Help with English Longbow

[Benvse]

I need help Building an English longbow.  I know that the best wood is yew but I was wondering what other woods could I use.  I am not wanting to make a war bow something around 50 pounds.  I just need overall help with where to start.  I have made a few board bows and they are starting to turn out pretty nice but they are not what I really want to build.  If anyone knows any good build alongs or knows how please let me know.  I live in Illinois right across the Mississippi from St. Louis.

[Rod]

Elm is an authentic second choice wood. You can also use Ash.
ERC is a good lookalike substitute for yew is you can find a good enough piece, as is Rowan.

We might tend to make the bow a tad wider and shallower in Ash or Elms other than Wych Elm.

Rod.

[Herm from Bavaria]

at the moment i´m building one from hickory. a friend of mine did it few years ago. his hickory bow pulls spectacular !85#! and theres only about 1,5" set. so i´ve started to build my own hickory warbow. yew is best for serving this purpose, but i did not get a good stave. as a additional feature i try to temper the belly. probably i can minimize the set...


greets herm

[Rod]

I moved this from the Warbow thread because it was'nt getting a response so I moved it over here to where folks are interested in lighter draw weights.
 Rod.

[wakosama]

ELB build alongs

http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/aelb1.htm

[rudderbows]

Hickory also makes a decent Englsih longbow too.

[Lukasz Nawalny]

I personally dont like hickory on self longbows - wood is heavy and bow usually dont have very good performance. Last time I have made longbow from maple - light and strong wood - by 48 lb around 170 fps , for me maple is better then ash on longbow.

[Pat B]

I don't consider hickory to be a good ELB wood either. Being weaker in compression makes it more apt to take set with the narrow width and deep rounded belly. There are plenty of other options available that would be a better choice. If I wanted to make a long bow out of Hickory it would be an American longbow or a long bow with a rectangular cross section and flat belly. Choosing the proper wood for a particular design will help to eliminate a beginner's frustrations and will lead to becoming successful sooner.
   I know folks make all sorts of bows with all sorts of wood and many are successful but for the majority of wood bow builders using the proper design for the wood you have is the ticket to success. If you want to experiment with different woods and different designs then by all means do it and share the results with us all. But if you are trying to make your first(or first few) wood bow, use what is proven and appropriate for it(them), at least until you are more familiar with wood bow building. You'll be happier in the long run.

[M-P]

Hi,  I've made a couple of elb type bows out of eastern red cedar and one of osage.  Mine have been slighty bendy in the handle and 38-50# @28".  For an elb up to 50-60 pounds I think a wide variety of woods will answer.  Ron

[adb]

Hickory also makes a decent Englsih longbow too.

I think hickory would be one of my last choices, especially for a selfbow, when making a true ELB. Hickory sucks in compression, period. It does make one of the best backing materials, and my favourite laminate ELB is hickory/osage or maple/osage.

[The Burnt Hill Archer]

i just started an argentinian osage/hickory target ELB. at this rate i might have it done by christmas, but im hoping for the best. i do love the osage/hickry combo. very good results, but like Pat and the others, i would shy away from hickory as a self bow if you are doing a rounded belly. heavy tempering might help a little, and it will besically fold in half before it breaks, but the compression of a narrow rounded belly will be too much for it. just my 2 cents.

Phil

[backgardenbowyer]

Most of the ELBs made and shot here in the UK are triple laminates:  hickory backing, core of some contrasting tropical hardwood - typically purpleheart, but ipe increasingly popular, and belly of lemonwood.  You can get lemon wood here from specialist wood dealers and from professional bowyers who will also sell a laminated stave.

I think the best combination for a beginner is lemonwood backed with hickory (no core).  This is easy to glue up and lemonwood is a joy to work as it has almost no grain.  I've yet to see a chrysal in lemonwood, it is very forgiving.

If you want to make a self bow then I agree with the others above - ash or elm, wych elm if you can get it.  I've seen ELBs self bows made from osage but it's hard to find a straight piece long enough and I'm told that as a very dense wood the bow tends to kick in the hand because of the weight near the tips - not tried it myself so can't comment.  You would need to "chase" a single growth ring on the back of these woods, or even better to get a stave with the bark on, then carefully remove the bark and use the surface underneath as the back of the bow.

I often use ipe backed with bamboo, this is cheap, easy for me to get and very fast, but I think this is a bit more tricky to glue up and work if you've not done it before.

If you want to see examples on line search for bowyers like Bickerstaffe, Boyton, Head, and Greenland.

Have fun and do post some pictures so we can all enjoy your bow!

Stan

[Benvse]

Thanks for all of the advice. I am glad I have ash and I can use my hickory for a flat bow.

[Rod]

Do you have a pattern for the basic layout? If this is not specifically for an Ash bow it would be wise to make it slightly wider and shallower for best results.

Rod.