Cowiche Archery

The board is 27" x 5" x 5/8".  The pegs in the upper left corner are 1/2" apart and the rows are 1" apart.

The peg in the upper right corner is a brad, (for reasons that will become apparent as I go through the steps to build the string.  The peg holes in the bottom row are 1" apart and are made so the peg can be moved from hole to hole to accommodate different length strings.  I prefer this design to some others because it gives you a nice tapered look to the ends of the bow string.

I like to make my strings out of B-50 Dacron, yes it stretches some but it only takes a few minutes to work the stretch out.  Other materials such as so called Fast Flight are to me just another marketing scheme using the "more speed" story to sell the stuff.  The reality is that out of the box, so to speak, the lack of stretch does add 2-3 feet per second more speed.  Come on guys,  it's kind of like the speed race with compound mechanical devices - This bow shoots 305 fps and this bow shoots 310 fps. There are BB guns that shoot 1000 fps! It ain't about speed, it's about durability and accuracy.  Ishi, the Father of modern archery, was quoted as saying , "any old bow will do, but very few men can make a deadly arrow."  In other words, his emphasis was on the arrow and its broadhead and its sharpness.  After all it's a well placed arrow that does the killing, not a well thrown bow.

No matter what your string material choice is, make sure the bow tips are engineered to withstand the sawing action of the string.  With Dacron B-50 an hardwood overlay is all that is necessary.  If you just have to have Fast Flight, make sure to add a layer of Linen Micarta to your Hardwood overlay or you will be on your way to an exploded Bow!

You begin by tying in your string material of choice in at the upper left inside peg running it all the way around the string board to the peg chosen for the appropriate string length on the right side of the bow.  For instance  If your bow takes a 60 inch string  you add 20 inches to that , minus 4"= 76", Divide  this in half ,which gives you 38 inches.  Your winding peg would be placed at the 38 inch mark.

All subsequent wraps would begin progressively one peg at a time in the upper left corner and around the 38 inch peg until you have the correct number of strands.  For a fifty lb (or less), bow I like 14 strands for a 55lb (or more), I like 16 strands.  Once wound you will have exactly half the number of finished strands needed Since the overall length of the wound string is twice the finished length 8 winds will result in a 8 strands of a 16 strand bundle string. You then wind up another bundle,(of another color), and then braid the two bundles together.

Making the string: First you need to make a loop.  Lay 10 inches of each bundle together; if your right handed pick up the 10" of  both bundles and twist the bundle farthest from you to the right, and then cross it over the other bundle; twisting once to the left.  Continue this until you have a long enough braid to make a loop.  For a longbow with 1/2" tips I like 8 to 10 braids.  Make the loop, put both colors together; for instance if using blue and green, blue with blue and green with green and then continue the braiding action you used in making the loop for the entire 10".  Tie this off, and then repeat the process on the other end of the string.  After tying this end off put one loop over a peg on your string board and twist to the left 20 or so times.  place the string on the bow check for brace height. 

If brace height is not correct remove loop from lower limb and for every 3 or 4 twists to the left you will shorten the string and raise the brace height approximately 1/4"  Twist to the right and you will lengthen the string, and lower the brace height.

Man, that was hard to explain, no worries it's a lot easier to do than to explain.  Good Luck!

Man I think I have all the mistakes edited out of this article!! I was never good at math

This is the fresh from the mold ELB I will be building for this build along.  It is 66"long because that's the length wood I had lying around.  Three inches of backset. Personally I prefer 68 - 70" for this design but, "waste not want not."  It is Osage Orange on the belly, taken from a very old fence post, Hickory on the back, and a core of tapered, (.002 per inch), Ipe to resist compression and string follow.  Ipe can have a specific gravity of 1.00, very, very dense.  Too heavy for a glass laminated bow, but works really well for an all wood bow.  Seems to be very fast in this application since ELB's are very low mass in the outer limb area where it is critical.

By the way, check out www.bowbuildingforpoorpeopleandapartmentdwellers.com  it's a great site and has a lot of info for you Bowyers out there.

