bågformare

"In order for the bow not to lose its elasticity too quickly and become completely incapable, some natural people have their bows only slightly elongated. But with this there are two drawbacks. On the one hand, the effect of the bow will be less strong and, on the other hand, the string will run very close to the bow bar, so the wrist as mentioned is exposed to being struck by the string, unless it is a effective protection worn out. However, these armrests are for the most part quite bulky to wear.
To avoid these drawbacks it was therefore necessary to build a bow, on which the string runs sufficiently far from the bow shaft without most of it being stressed except during the actual firing.
To achieve this desire, the swamp people bend the tips of the bow shaft along a specially made wooden arch former (Fig. 64), which is firmly fixed (Fig. 63). To facilitate this bending of the ends of the arch, they are immersed in hot water immediately before forming. The wood of the frame must be completely fresh when bending, but only when the wood of the frame is completely dry can the wood blocks be detached from the rod. The arch has therefore obtained the desired shape, which appears in Figs. 60 and 61 and which he then maintains. The string is now applied according to the same method used in stringing straight bows and as I described above. The string on a hooked bow must be tightened completely insignificantly when it is fixed, because thanks to the shape of the bow it is still far enough from the center of the bow shaft that it does not reach the shooter's wrist when firing. This relieves the larger and more powerful part of the bow barrel from almost any strain except the moment the string is pulledback to give the arrow velocity."
(p. 183, von Rosen, 1916, translated from Swedish).