solhoibaturu No worries Minty, I know you have an extremely busy life. "training" a hornbow is actually fairly simple and very intuitive; just bend it in the direction you want it to move, with light balancing issues you can bend the stiff spot over your knee(s)/legs, etc, for a couple seconds, more severe spots or severe twists require more bending or preferably for longer periods of time, sometimes days or weeks, some people build jigs for it, but a table, some clamps, and some blocks of wood work just fine. I'll try to find some videos of hornbowyers on how to balance hornbows but you can start by stringing up the bow, and bending the horn belly side of that stiff upper limb over you knee, right around mib-limb, forcefully exaggerating the bend, because you are pulling the bow towards you you will at the same time relieve pressure from the weak lower limb, and so should see it straighten out, you are basically forcing the concentration of the bend away from the lower limb and into the stiff section of the stiff upper limb, that will "train" the bow to bend more in that spot. Hold it for a couple seconds, pull the bow to full draw, check the balance of the bending, repeat the correctional hold for longer if the imbalance persists, you might have to strap that upper limb over a bending block for a couple days if it's stubbornly stiff. Hope this is clear, if not please let me know and I'll try to make a video.

[@bobdoodle6527]

Subscribe and watching from San Diego, California, USA. By the way all my Asiatic Bow were purchase from Ali Bow home of Asiatic bows, and they r quite beautiful and well crafted. Diego

[@bobdoodle6527]

Ali Bow do have Manchu, it is however made of fiber glass and bamboo.

[@solhoibaturu]

Their Yarha II is a well-reputed, highly functional model, don’t let the materials fool you!

[@kjh96042620]

와 진짜 이쁘네요!

[@solhoibaturu]

감사합니다 선생님! 윗장이 아직 뻣뻣하고 다소 틀어짐이 있어 더욱 다스려야할 것 같습니다ㅎㅎ

[@Kus519]

Hello have u tried a manchu by wang bifeng and who do u think makes a better manchu?

[@bobdoodle6527]

Beautiful Bow, I want one, please inform me where to buy.

[@solhoibaturu]

Hi, and thank you for your comment! I bought the bow from Zeng Ming from China. To buy the bow, you will need to contact him via WeChat, and commission a bow. It will take anywhere between a year and a half-two years for the bow to be completed, and the price is $1,000 excluding the shipping. If you’d like to know further, please let me know after opening a WeChat account. Thank you again, and I hope you have a lovely day!

[@minjaeshin3687]

Cool stuff 👍🏼

[@solhoibaturu]

Tanks

[@minjaeshin3687]

@@solhoibaturuNo problem bruh