Friday 6 May 2011

Mother Of Pearl (MOP)

I'm getting towards the final stages on my last 2 Yew longbows for this year.
The one I'm doing for myself has pale waterbuffalo nocks and I'm not sure what to use as the arrow plate. MOP is fairly expensive and difficult to find in a good thickness.
Whilst looking around some antique places with my wife I came across this MOP pendant only £3 , what a bargain!
If you buy on the internet the p&p could be that much, I could also see there was some nice thick sections and the quality was good.
It's rather hard and brittle to work with, but fine metalworking saws and files will cut and shape it.
The photo doesn't do it justice as it looks like cheap plastic, it can sometimes be difficult to tell with natural materials. (At the bow making demo' last Monday everyone thought my horn nocks were plastic!)

The second bow, for a chap called Roy, is coming along nicely. The heat straightening is all done and I've had it up on the tiller, currently it's back to 60 pounds at about 20 inches (that's from an unbraced position e.g the sting is just slipped onto the bow).
I've got some nice leather for grips, and I think for my bow it will be either no grip or the pale 'veg tan' leather like I used for my quiver.
I remember Roy fancied some of my dark red leather, maybe an MOP arrow plate, or the black waterbuffalo?

2 comments:

  1. Nice find!

    Do you make your own arrows?

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  2. I buy shafts, point and fletchings and make 'em up. I have a home made fletching jig.
    I have made a shaft out of a Hazel wand, just for the heck of it. (pics on the website)

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