Building my first bow...

[Phil]

Well I've finally gone an done it...I'm building my first bow...
Now O.K. I.m getting a little bit of help... well.. huge amounts actually.. Im building it at Pip Bickerstaffe's workshop with the Bowmeister himself looking over my shoulder. It's a 50lb English Longbow. Bamboo backing; bamboo and Maple core; Osage belly and a Snakewood thickening for the riser. There's not much to see at the moment, everthings bound up and sitting in the hot box. Tomorrows the big day when we start shaping and tillering...
So... as they say on all the best news stations
.... pictures at eleven

[BowDonkey]

Wish I could be there with you. I'd love to learn how to make those laminated ELB's especially from a master like Pip. Definetly keep us posted and a few pic's would be nice.

[mwc]

Phil,

I am very interested in seeing what you come up with. Don't hold back on details. I am considering a long bow like this in my future.

MWC

[Phil]

The whole project started when my brother called me and said that a local garden centre was selling off bamboo poles cheap. The poles are 2 meters long and have an average external diameter of around 130mm (about 5inches). The wall thickness of the original poles was between 10 and 15mm. I checked the poles for cracks and splits and found them to be O.K.
I want a stable bow for indoor and short distance (up to 50 yard) target shooting so I decided on a 50lb @28 1/2" draw weight and 74" long.
After selecting the best of the poles (no cracks, even spaced nodes and nodes not too thick) I cut the pole lengthways (in half) and then in half lengthways again. This gave me 4 quarters of curved pole approximately 3" wide. I selected one of the strips to save for my backing (this will eventually be in the outside of the back of the bow) and selected another with the best thickness to reduce to a 2 meter strip 40mm wide and approximately 5mm thick. This operation was performed by passing the quartered pole through a thickness sander. This strip will become one of my core laminations.

More to follow....

[BowDonkey]

Phil, What's your draw length? 74" bow, how is the tiller going to be done?

[Phil]

Donk...
My draw length is 28 1/2" I draw to the centre of my chin. A 74" Long bow isn't uncommon, our English longbow are traditionally longer than American bows
.. back to the build....
Yesterday, I had to change the riser wood. I wanted snakewood, but on Pip's advice I had to cut it off and replace it with another piece of Osage. His reason.. he thought the Snakewood would make the centre section to stiff, and as we want the bamboo to work through the entire length of the bow he reccommended osage instead.... well Hey... what can you say.. when your in the workshop of one of the worlds leading authorities on English longbows.
So as we stand at the moment the bow is glued, bound and gagged and waiting to be shaped on monday.
The tillering is the scary part. my only consolation is, I'll be under the watchfull eyes of Fred Bentley, one of Pip's collegues.. who is, by popular concenses, the best tiller of long bows in the U.K
I WILL have pictures .. I promice

[Phil]

A little technical note for all you techies.... I've used two glues on this build. Because of the oily nature and closed pores (sp) of Bloodwood and Osage,I used Resorcinol Waterproof Epoxy. Because of the more open pore nature of the maple and bamboo, I've used Cascamite waterbased adhesive.

[mwc]

This is good stuff. Keep it coming.

MWC

[Phil]

Today was a great day. the glued up laminations finally became a bow, or in Pip's words "well it's long and thin and made of wood.. so we're half way there already".
The day started out by unwrapping the glued up laminated stave and checking for any damage, there was none. On the belly of the bow we then marked out the profile and cut out the shape on the bandsaw. We then marked out the riser and again cut out on the bandsaw. Now comes the real scary part, the shaping of the D section limbs. Starting from the top we radiused one side of the limb keeping the centre line running along the entire length of the bow. We them radiused the opposite side of the bottom limb again ensuring not to disturb the centre line. The procedure was then repeated to the opposite side of the top limb and the opposing side of the bottom limb. (There will be pictures...) We then radiused the riser and tapered in all the curves. This wes all done with a variety of course rasps, cabinet scrapers and spoke shaves. When the basic sahape was complete it was time for the tillering wall. At this point I have to say, that the bow was taken out of my hands and into the expert hands of Fred and Pip. This, I now recognise, is the part of the process where the real skill of the bowyer comes to the fore, and is only gained through years of observation and hands on experience. Fred and Pip were seeing stiff sections and weak sections to the limbs that I could'nt see, but I dutyfully removed material with smaller and smaller scrapers with sharper and sharper edges. After 2 1/2 hours of meticulous attention to the smallest (and to me unobserveable) detail both my mentors were satisfied with the result. So it was time to apply the arrow passing plate and the top and bottom nocks.
Personal Note
I was considering a carved top nock, but on reflection, the top nock of an English Long Bow is traditionaly considered the bowyers signature. With this I mind, and to give credit and recognition to my tutors, I asked Pip if he would shape a classic Bickerstaffe nock from English cow horn to adorn the top of my bow. I think when you see the pictures you'll agree it was the right choice.
With the nocks fitted, cleaned, and polished the bow is ready for it's first coat of varnish...
... and for that you'll have to wait untill tomorrow......

[BowDonkey]

This is great Phil, you are one lucky dog.

[Phil]

O.K. guys I need some help here.
I have all the pictures of the build. What is going to be the best way of displaying them. I think the only way, because of the size, is on the image gallery, but how do I do that?.....

[O'B]

Phil,
Very interesting. I'm looking forward to the pictures. Thanks for sharing.
O'B

[Phil]

Top nock...
Heres the top nock after initial sanding...

