Ozbow

Ever since I could fling an arrow in the back yard at an early age, I have always had a dream that one day I will make a bow and some arrows and start hitting them like Howard Hill. Well many decades have past and through my Trad journey the countless bows, the thousands of arrows which have graced my hand I never really got to make that Hill bow and arrows. Well a spark has ignited and the longing for simplicity has finally arrived. To start yet another leg in the Trad journey, a step backwards some might even say but sometimes in life just the simple things may be all that we needed.

With that thought let the journey begin.

A Solid block of Rosewood which was saved from the camp fire on a cold night out back down there at Collinsville a few years back. It was part of an old fence strainer post. Cutt in half with a black accent of glass down the guts for added strength.

Cheers Wayno

Looking forward to seeing the rest of this one!!

As do I...................

Good luck

Bout time Mate,it'll be a beauty

Alright a little progress fellas. Now I am the first to admit I an't no perfect bow builder but I do know wood and that's in my favour. I also know very little about building the ASL's but am willing to give it a go for shore. Far as my spec's go I am going for an 70'' bow at hopefully 55lb@28. Having a draw length of only 26'' should give me around the 50lb at my draw length which is what Im really after. She's gonna be close as I can get to a HH bow with my limited equipment and talent. I am going to build the bow with only what I think they would of had back in the early era mainly hand tools except for the glue up which will be in an modern form and cooked with heat strips. I will have some help along the way from a good mate Rodlong who is an engineer and has worked out my stack thickness and it is his strait layed form I will be using to cook her up.
Well me first stuff up and I haven't even started yet. After looking at so many pictures of Hill bows I should of kept it basic with a single block and no glass strip but wait the best thing about building a bow is you can always change processes as you adapt along the way. I turned the block side ways before the cut which should hide the glass at the belly of the handle and when I finally put a leather grip on her shouldn't be seen at all. The only problem being now the glass strip isn't long enough but there should be enough integrity in the wood and the glue Im shore will only strengthen the gap as its all put together.
Alright the cut is done and the riser sanded to shape its a standard 16'' incher
Another day
Cheers

Just curious, in the first photo of the glued up riser you have the profile for the riser marked out on the side that would leave you with an accent strip flat mid way through the thickness of the riser but in the next photos you have cut it out so that the black strip (im assuming glass) runs the length of the riser block leaving a gap in centre of the fades... Why the change of orientation?

Tat's 'cause he's Irish!!!

That's why I'm building a longbow Bob it dosn't mater which is the top or the bottom of the riser as well.
Hunt in me previous post I explained that I didn't want the accent strip being visible on the side of the handle wanting it to look as close as possible to an original HH Bow. When the leather hand grip is put on it should cover the strip at the handle belly as well all looking like a single block of wood in the riser.
Hope you can follow that explanation, Im not very good at getting me point across on the key board mate.

Cheers Wayno.

UPTHETOP wrote:That's why I'm building a longbow Bob it dosn't mater which is the top or the bottom of the riser as well.
Hunt in me previous post I explained that I didn't want the accent strip being visible on the side of the handle wanting it to look as close as possible to an original HH Bow. When the leather hand grip is put on it should cover the strip at the handle belly as well all looking like a single block of wood in the riser.
Hope you can follow that explanation, Im not very good at getting me point across on the key board mate.

Cheers Wayno.

looking good anyhows son!

Alright ready for some lams for the bow. Will be using bamboo of course with four lams and some 40 Thou Black ULS . I cut the bamboo down to 1 1/2 inch strips and Rod worked out my RCT at 357 Thou let the sanding begin. Bow builders please don't ask me any Technical questions as answers may offend as I said I ant no special bow builder. I sanded them all down on an template which sands the whole four lams at once so they should be exactly the same in the finish. Carefully measuring every pass then hey presto squashed the four together and the magical number of 357 Thou come up on the gauge.
Ye Ha Im ready for a template run and may be some glue tomorrow

Im really looking forward to seeing what comes out of the form, I can honestly say I havnt been this excited about building a bow for some time, lets just say I have me fingers crossed along with everything else.

Cheers wayno

watching with interest !!

Aaawww c'mon Wayno. The suspense is killing me, you must have it shooting by now....

