🚀 go-pugleaf

Henry Troup asks about mongol bows. I do not know if I have ever seen
a bow that was mongol in the narrow sense--i.e. made by mongols. I
have seen, drawn, and in one case shot traditional wood/horn/sinew
recurves--mostly antiques, but in one case a modern reconstruction.
When the bow is strung but not drawn the string touches the limb at a
point eight inches or so from the tip of the bow; there is often, but
I think not always, a bridge at that point which the string rests
against. The end portion of the bow (siyah) is, I believe, relatively
rigid, so as the bow is drawn the siyah swings out and the lever arm
exerted by the string and thus the torque imposed on the limbs by a
given tension increases, which I assume is intended to flatten out
the force curve.

I am intrigued by Henry defining "recurve" in this way; I had thought
the definition was a bow that bent the opposite way unstrung than
strung. In any case, I believe traditional wood/horn/sinew bows are
recurves in both senses.

David/Cariadoc