Dimensionally, a long bow by definition, in length, is roughly equal to the height of the person shooting it.  This allows for a fairly long draw length without overly stressing the bow.  The average length of arrows in museums from the Medieval and Victorian time periods were 30 inches in length.  The archer drew the bow to the back of the jaw, not to the corner of his mouth.  The Long bow has straight limbs, (no deflex or reflex), there are examples of bows with setback in the limbs, (my design of choice).  Its limbs are pyrimidal in design, that is to say, they taper from the fade outs to the tips. They are circular or D shaped in cross section, tillering being done from the outside edges rather than the belly in a flat cross section. A Flat bows limbs are rectangular in cross section.

There are two types of traditional English Long Bow, Medieval and Victorian.  The British Long Bow society defines the Medieval Long Bow as having limbs with a thickness of between 33 and 40% of the limbs width, and a narrow handle of less width than the limbs..  The Victorian Long Bow, most typically exemplified by the English War Bow, is widest at it's handle and limb thickness is 5/8 or 62.5% of it's width.  Also the Victorian does not bend through it's length as does the Medieval bow. 

Long Bows have been used for hunting and warfare by many cultures throughout the world, and may be found in many other configurations, basically retaining the classic lines of the English version but with modifications.  As Yew, (first choice for the classic long bow), became increasingly more difficult to obtain other woods have been used; Osage Orange, Hickory, Bamboo, Ipe, Purple Heart, and Green Heart to name a few.  Also many of the most notable builders like Richard Head are laminating their staves. Back and Belly woods of the same thickness and a core wood of Purple Heart, Green Heart or Ipe.  I like Ipe because of it's specific gravity of 1.00 it really is strong in compression.

Other Cultures that have used the basic long Bow design for many centuries are the Bassas and Nubians of Africa, the Kurds and Arabians, Native American Tribes such as the Cherokee, Algonkians, and other Eastern American Tribes like the Powatons,  South American Tribes include the Bari Indians at the time of Alexander, and  many European cultures since Mesolithic times *

Long Bows are capable of taking any and all game on earth.  Howard Hill and others have taken Elephants and the Big Five in Africa. The average Hunting weight for a Long Bow would be 40 to 50#.  An English Longbow documented to be 200# in draw weight and 32" in draw length was used to take an African Elephant.

English Bowmen in the Medieval period used bows from 120# to 200# for warfare and were trained to pull these War Bows from the age of 7 years!

Mark Stretton currently holds the world record for shooting a Long Bow pulling 200#.

*http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow

The Form, in construction:  72" long and 1 3/4" wide with 3" of reflex to counter any string follow that might occur while breaking in the bow you build on it.  When you are building this form, use a light hardwood so it will be easy to move around with the clamps on it.  I used Alder.  it's very light and hods up to being in the oven for 4 or 5 hours at 150 degrees with out warping.  I drilled the holes in the sides for C clamps but you could use rubber bands on pegs also.  Make the rubber bands from cut sections of an old inner tube.  Use doweling or nails for the pegs, spaced about 1 1/2" apart.

It was 125 degrees F. up against my house so I just put the bow out there instead of in the hot box.

This is the bow I want you to build along with me on, if your into it.  it is a traditional ELB built from Osage, Hickory, and Ipe.  The only deviation is the handle.  Handles were not found on the original ELB and you can do that with this bow, if you want, I just don't like bend through the middle bows personally.  Everyone to his own tastes, ok?

One issue I want to emphasize; don't use white carpenters glue.  It does not work.  I've got some emails from people using this to laminate wanting to know why their bows break, Well it's the White Glue; don't use it.

I listed on the bow building pages what kind of glue to use.  

I am going to use Titebond III on this bow for those of you who want to save money and not build a hot box this is the glue to use.

Lay up:  Pretty straight forward.  cover your form with Saran wrap, after wiping it down good with paste wax and then lay in your laminations, then the riser if you're using one, and then if you decide you want to, add an overlay over the riser to unify the riser section to the limbs.  If you look closely at this photo you will see in the center, the Osage overlay I used.  It is 20 inches long.  Really, it only needs to be about 14" long.  As you tiller the bow feather the ends of the overlay into the limbs and you wont even know it's there! A very tidy way of laying up the bow.