Wayno, looking forward to seeing the finished bow.

With the R C T of .357 what rate of taper did you use? I have just glued up a lemonwood core of three .001 tapered laminations with a RCT of .355 and using .040 black glass on the back and belly.

Carrying out an experiment to see if there is much difference between bamboo and lemonwood when used as core material.

Are your laminations cut from horizontal bamboo and in the photo are they resting on two Osage poles?

Daryl.

G'day Daryl, I'll chime in here because I think Wayno has gone travelling at the moment.

The bow has four laminations of vertical bamboo with 0.0015"/" taper. The bow weighed in at 58#@28" and 68" NTN with only the limbs shaped and tip overlays done. Will probably drop a pound or two in cleaning up and finish maybe a pound above target weight (unless Wayno reduces the weight to hit target).

Yes the rough lams are resting on Osage poles in the photo. My shed is in bedlam at the moment, we are getting organised to move from Townsville to Ingham as Robyn has a new job there.

Cheers... Rod

Back from the bush. Alright short and sweet fellas done a practice run and glued her up. One minute at about 25lb in the hose a couple at 40lb and then topped her out.We used heat strips which didn't take long to get up to proper temp as stinking hot here at the moment. Got to70 Deg in the strips and stayed there and cooked her for two hrs and left her to cool down over night in the form.
Its like waiting for a new baby to appear in the morning I cant wait.

Cheers Wayno

Good stuff.........Wayno

Well as always happens forgot to take a few progress photos of when she came out of the form so will step up and fill you in where Im up to.

Draw the template on the blank for a 70'' bow.
Sanded her down to the lines and put some string grooves on her ready for the tillering block.
Checked the tiller 'yeh ha' negative tiller strait out of the form and first sand. This to me is always a bonus as you can pick which side of the riser has the best looking wood figure and then choose your top limb.

Now every bow builders pain, we put her on the tiller block and grabbed the scales to see how close I are to the weight I was chasing. I was chasing a 70'' bow with 55lb@28. I only draw 26'' myself so was hoping for around the 50lb mark at my draw.
Dam she has come in to light at 52lb@28 with me pulling about 47lb at my draw.

Never fear, but disappointed as I really wanted an 70'' bow. It sat in the corner of the shed for a week with me wondering wether to keep it at 52lb or cut an inch off each end reducing it to 68'' but gaining a few pounds for a hunting bow.
Well Im more of a hunter then a target person so got the axe out (only joking) and removed an inch either end and hey presto 58lb@28 or 52lb at my 26'' draw I am a happy camper after all.

Alright started sanding her roughly to shape and proceeded to cut a shelf 2'' above centre (roughly)with minimal tools as in the photos. Mainly files and sand paper. Didn't go to deep as I wanted it still to look pretty close to the reel thing.
Did I mention the riser block has come out a treat in colour and Figure.
Alright a few photos of the point I am up to.
Sorry for not taking any photos of when she come out of the form, as I was a bit eager and totally forgot.

Cheers Wayno

Looks great mate,i like that timber in the riser too

Love this bow mate!! Absolutely stunning. Simple and beautiful

that is looking terrific there Ol' boy! The wood looks a little like ringed Gidgee rather than Rosewood to me but congrats on a top job!

Yeh Bob everyone has been saying that's ringed Gidgee, but I ashore you it is Rosewood. The trick is all in the sanding. I was lucky enough the piece I cut had a few little stripes already in it but the reel trick is in the sanding. After filing down the riser to the rough shape the trick is too only sand one way against the grain which pulls the softer rings out of the grain as you are going against it, if that makes sense. It is painstakingly slow and takes a long time sanding in the one direction but the rewards are worth it. As you will see later on. All the years of wood turning and French polishing has paid of this time.
Just a front on photo to demonstrate how shallow the shelf really is hardly getting into the glass.

Cheers Wayno.

