Pre-shaped horn strips were glued onto the belly of a bow. Matching pairs of water buffalo horns were used almost exclusively, with an exception of longhorn cattle horns for some Turkish bows. For best Chinese bows, expensive, translucent, white horns were preferred. Buffalo horns have no sideways twist as present in cattle horns. Cattle horns had to be boiled, heated and pressed into a correct shape in special wooden molds.
Buffalo horns are also more flexible and resilient than cattle horns and provide thicker strips.
It is probable that in Persian bows, instead of a solid strip, many thin ones were glued together into one wider strip. The dried tendon is pounded until separated into fibers, which are sorted into bundles of similar length. The bundles are soaked in glue and laid onto the back of a bow. 2-3 layers are used for a dry thickness of approx. On Turkish flight bows a ridge along the center of siyahs was formed to increase cast.