Quoted from
http://www.byu.edu/ipt/projects/middleages/LifeTimes/Arrows.html
Created Dec 8 1994 by {HYPERLINK "../Aaron.html"}Aaron Rice ({HYPERLINK "mailto:[log in to unmask])"[log in to unmask])
a Timpview High School student
in partnership with the
{HYPERLINK "http://msed.byu.edu/"}David O. McKay School of Education
{HYPERLINK "http://www.byu.edu"}Brigham Young University
On bow making:
Glue was an important component of the bows, the amount of glue in a
finished bow was almost equal to the relative amounts of sinew or horn.
Only three kinds of collagen-based glues were used: fish, tendon and
skin. For the fish glue, either dry skin from "the roof of the mouth" of
Danube sturgeon (Turkish, other fish for Chinese) or isinglas (sturgeon
air bladder, Chinese) were soaked in water and heated into solution. The
Turks mixed this glue with tendon glue, made from boiled tendons. A
glue of lesser quality was made from boiled skins. Such glues readily
absorb moisture rendering the bows useless in relative humidity above
70%. The bows had to be stored as dry as possible, kept by the fire, in the
sun, or in heated cabinets.
http://www.byu.edu/ipt/projects/middleages/LifeTimes/Arrows.html
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