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Horsebows
Importing from Hungary: traditional bows and archery equipment of Turkey, Mongolia, the Magyar people, and other horse archers of the steppes.

Bowyer - Kassai Lajos, Hungary
North American Distributor - Edwin Gilbert, USA


 
       
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Our bows are made in Hungary by Kassai Lajos.

A master archer and horseman, Mr. Kassai has designed bows based upon years of painstaking research into the Scythian, Hun, Avar, Magyar, and Mongol historic styles. Highly related are the Khazar, Russian, Seljuk Turk, and Korean bows. Mr. Kassai references archeological digs in his country and elsewhere, historic texts, paintings, illuminations, and Magyar verbal histories before he reproduces a bow style. His search for historical documentation is ongoing. New bow designs and improvements on current bow styles are made with an eye toward historical accuracy achieved via modern technologies.

Kassai's bows are made with an eye toward historical accuracy achieved via modern technologies. As more fully described below, they are constructed either of Ashwood and Fiberglass or "Action Wood" (a hi-tech laminate with a base of maple).

ASHWOOD and FIBERGLASS Bows
The handle and ears are ashwood, the bellies are fiberglass. The wood and fiberglass pieces interlock and their joints wrapped together with nylon thread. Then the bellies are wrapped in leather and the joints again wrapped and glued using nylon or cotton cord. The bellies of the medieval originals were wrapped to protect the glue that held together the tendon, wood, and horn sandwich which gave them such great strength. The wrapping is used now to protect the fiberglass from the UV rays of the sun and reproduce the traditional look. All fiberglass is protected and hidden under wood or leather.

"ACTION WOOD" -- Hi-Tech or Laminated Bows
The above discussed fiberglass bows give you the ruggedness of fiberglass and still match or surpass the performance of equivalently priced recurves and longbows.Yet according to engineering specs laminated wood flexes faster than fiberglass and most of the competition is made of laminated wood. So Kassai also offers his fine bow designs made with "Action Wood" - the best bow materials modern chemistry can produce.
Action Wood is compressed maple and resins assembled in a laminate construction that retains the appearance of the maple. It creates a bow with a great deal of flex at an amazingly low weight. This noticeably increases the horsebow design's already impressive efficiency.
If you wish to have a bow with the most effective materials possible then it is logical that you want those materials used in a design that starts out performing other bows . Of course there are disadvantages. Lamination takes extra man-hours to be cetain all the layers bond perfectly and they are only as rugged as most other bows. Static recurve designs executed with the most efficient laminated materials are truely impressive.

All of the bows are made without arrow rests, so may be used right- or left- handed. The pull is very smooth. The release is easy and the energy goes into the arrow, there is no energy left to cause handshock or "thrum" the string! They do not start stacking until beyond 30". The Hun does not stack, even at 38". This is accomplished by the leverage of the ears countering the increasing resistance of the fiberglass as it bends. The velocity of the cast is noticeable faster than a longbow or recurve of similar poundage. When you draw these bows, you pull against more weight for more of the length of the draw. This is good, as the arrow gets that full weight back as acceleration through most of the string's travel. When firing, there is little or no kickback.
These bows may be used either in the Eastern or Western style of shooting.

Some suggested modifications to shooting style:
  • Cant the bow 10 degrees to negate the lack of an arrow rest.
  • Consider lowering your pull point from ear to jaw, throat or even collar bone

 

Copyright © 2005-2008 Horsebows. This website and its contents are the property of Horsebows (or used with permission) and may not be used in whole or in part in any medium whatsoever without the express written permission of Horsebows. Leaping horse-archer logo is Copyright © Kassai Lajos. Used with permission. Website created, maintained and hosted by Silver Dragon Enterprises.