Okay on we go. Well a reel decision had to be made with the tips. After looking at heaps of Hill photos it appears little of the bows late and modern have any tip overlays and the ones that have are very small indeed. But I also noticed that a lot of the tips also have wedges placed between the lams. If someone can explain why this is it would be much appreciated as I know very little about building any bows let a loan the Hill style ones. I didn't put any tip wedges in this bow so I am going to put some type of overlay on the tip.
I am going to use D97 for my strings and the recurves I have built had some phenolic and or G10 in the tip over lays.
But deciding in the end to not use any modern gear for the tip overlay, Rod had some buffalo horn laying around which he said might even give the bow a little mojo since it is going to be a hunting Bow. Its a done deal.
Then me being me should have just left the buffalo horn on by itself as the black would have blended well with the black glass and had minimal tip weight.
I just happen to have some Western Australia she oak laying around so added this to the buffalo horn as it looks really nice when coated.I can see the diehards pulling their hair out at the decision I made but I also thought in the end if it doesn't look good or effects performance I can always file the she oak off and the buffalo horn will be left by itself, I'll just deepen the string groove.
Okay a few photos of the tips being put on and grooves being done. I always make them bulky at first because you can always keep on taking it off but if there not thick enough is a pain to add more later on.

Cheers Wayno

A few more photos of the tips being filed and string grooves done.

Cheers Wayno

The bow is starting to come together and cant weight to put some life into the coating process.
I had a chance the other day to actually view some Hill bows about 5 in all from a good friend and wow yes they are a reel piece of simplicity and art. I should have viewed them earlier before the build and I would have changed a few things along the way for shore. Comparing the built bow and the Hills in appearance yes they are really chalk and cheese which was a little disappointing for me as I only really had photos to go by. A few pics of the straightness and bows appearance and I will apply a few coats of sanding sealer to fill some grain and iron out the rough spots.
I only had a long string so put that on the bow to see how she looks, I will make a proper length one tonight and hopefully put some arrows through her as well before the final coats go on.

Cheers Wayno.

Be proud of that bow Wayno! You have done yourself proud! I make a lot of so called hill type longbows and always add some overlays to the nock grooves as i use fast flight strings. There are so many versions of the HH style that one can get into an arguments on Semantics regarding what is the 'proper' method of making them.Love that rosewood and know what your saying about the sanding directions.

Have made a good string and put a few arrows through her and all is looking good. Had a few knock marks on the belly side of the window so have sanded that area a bit more and all is sweet now. Was amazed how the arrow still flies strait even with such a shallow shelf. Tried a few arrow sets and the 50-55's D/Firs seam to be the best. Weight is around the 530-540grn mark. Brace height is around the 6 1/2 inches at the moment but will find a sweet spot when I finish a set of arrows for her.
Handle grip has been left strait for the time being and the riser has a large grip in the width as I have a big hand and like this style. One of the pleasures of making your own bow is getting the grip perfect for yourself. Left the bow strung over night to stretch the string and when I unstrung her looks like I may end up with a little string follow maybe 1/2 inch or a little less.
A few photos of some coats being put on her will end up with an satin finish as it will be a hunting bow of course but took a few photos strait after spraying when the coat was still in gloss mode which really shows the woods I have used to make the Bow. Guess I'll wait for her to dry between coats, and most importantly like most personal Hill bows come up with a name to which I can call her for the rest of my life. Enjoy.

Cheers Wayno

Shes a beauty mate!! Very impressive. Now I want to make one

finished up real nice Wayno! Now all you gotta do is come up with that name and get some blooding done!

Well it all has to come to an end sometime doesn't it. It has been a great journey for shore and what can I say in the end I have a longbow to shoot as well. It may not be a Hill or even look like one but after more then 5 decades it is a small milestone in this Bowhunters Journey. It is funny how I called the Bow a her through the building process but this sadly must come to an end. I thought long and hard on a name for the bow, but really there would'nt have been a bow at all if it wasn't for the good friends who offered all there knowledge and services. The wood in the riser was saved from a camp fire which was surrounded by Bowhunters and archers at an Local invitation shoot. The bows future will be in an hunting hand and will make many journey's with fello bowhunters as well. For all these reasons I have chosen the name for the bow as 'The Brotherhood'.
Thanks to everyone for following along on the build and I hope this thread has encouraged a few more Longbows to be built by us back yard wood hackers.
The bows arrows have been made the tunning has begun and maybe a short Video to see if I can hit a barn at 10 yards or not will be done.

'Brothers' I thank you for your time.

Cheers Wayno

Top thread Bro,great looking bow ...