Asking help for a laminated ELB...

[dfrois]

Hello all,

A friend of mine asked me to build him an English longbow. I have never built an all-wood bow, and I don't have any suitable wood for it, nor way to get it cheaply. So, using what I do have, I have come up with the following plan, and wanted to abuse (again) the good will of all the more experienced builders here to ask if it would work, and if not, what can I do to make it work.

He wants a D-Shaped ELB, 66 to 68" ntn, 50#@28. I have raw bamboo, some cherry, a few ash lams and some fiberglass lams. I also have a 3/16" actionboo lam, 2" wide, 76" long, but I would prefer not to use it, due to another project.

Here is what I thought might work:

1.25" wide, to 1/2" tips, 1/2" thick at the fades, tapered (maybe?).

Bamboo for the back, 1/8"
cherry and, maybe, ash lams for the core, 1/4" total at the fades
Bamboo for the belly, 1/8" (will probably use the outside of the bamboo here)
Perhaps an ash powerlam, 20" or so long
A thin riser, glued on the belly, maybe oak or balau, 16" long, with really progressive fades

So, what do you all think? would this work? If not, what would you change, considering the materials I have available? What worries me is the D-shape requirement. Perhaps a thicker, but less wide, bamboo belly would be necessary?

I have never done a non-glass bow, so any help is welcome. And please, don't tell me to just get a yew or hickory or osage stave. It is simply not available here in Portugal...

Thanks in advance.

Daniel

[Draffish]

not sure if this helps but im in uk and have been using this link to look at different woods etc  http://www.yewtreearchery.co.uk/woods.htm  hope im ok to put this here sorry if i cannot.

[MoeM]

You can go with ash back if it has standing grain with little runout and cherry for the core and balau (kind of bankirai I guess) shall give a suitable belly. Better not to narrow- woods aren`t first choice and go longer- shall be an elb...
I`d put powerlams between lams to get a grip area without outsidehandle.
Check  Bickerstaffe`s longbows for example...

[dfrois]

Draffish, thanks for the link. I didn't know about that one. Good tips there, but I'm fairly sure some folks here will take exception to them listing Osage as an "accent wood"!

MoeM, powerlams between lams is a good idea. Thanks. Ash in the back might be a problem - the ash I have was purchased as ready-to-use bowbuilding lams, for laminated glass bows, so I'm not sure about the grain. Will have to take a long hard look at them. I was under the impression that bamboo would be better for the back, and the belly. You are also right about balau. I used that name because I thought it would be better known than bangkirai, which is the name that it had at the place I bought it from. I also saw, on paloeplanet (I think) that bangkirai was prone to failure in compression, developing frets sooner than expected for such a dense wood. Have you heard anything about that? Perhaps it was a different type: bangkirai belongs to the gender Shorea, which has more than 100 species, and surely there are differences among them. I know that true bangkirai has no easy distinction between sapwood and heartwood, which my specimen clearly has, so...

However, ash back, cherry core and balau belly is something I can definitely try, and I have enough of those to make 2 bows, so thanks for the help. Please, keep it coming. I'm on unknown territory here!

Daniel

[MoeM]

Bit difficult- exotic hardwoods have not only many names and groups but also different tradenames...
I`ve seen an impressive bow boo backed (or hick hmmm) yellow balau but bankirai which is the group it`s also sold here isn`t known to be that good as massaranduba/ipe.
If I had usable ash lams I`d use those- the belly won`t be that forced as boo does so balaus chance to survive grows...

Ed.: Or cherry between raw boo, but thats a bit more sophisticated I think

[CalebNH00]

You could also make a board bow. Sam harper has a great pair of build-alongs
   making an english longbow  
   another english longbow build along  hope this helps

[LittleBen]

Bamboo back, cherry core .... probably wanna find a good compression wood for the belly lam. I don't know whats commonly available in portugal ....

Ipe might be found for decking and its usually pretty cheap.

Or you could use the bamboo as you mentioned for the belly. Bamboo back and belly bows are more difficult to tiller because the belly typically isn't scraped to tiller like other wood bows.

If you found one 2m piece of bamboo flooring that could be cut to make alot of lams for the bow. You could use a raw bamboo back, a bamboo flooring core, and a bamboo flooring belly lam. I would glue in a little reflex though

[dfrois]

Thanks, guys. Yes, wood names are all over the place...and English is not my native language! I have known of Sam Harper's wonderful site for some time now, and he shows what someone can do when the will is really there, even with very little means...He is one of the responsibles for making me believe that I could make bows, if I really wanted to! But he has access to woods that I have not. Pine is what's commonly available in Portugal...anything else is just a godsend! Anyway, enough of that!

So far, I have seen a possible way. If any of my ash lams has fairly straight grain, I'll use that for the back, cherry for the core and bangkirai for the belly. If none of the ash lams looks good, I'll use bamboo on the back, fairly thin, or I'll put a narrow fiberglass strip on the belly, rounded to the shape. If the bangkirai frets while tillering, I'll scrape it off and try bamboo, narrower but thicker. We'll see how it goes...Thanks for the help. I'll check back tomorrow, in case someone else decides to chip in.

Daniel

[dfrois]

Just thought of something...isn't cherry supposed to be good at compression?

Daniel