Building an Old School Hill style longbow

[Steve B.]

I have two questions, if you don't mind?:

Why are the only beer bottles I have ever seen in bowyer pics are from the two PA guys that I know of?

and...

On a more serious note, can you educate me as to what exactly, first, a Hill style bow is, and second, what an old style Hill style bow is ?

thanks

[jsweka]

Goose Island is one fine beverage.  Lots of flavor and there's no fruit in it!  What else is there do to in PA - Build bows, kill stuff, and drink beer           (I just need to keep up with the trend that Roy started while making bows and wanted to test if you guys would notice).

My dimensions right now are 1 1/4" at the fadeouts and it maintains that width for 18" out from center, then tapers to 1/2" at the nocks. I may decrease the width some more if I need to drop a little weight, but we'll see where it is once I get a string on it.

Steve B. - You'll probably get several different answers as to what a Hill style is depending who you ask, but generally it is a longbow with a straight,reflex, or string follow profile (no reflex/deflex) with a fairly straight grip (can be dished or minor locator style).  Folks often call these "D" bows since they string to the shape of a "D".  I prefer not to use that term because some mild r/d bows also string to a "D" and the term "D" bow historically referred to the cross section of the limb - like an English longbow.  It's only been recently that folks started to call Hill style longbows "D bows".  David Miller uses the term "American Semi-Longbow" for this style of bow.  I call this one an "Old School" Hill style bow because I'm using myrtle in the riser, which was a favorite years ago, and contrasting back and belly colored glass which you don't see to often anymore with the proliferation of the use of clear glass.  It does seem like colored glass is gaining in popularity again.

I've got the tip overlays glued on and drying right now.  I'll post some more pics later today.

[monterey]

Watch your width at fades!  I took a .002 taper down too narrow and ended up sanding taper into the glass.  :eek:

[jsweka]

monterey - So why did you sand taper into the glass?  Was it flexing too much near the fades? I won't need to go any narrower on this one, so 1 1/4 is where it will stay.

[jsweka]

I got a lot done today.  The wife was shopping and the kids were helping Grandma put up Christmas decorations.

Here's a little jig I use for cutting string grooves.  I put it on the bow and use a hacksaw to score where I will then run my round file to make the string grooves.
 
 
 

After I got the string grooves cut I added some tip overlays.  These aren't anything fancy.  Just some myrtle to match the riser.  I use Kwik-It to glue them one.  You'll notice in the pic below that I put masking tape where I want the end to be and I bevel that end prior to glueing them on.  This makes final shaping and blending them into the back glass a lot easier later on.  I also leave them wider than the bow and sand them down to shape after the glue has dried.
 

[jsweka]

I let the Kwik-It dry for about an hour and then rough shaped the tips enough to get a string on them.
   

Strung it up and checked the tiller.  It looked pretty good, but one limb was a little stiffer than the other (about 3/4" difference when measured at the tips), so I ran a pass with the belt sander down both edges of that limb which braught it back into 1/8" difference between the limbs.

Here's a pic at brace height.
   

And one on a tiller stick at 18" of draw.
   

I have never had a problem with getting the string on a straight longbow to track down the center.

At this point, the bow drew 59# at 28" which is where I wanted to be    
I was hoping for mid 50's when its finished and I'll lose another 3 - 5 pounds once the edges of the limbs are rounded over.

[jsweka]

I designated the limb that was a little stiff as the bottom which makes for a 1/8" in positive tiller for shooting split finger.  Then I marked where the shelf and site window would go.  This bow will be 3/16" out from center shot. I use a hacksaw to cut down to the depth of the shelf and a japanese rasp to cut out the site window.  I love these rasps - they never clog and eat wood in a hurry.
 

Here's the finished shelf and site window.
 

[jsweka]

Next came my favorite part of building a bow - shaping the riser.  I mostly use that japanese rasp for this and also a four-in-one rasp.  This one will have a slightly dished grip.  When I'm shaping a riser, I use a facet technique where I measure along each side of a corner, draw a line, and rasp until create a flat surface between the lines.  I then go back and round off the new corners.  This method makes it easier to get a uniformly round grip by the time your done.
 

[jsweka]

I also rounded the edges of the limbs with a rasp followed by 80 grit sand paper and shaped the limb tips.
 

Everybody always shows the "pretty side" of their limb tips, but here is also a pic of the belly side for the beginners that might be reading this.  It's important to knock off any sharp corners on the belly side of the tips so that your strings don't get nicked up and last a lot longer.  It took me a couple bows figure this out and I have gone back and re-sanded a few that I've built because I was getting excessive string wear.
 

After rounding the edges of the limbs and shaping the tips, I put a string back on it and it is now 56# at 28" - Just what I wanted    

So everything is pretty well shaped at this point and now I have A LOT of sanding to do (the boring part of building a bow).

[Roy from Pa]

What kind of bowyer uses a sissy pants guide to make string grooves? Us wood bow guys don't do that, we just let the beer be the guide.    

That is very slick John, might have to break down and make me one of those. Bow looks real nice, can't wait to see it at the Pa Longbow Shoot in June. And Steve, cause we can:)

[wood carver 2]

Very nice. I can't wait for the pictures of the finished bow.
Dave.

[Thadbow]

Looks great John!  Thanks for taking the time to the buildalong and I can't wait to see the finished product!!

[monterey]

Jsweka, yes that was exactly the problem, too much bend at the fades.  Mine was down to about 1 1/16th" with an 17 inch riser and 68" NTN.  I have used this exact same set up to make bows in the 1 3/8" to full 1 1/2" with no problem as long as the outer limbs narrow enough.

Your tiller looks pretty good in the photo.

Nice tip overlays.  Gotta get one of those japanese rasps!

[jsweka]

I'm now down to sanding the bow.  I went over the whole thing with 80 grit to remove any tool marks left from the various rasps I've used so far.  I'll keep sanding with progressively finer grits over the next couple evenings and finish up with 320 grit.

I took the masking tape off the limbs to see what it really looks like.

Here's the back with brown glass.
 

And here's the belly with gray glass.
 

What do ya'll think about the gray glass?  I imagine you'll either love it or hate it. I like it because it's something you don't see everyday, but is not over the top gaudy.

[CardboardDuck]

I really like the gray glass, I just wish it was more readily available. Nice bow and build along, this is one that is on my to do list.

[DVSHUNTER]

That's looking real nice. The bow that is ,not the beer.   I find that using just the right amount of whiskey helps finish things up. Be careful though as too much will sometimes end in breakage.

[Trux Turning]

Wow that baby is really coming along!!  I'm liking the brown and grey glass  

[bigbob2]

I really like the brown/ grey glass combo.

[rmorris]

John, looks amazing so far! I am sure you are wanting a finished bow as bad as I want to see it.

[monterey]

I like that grey just fine!  It will be somewhat unique in the field.

I tried sanding with whiskey but it did not raise the grain like plain old water.  Would think beer to be a much better assistant in sanding!  Just my own barbaric opinion though!