She's plain, she's basic but I loves her

[Brumbies Country]

My second attempt at an Elb, or any sort of bow. Made from the rather unpromising plank of ash my first attempt came from, but this time I paid homage to the advice of Daryl and Dennis re grain. Probably 7-8 hours of tillering and I end up with this very basic, very plain English longbow around 75", nothing added to cover the handle, no horn nocks at this stage and I gave it two coats of linseed. No scales but based on my other bows probably around 42 lbs @27" I've since decided. Made the decision not to back it. First few arrows drawn back to around 25". Better than expected. To 26", hits the 3D deer at 20m and trajectory not so bad. At 27" a handful of arrows out to 30m. Finally at 40m, one hit from 4 arrows, and the others close enough. Another 60 arrows tonight. A bit less than 1" of string follow. It's a plain looking thing, not at all the artistry that Len displays.

The amazing thing- it shoots impressively straight. What a buzz! I've got this bent stick, it shoots OK. I've followed recommendations on this forum. I've read "The Bent Stick" by Paul Comstock inside out and backwards. Paul Comstock says " Sooner or later you are going to have a long piece of wood in your hands, bent into a slight curve, with the ends connected by a string. When this happens, you can congratulate yourself. You are a bowyer". A bowyer I am not!! A happy man I am. My happiness only decreases slightly when I try to post a photo. I am unable to downsize it sufficiently, perhaps further proof that I have not engaged particularly well with this IT age. I've attached the photo to an email and sent it to work where maybe an IT guru will provide me with advice tomorow.

Yes, this working away at a piece of wood, turning it into a bow, it's got something going for it!!

Simon

[pdccr]

Good on ya mate, cant wait to see some pics

[Gringa Bows]

congrats Simon,feels great making your own bow.................................Rod

[Len]

Congatulations Simon, well done and I hope its the first of many. Its a great feeling shooting with that first decent bow you make yourself.Hope to see some pics.
cheers
Len

[jape]

Good work Simon, can feel your joy! Did you make the arrows too?
Looking forward to the pics. Most image editing software has an 'edit' or 'tools' menu with a simple 'edit dimensions' or similar button. I just glance to see if it is for example showing as 1/4 size on the screen and save it as a jpeg at 25% size. A bit of experimenting will get you there. What graphics software are you using? There are some simple free ones like Irfan View or Gimp you can get but probably whatever came on the camera CD would have such an option somewhere. I have a couple of copies (legal and free) of early versions of Ulead Photo Impact does a very good job if you want to PM me.

[Glenn]

Good on you Simon, it's like magic isin't it. It doesen't matter how many bows you make it's always a good feeling to shoot a bow you have made yourself for the first time...Glenn...

[longbow steve]

Thats fantastic Simon, cant wait to see photos. If you re-size the width to 600 pixels they will go up no probs. Steve

[Glenn]

Simon, you can store your photos on this site, http://register.photobucket.com/ it's a free site and it will down size your photos for you and then you can upload them on the internet...Glenn...

[Brumbies Country]

Thank you for all the encouraging comments and also advice re posting pics. I sent an email from home to work with one photo attached so should have something up today.

Simon

[pdccr]

Ok cant wait mate

[Brumbies Country]

We've had some fun posting this pic. I enlisted the help of a fine arts student who works part time with me and he didn't find it absolutely straight forward getting it small enough..

Shows the bow very close to full draw. Steve will have a field day with my elbow position .

Simon

[GrahameA]

Morning Simon

Well done. Looks good.

[longbow steve]

Hi Simon, That looks fantastic, There will be no stopping you now .
With regard to the high elbow, it is better than it being to low. You need only look at me shooting and my elbow often sneaks up there.

[pdccr]

Looks really great mate, nice bends

PS; nice shot on that deer by the way

[greybeard]

Good morning Simon,

Well done, now that you have been bitten by the selfbow bug there will be a lot more bows to come.

Daryl.

[looseplucker]

Looks great Simon. Good stuff.

I looks forward to seeing it in the flesh.

[ichiban]

congrats on the ELB not an easy bow to make by any stretch besides theres nothing wrond with a plain and simple bow IMHO its what trad archery is ALL about, heck i wouldnt use metal heads if they would let me
if it shoots well enough for what you need it to do its a win all round especialy using less than perfect wood, you designd it, you crafted it, it dose what its ment to do.
hehe my first bow was and still is a huge dog of a thing, love it though.

congrats mr bowyer.

-Dave