[Phil]

heres the first tillering.. as you can see its alittle stiff all the way through the limbs. We began by looking at the curve of the bow at 16" ... just incase it went Bang

[Phil]

2nd tiller at 22 inches... as you can see the bow is "starting to come round"

[Ray Cover]

Nice Phil,

My first three attempts at making a bow were ELB designs all three broke during or soon after tillering. I didn't get one to work till I switched to a flat bow design. You should be proud of yourself.

Ray

[Stevesjem]

Hi Phil
"Bamboo" have you gone over to the darks side, a longbow is wood not grass.

Oh yeah didn't you mean to say:

"Yesterday, I had to change the riser wood. I wanted snakewood, but on Pip's advice I had to cut it off and replace it with another piece of Osage. His reason.. he thought the Snakewood would make the (BOW LOOK TO BLING)"

Anyway Phil i look forward to seeing your "Grass Bow" :) .
Also shall we make the heavy Bow Challenge we talked about on Sunday?

Cheers

Steve

[BowDonkey]

How is the bow tillered? Like how is it bending? 74" long, I guess what I'm asking is how do you tiller something that long and get any cast out of it? Something just doesn't register. Not surprising, eh? :)

[Phil]

Hi Steve
Freddy wanted to call it the "Chav" bow... he wanted to put Burberry Check on the backing....
As for that "other little matter we were discussing"...I think it's time to offer the invitations to our American friends... lets see what their made of..(in the nicest possible way)

[Phil]

O.k. ...on a serious note...
What struck me about the whole process, after all the laughter and the horseing around.. the care and attention to detail that Pip and his collegues put into each and every bow they make, is something that has to be seen to be believed.
The tillering of the bow is a prime example. Theres a scale hanging from the wall. We'd already decided that I wanted the bow 50lbs. The thickness of the laminations were calculated (by Howard) to be around 55lb at first tiller. When the bow was put on the scale for the first time, Fred and Pip tried as hard as they could to show and explain to me the areas where the bow wasn't coming round and wood needed to be removed from the belly without dropping the bow weight. This resulted in VERY carefull removal of the smallest amounts of wood you could imagine from the sides of the bow , but, maintaining a uniform tapering D section profile.
This process was repeated around 15 times, each time the draw length on the tiller scale would be increased, until at last at 28 1/2inches we looked up at the scale ..and there it was...... bang on 50lbs
The final tillering was to fine tune the bend of the bow without altering the draw weight, again minute amounts of wood removed from the side and nothing off the belly.

[mwc]

Phil,

I have been following your progress. Very nice and informative. More pics would be welcome. Maybe some groups too.

What's this about a challenge? I was wondering what you boys across the pond do for fun.

Thanks agian,

MWC

[Stevesjem]

Hi MWC

The challenge is a Heavy Bow competition, Bows of 80lb+, There will be the opportunity to compete against some of the best Longbow archers in the World, Date is the 3rd September 2006 at Stowe Park Buckinghamshire UK.
We will have various disiplines which will need to be shot by each archer, we will allow a bow change for some events as long as it is an ELB and over 80lb, we will run a Formal clout shot but not at 180yds, we do it a 240yds, there will be a flight shoot with a light arrow, you must look to hitting 300yds+, Also distance shooting a military weight arrow, 65-85grams with 1/2" shaft and 7"+ fletchings, there will also be some roving. wand splitting, and Garland shooting.

SO

COME AND AVE A GO IF YA THINK YER ARD ENUFF

Cheers

Steve

[Phil]

Ohh... s*&^%$... now you've gone and done it...

[Stevesjem]

Had to be done Phil, Know what i mean!

Did you get my skype address?

stevestratton, what is your skype username?

[Phil]

Phil,

I have been following your progress. Very nice and informative. More pics would be welcome. Maybe some groups too.

What's this about a challenge? I was wondering what you boys across the pond do for fun.

Thanks agian,

MWC
Here's a link to photobucket ..hope it works
http://photobucket.com/albums/e158/Yewselfbow/?

[mwc]

Phil,

The photos were great. Thanks for the link. Man that bow looks nice.

Steve,

It would seem that you fellows in England know how to post a challenge. Wish I could make it. Back to the wieght room first. Those war bows sound like they could wear a guy out. It's not quite twice my normal poundage.

Don't worry Phil your secret is safe with me, but now I have something to work toward.

Thanks,

Matt

[OZ in MT]

Great looking bow, Phil. And what a mentor! But ... is it traditional? LOL!!!!!

[Phil]

Oz... schhhh..it's made of grass ..but don't tell anyone

[mwc]

If grass shoots well, then I say keep using it.

MWC

[Nevadan]

Gorgeous, gorgeous work. Proper reply over in the "good start" thread. :)
Cheers ~

Nevadan

[Phil]

I think it's time to bring this thread to a final conclusion. The only way I can do this is thank those people involved, because without them this bow would not exist.
I'd like to start with Howard, his skillfull measurement and calculation of the laminations made this project possible,and his string making caperbilities have to be seen to be believed.
to Angus who guided me through the lamination process and the preparation of the two adhesives required for the bow
to Richard who, so skilfully fitted the nocks and helped me through fitting the arrow plate.
to Fred who's hand tool skills and tillering skills left no margin for error....
and finally ...
to Pip Bickerstaffe himself who handed over his complete workshop to an idiot who wanted to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
Gentlemen..THANK YOU :thankyou: