Osage ELB

[Muskyman]

Just in the beginning of trying to make an English longbow. Started out with a pretty good piece of Osage. Only been working on it a couple days.  First thing I found out is that making the D shape isn’t easy. I went down easy limb with a contour gauge and have it working my way, but still have some shaping to get done. The stave is 75 inches long and about 1-1/8 wide at the handle.
Lots to do yet and if anyone has any tips or advice I’m all ears.
Also if anyone has any place to get some cow horn tips for a decent price. Looked a while back and they were pretty pricey 

First pic is the stave I started with. And of course where I am now.

[Pappy]

Good looking stave, looks like you are making some good head way. Looking forward to seeing it all finished up. 
 Pappy

[Hamish]

Looks great so far. D sections can be tricky, if you start to get lateral bend. If the limb bends sideways , remove wood from the opposite side of the belly to correct the twist.

I usually put the horn nocks on when the bow is at full brace height and bending about 20-22" on the tillering tree. I do this because by this stage you should have sorted out any potential problems with twist, string alignment and narrowed tips. I prefer tillering to full draw with the nocks on rather than adding them after, as small inconsistencies can change the tiller. These days I use a small taper reamer from Veritas/ Lee valley, to form the tapered hole.  Before the reamer I use regular drill bits to remove most of the waste.

[Del the cat]

Don't worry about a 'D' section, an 'inflated rectangle' is maybe a better description. You don't want the belly dead flat, by a gentle curve in fine. You'll want it a bit fatter and rounded at the grip to make it comfortable.
I did a youtube video showing the cross section of one of mine:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHKuYeP7aTY
The picture is of cross sections of a Mary Rose bow.
Del

[Muskyman]

Thanks for the advice guys. It’s my first go at the ELB so I’m expecting a learning curve. This stave has about 1 1/2 inch natural reflex in it. It’s at floor tiller right now and I’m hoping to make a bow out of it. I wanted to try one or two before I tried it on a really nice yew stave I’ve got. I’ll post more pictures when I get a little more done..

[Muskyman]

Starting to bend it some. Need to catch the left limb up to the right. Looking like the left limb is stiffer for the last 2/3rds. The right one looks a little flat on the last 1/3rd maybe.
Here it is at rest and then with a little pull on it. I’m needing to find some horn for it. About the only place I’ve found so far is in Germany. Probably put some tips on it once I get it bending about the same at about brace height..

[Hamish]

Plenty of raw horn for tips on Ebay.

Stave looks good so far. Looks like you are going for a stiff handle, with dips? How deep is the handle?

[Muskyman]

Not really sure how a ELB is supposed to look in the handle Hamish. I guess I better look into that more. It’s probably about 1n 1/8th to 1 n 1/4 not 100 percent sure to be honest. Do they typically not have that look to them. I just knew they had the D shaped limbs. I probably have it that way because that’s kinda what I’m used to doing.  I’m gonna look into it and might have to change it up in the handle area. Thanks for getting me thinking.

[Hamish]

For elb's you can build them to bend through the handle, or various degrees of stiffness. Many variations were made. The style you have at the moment will give you a stiff handle, like we use with most flatbows. It arguably makes the smoothest shooting style, less handshock.
No need to change if you don't want to.

[Muskyman]

Yeah I’m seeing that now after looking around today. The one Thing I’m finding out about this particular Osage stave is that the rings don’t really like the D shape. As it tapers down towards the tip. Now this stave has a little thicker early wood rings than I’d like so that might have something to do with it. Is what it is. It sands out okay so I’m sure it’ll be fine.

 I did find the cow horn tips on eBay. Are they typically solid on the last 2-3-4 inches, I really don’t know.

[Hamish]

I reckon your osage will handle the D section just fine.

You can use cow, buffalo, or even yak horn. If it says" tips" in the description, it should be solid. Look at the photos, if there is any delamination on the  cut side, don't buy it. 3" sections are good (or even a 2" section will do for a lower limb tip which is usually shorter).

[Muskyman]

Bought some buffalo horn on the web. Coming from Germany I think, said it might take a couple weeks to get here. Worked on the bow for a while today. It’s almost bending enough to put a string on it. Not going to do much more till I can get the nocks on it.
Hamish, I measured it in the handle section today 1.18 inches pretty much both directions. It’s bending a little better but, still got a ways to go. I put my bow scale on it and it’s about 37 lbs about where it’s bent to in the photo.