Hickory/Maple/Ipe ELB - 85#@32"

[Et_tu_brute]

Hi all,

Thought I'd share some pics of my latest work. This bow is a Hickory backed Ipe ELB which bends through the handle with a Maple core. It is 79" ntn and approx 85#@32". The nocks are Charolais cow horn. I finished it with Rustins Plastic Coating, and am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I glued it up straight and it has about 1" of set after unstringing, which comes down to 1/2" after resting. The Ipe is some pretty impressive wood, and the bow is very slim for its draw weight. It's only 1 1/4" wide at the handle and 1" deep, tapering to 1/2" tips. It's a good shooter, nice and fast with hardly any hand shock. Here are the pics

Width profile



Unstrung





Braced





Edge grain Hickory backing



Ipe belly



Glue lines (Cascamite/Extramite), I'm pretty pleased with these



Arrow pass/handle



Top nock









Bottom nock



Width at tips





Drawn






All comments, criticisms etc. are appreciated

Cheers,
Dave

[The Burnt Hill Archer]

very nice work! i love the arc of an ELB. the transition of your horn nocks to wood is very well done.

Phil

[wvbowhntr]

looks good

[zeNBowyer]

Looks  great,  how  does she  shoot? What's  the  shock  like with a  bend thru  the  handle  bow?

[OldBow]

Lookout Montana elk from this one...not to mention Montana's new denizen, the WOLF.
Bookmarked under October Laminates for BOM, too.

[Parnell]

Hello,

I really like that.  Might try my hand at one in the future.  I'm wondering, it appears the hickory/maple/Ipe combination runs the entire length of the bow.  I haven't made a long bow like this, is it usual to have the the core run the full length?  Looks like it would be fun to shoot - thanks.

Parnell

[Et_tu_brute]

Thanks for the compliments guys 

Looks  great,  how  does she  shoot? What's  the  shock  like with a  bend thru  the  handle  bow?

I don't find the handshock to be a problem with these bows, however I pretty much only shoot bows that bend through the handle, so I haven't got much to compare with. It doesn't jar in the hand uncomfortably, though that has been a problem in the past with some other bows I've made, but that was down to the tiller being a little unbalanced. It's a pretty fast bow, it wont win any speed competitions but it puts a heavy arrow out a long way - I like it.

Hello,

I really like that.  Might try my hand at one in the future.  I'm wondering, it appears the hickory/maple/Ipe combination runs the entire length of the bow.  I haven't made a long bow like this, is it usual to have the the core run the full length?  Looks like it would be fun to shoot - thanks.

Parnell

Hi, yes the Maple lam runs throughout the bow. Pretty much all of the ELBs I've seen with cores have them run the full length, though they are sometimes tapered, which is something I plan to do on my next bow. Is a core which is only present in the centre of the bow called a power-lam? I've heard the phrase quite often but never really knew what it meant for sure.

[Del the cat]

Very nice, what is the nock material? Cow horn? Makes a nice change from the usual WB horn, which always makes me wonder where they got the WB in medieval England
Looks like it could come back even further, or to put it another way it looks rather long (more of an enquiry about length than a criticism) V nice finish.
*5 is a nice respectable weight...that must chuck and arrow well over 220?
Del

[Jmilbrandt]

Looks awesome. I've been wanting to make a bow like that for a while now, kind of forgot about it but you have me wanting to make one again!

[adb]

Very nicely done, sir!! My  kinda  bow. 

[Justin Snyder]

That is one really long bow.  It looks great. I have to admit that watching you climb inside of it to draw it like that reminds me of Wiley Coyote shooting himself out of a bow. 

[Rich Saffold]

I too like the pics. Justin's description made me chuckle, and I think your very fine  longbow will make you a bit stronger as well.

Rich

[backgardenbowyer]

That is one seriously good ELB - well done!  The extra length gives a margin of safety and has probably helped you keep the set down but its mighty fine work by anyone's standards.  I find that you can take the tips of an ipe ELB down very thin which increases speed and reduces the potential for handshock.

How far does she shoot?  My 70lbs@29" ipe/boo ELB will shoot a flight arrow over 250yds, so you should be getting close to 300 with this one.

Thanks for showing us your work I've realy enjoyed seeing it

Stan

[lungbuster]

wow if you neck gets stuck in there u could be into trouble

[Et_tu_brute]

Very nice, what is the nock material? Cow horn? Makes a nice change from the usual WB horn, which always makes me wonder where they got the WB in medieval England
Looks like it could come back even further, or to put it another way it looks rather long (more of an enquiry about length than a criticism) V nice finish.
*5 is a nice respectable weight...that must chuck and arrow well over 220?
Del

Cheers Del, yeah the nocks are Charolais cow horn from Highland Horn. It's nice stuff, but really does stink. I'm not drawing the full 32" (more like 30-31) in that pic as I'm not really on top of this bow yet, it is pretty long at 79". I made it this long so I can shorten it at a later date to up the draw weight once I've mastered this weight.

Looks awesome. I've been wanting to make a bow like that for a while now, kind of forgot about it but you have me wanting to make one again!

Very nicely done, sir!! My  kinda  bow. 

Thanks guys

That is one really long bow.  It looks great. I have to admit that watching you climb inside of it to draw it like that reminds me of Wiley Coyote shooting himself out of a bow. 

Cheers, yep I can see the resemblance! 

I too like the pics. Justin's description made me chuckle, and I think your very fine  longbow will make you a bit stronger as well.

Rich

Thanks Rich, yeah it's definitely a strength builder, it'll be a while before I've mastered this weight!

That is one seriously good ELB - well done!  The extra length gives a margin of safety and has probably helped you keep the set down but its mighty fine work by anyone's standards.  I find that you can take the tips of an ipe ELB down very thin which increases speed and reduces the potential for handshock.

How far does she shoot?  My 70lbs@29" ipe/boo ELB will shoot a flight arrow over 250yds, so you should be getting close to 300 with this one.

Thanks for showing us your work I've realy enjoyed seeing it

Stan

Thanks Stan, I reckon I could perhaps have brought the tips down a little slimmer than they are, though I always err on the side of caution with that. Perhaps I'll narrow them at a later date. I haven't yet made and matching arrows for this bow, so can't get a real idea of the distance, + the fact after a few shots my draw-length creeps down with this weight. However once I've got some matched arrows made for it and can draw it comfortably I reckon with a flight-arrow 260 is do-able. I'll be making up some standard arrows to shoot from it as well, it'll be interesting to see what I can get with those.

Cheers,
Dave