Here are some photos of the Osage ELB (untillered)

These three photos show the bow after adding the overlays.  It is still un-tillered, but I wanted to show you how the bow looked after removing it from the form.  These bows are built with the back and belly lams the same thickness.  The Hickory resists breaking, the strength of the bow. The Ipe resists compression, due to it's density, and of course the Osage is the heart of the bow; adding durability, the ability to build a narrower more esthetically pleasing bow, and cast or performance.  The Osage in this bow came from an old fence post.

Specifications: Overall Length: 66" - width 1 1/4" at the fade outs tapered pyrimidaly  to 1/2" at the tips - Lams: Osage belly .270 at butts, spliced - Ipe core .130 at butts spliced - Hickory back .200 (should have been .270, just couldn't bring myself to make it that thick. I'm used to building bows with a flat tiller). total butt thickness .600 - total tip thickness .410.  Back set 3 inches. Riser section: 12" x 1 1/4" x 1" Zebra wood, Osage and Amaranth or Purpleheart. 20" overlay of .006 Osage over the riser and faded into the limbs at the fade outs.  Tip overlays Zebra wood and Deer antler. Knocks will be placed 5/8" in from tips.

Note: The bow floor tillered at cleanup

It looks like the bow will not require too much tillering.  The pyrimid design and the tapered laminations allow the bow to come in pretty close to even tiller.  The bow is a little stiff at the fadeouts; due to the 20 inch riser overlay I put on it. Scraper time.  Remember this bow is a D cross section.  First file off the edges and then work it down in a circular profile from the edges.  I'll draw a picture and put it up for you so you can see how it's supposed to look.  It's a little difficult to photograph it properly.  This type tillering is much easier and faster than flat tillering, so be careful not to take too much wood off at one time.  Once it's gone it's gone!

An English Long bow is tillered from the sides not he belly.  If you use a pyramid design Limb the tillering is half done.  The first step is to take a rasp, ( I use a Nelson #49 or # 50 to take down the edge of the Belly and then round off the seems left both top and bottom from the initial grinding.  I then follow this up with a cabinet scraper and finish with  80 grit sandpaper to make sure I have a smooth surface.  Every time you remove wood, bend the limbs 30 or so times no more than 15 inches to retrain the wood to bend.  If you see weak over bent areas remove wood from either side of the weak spot.  Go Slowly .  I use a scraper and then sand paper.  Recheck the tiller on your tillering stick and continue until you have an even bend along the entire length of the limb.  The first four inches from the tip down should have very little if any bend in them.  the same goes for the first 4 inches of the fade out area.  Otherwise, with a pyramid limb, the bend should be in the form of an arc of a circle not elliptical as in a flat bow design.  Go slowly this is the most critical part of building an all wood bow.  Loose patience here and I guarantee you you will end up with a bow of very slow cast, or a broken bow.

Here is the final shape for the ELB with the riser section and the arrow pass installed.  It looks like I've got a very slight hinge in the bottom limb so the bow will have to be tillered down a few pounds to remove the hinge.  That's bow building! A friend of mine once told me, "You've got to break bows to make bows."  In this case nothing so drastic, the hinge is all part of the learning curve.  As I tillered the bow, a small pin knot appeared in the area where the hinge showed up.  I'm guessing this created just enough of a weak spot to allow the hinge.  Bowyers TIP: Throughout the building process check for imperfections that may show up and lead to failure.

I wanted to teach a little about tillering but there just wasn't that much to do to bring this one in.  Using tapered laminations and a pyrimid profile just doesn't require too much tillering.  So unless you like scraping and filing maybe this is the way to go.

I guess this speaks for itself.  Target weight for this bow was 55#, but because of the slight hinge, I had to reduce it to 50#.  Still a formidable hunting weapon.

I built this bow for a man going to Alaska to hunt moose etc.  It is Osage Orange and Brazillian Walnut,with a riser and overlays of laminated Maple in various colors.  The bow is Backed with a very thin, (1/16") of Rawhide) Adhered with Titebond III, a water proof Glue

This is Judith, my best friend, and without whom I would be lost.

The caption in the photo says:

 "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within Him."          John 7: 37, 38