Hickory English Longbow - starting build (beginner)

[Hoarfrost]

I am getting ready to start a hickory English Longbow build. This will be my second bow. The first one worked but I took off too much wood and it came out lighter than I'd like, (it's ok though as I know someone will use it). I bought TBB 1-4 and have been reading these. I feel better prepared to tiller this next one.

My target weight is 60# at 30" draw. I am starting with a Hickory board that has pretty straight grain on the side from end to end. It is just over 3/4" thick at this point and about 4" wide.

I am planning to start off with these dimensions: 72" length (70" nock to nock). 1-1/4" wide at center, 3/4" wide at tips. 3/4" thick at center, 15/32" thick at tips. I believe these follow the traditional ELB ratio.

Question: Right now I plan on keeping full width and thickness for 75% of the length (54") before tapering down to the tips. This will leave 9" at the end that tapers. Looking at the layout I wonder if that will be a problem and I should start the taper closer to the handle? On the last bow I tapered down from either side of the handle to the tips. I'm wondering if I should stick to my plan and shave more off if needed or go ahead and change the plan?

I really apreciate all the great help I've picked up on this forum. I'm looking forward to posting updates on the bow as I progress, (which may be a little slow due to my schedule and lack of experience- but that's ok I plan on taking my time and hopefully end up with a strong hunting bow). Thanks in advance for all of your help!

I'm going to try to attach a picture of my new bowyery corner I setup in the basement. This should be a good spot to work this winter with lots of light. I need to build a shaving horse.

[Del the cat]

IMO.
Most of the tillering of a longbow is in the thickness. The width is mostly making it look pretty and saving weight on the tips.
As a rough starting point I usually taper the thickness buy dropping 1.5mm every 6 " starting say 6" from the centreline.
Play with the numbers to see what thickness that will give you at the tip.
Like I say it's just a guide to get you floor tillered and may end up more like 2mm every 6 inches, dropping even more as the tips blend in.
I know I'm mixing my units, but trust me, using mm for thickness is V convenient.
You can just get it to thickness at the 6" points and then blend in between with a spoke shave.
I advise leaving the cross section square until it's about half tillered, then take the corners off. Dount round the belly too much, except where it blends to a circular section for the horn nocks.
Leave the tips wide early on as ELBs can try and bend sideways on you in the early stages. Extra tip width gives some adjustment to help stop that.
Del

[Hoarfrost]

Thanks for the advice Del. I was looking at the design and I figured out that if I started tapering the belly (thickness) from 6" on either side of the center and 1.5-2mm every six inches I would end up almost exactly where I wanted at the tips (15/32").

So as of now I am planning on doing that, also tapering down from 6" on either side of the center in width to the 3/4" tips. This will follow the 8:5 guideline to English longbows. I will plan on leaving the tips wide for a bit starting the tiller as you suggest.

Right now I have it planed down to just over my 1-1/4" and 3/4" center thickness the whole way, and my tapers drawn on. This hickory takes some time to hand plane down, I thick it should make a strong bow.

[LEGIONNAIRE]

Looks like a good start, Ill be watching this thread. Thanks for posting a build along

[Hoarfrost]

Made a little more progress tonight after work. I planed down the belly from 6" on either side of center toward the tips. I left an extra 1/8" and haven't reduced the sides at all. Next I'll do some floor tillering. Right now it is stiff but bending a little in the mid-limbs where I want it, so far so good. =) This hickory is slow to come off under the hand plane.

[Del the cat]

Just thought, you might find this post interesting.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/big-bow-detail-and-hickory-challenge.html
As it shows how NOT to do nocks and tips.
I took a nasty cheap hickory ELB and tuned it up. The results are shown in the next post.
Del

[Hoarfrost]

Thanks Del, I'll avoid overbuilding the tips. My progress might slow down some as I am simultaneously starting a bow for my wife, (a light draw Red oak board bow).

On this Hickory bow I am seriously considering heat treating the belly. I've never done this before but have read Marc St. Louis' heat treating section in the TBB and have a heat gun. Would you recommend treating this bow at the outset? If so, should I do it before tillering and what size caul should I use? I don't want to turn it into a recurve, and would mainly like to help with compression and reduce string follow.

[Del the cat]

Personally I'd save the heat treating as your ace in the hole in case it starts taking set or coming out too low in weight. It gives you an insurance policy.
That work I did on that bow, shows that you can recover some set even with a well used bow, so you don't need to worry about having to do it early.
If you do decide to do it early I'd suggest getting to maybe a low brace first. Do it too early and you end up rasping off the heat treated wood!
Del

[Hoarfrost]

I've made some more progress on the bow. I decided on a squashed oval profile with a mostly flat back and belly. It has been raining a lot here and my shop is 60% RH, the wood is at 10% moisture content.

I tillered it with the long string and with no brace, keeping below 50lb draw (60 is my target). I made a regular (b50) string for it tonight and got it up to a medium brace.

It is looking pretty good to me but one limb looks slightly stronger than the other. I decided to stop here for the night and work on it later. After unstringing it had about 1/2" of string follow. If that keeps up I will heat treat it. My plan for next time is to adjust the tiller slightly and work it out toward my 60# @ 31" target.

Here is an attached picture of it at half brace. It is sitting on the back with the string up in the air here.

[k-hat]

Del's got you on the right track!

I'd try to dry that out some more before continuing.  I think hick likes around 6-8% if memory serves.  I tillered out a bow in the conditions you're describing and ended up with huge amounts of set, and it wasn't due to tillering.

Right now it looks like you've got a lot of bend in the middle, and need more mid to tips, but that may be the angle of the picture.

[Hoarfrost]

Thanks K-hat. We've had about a year's worth of rain this week in Colorado. I'll let things dry out and work on other projects.

Edited to add picture: I think you are right about needing more bend away from the handle. Here is another angle.

[Joec123able]

Yep just by that low brace you can tell its bending to much in the center of the bow