HH BUG GOT ME - Part Three!

[ron w]

With Bob that sounds about right !!

[two4hooking]

Considering a pheasant hunt, so I dug out these vintage POC flu flus and mounted some vintage Hill’s Hornet small game heads

.

Don’t want to hurt a dog and these heads should do nicely. 

Hope it comes together. 

[frassettor]

 

[evgb127]

‘Tis the season.  I’m looking forward to getting out for some winter hunting next week! 

[two4hooking]

Nice looking tackle!  Especially like that SH bracer.   

[evgb127]

Haha. Look familiar?  Thanks again!  You switching to south paw has been a real benefit to me. 

I’m still working on our pheasant hunt. Stay tuned.

[two4hooking]

[Wilderlife]

I'm in the middle of building an ASL with my friend Colin from Outlaw Bows. The model is called an 'Emu - High Speed'. Emu being a large flightless bird from Australia, and high speed referring to the amount of backset in the limbs.

I have three big elm trees in my yard and one of them suffered badly in a drought a few years ago so I cut out some of the dead branches from the canopy early this year. Some of them were long enough to get some veneers out of for bows, so they will be included in the bow.

I also have a deep appreciation for red ironbark - a kind of hardwood tree here in Australia. It's fantastic for firewood, smoking meat, and other carpentry stuff. Without a doubt, some of the hardest and best firewood on the planet. It has a beautiful colour and I hunt a lot on the property where I cut my firewood so I'm including some ironbark in there for the riser.

The limb cores will be hoop pine.

Here are a couple of pictures of the process so far. I'll glue it up later this week and most likely make a dedicated thread about the whole process and finished product.

Riser block of ironbark.


Cutting a length of ironbark for veneers.


Elm for veneers.






Elm and ironbark veneers next to each other.


Riser block.






Splicing elm and ironbark for veneers with hoop pine in the centre.




All pieces ready to go.

[Michael Guran]

Very cool, I’m looking forward to following the progress!

[Wilderlife]

We got it glued up the day before yesterday! On the home stretch with it now.

[evgb127]

Great pictures! I really like the design of that topless form.  Thanks for sharing and keep the pictures coming. 

[Brianlocal3]

I really wish this thread would have stayed buried….. I finally narrowed myself down to just my JD Berry Taipan (original 1991 model) and sold off pretty much everything else but this makes me want to order up a Vixen from him.

That bow was the one that really brought home what an ASL should feel like for me..

I talked with James yesterday and he has reopened his books and I am about another phone call away from ordering … I was tossing up from the Misty Dawn or the Vixen but thank I’ll stay with vixen..

Maybe I can fight off the urge

[Burnsie]

I have never posted on part 1,2 or 3 of this thread the whole time its been going, but I am ready to pull the trigger and get a Northern Mist Shelton on order.  I will post pics and specs when it arrives.

[evgb127]

So this may be my “Hill” to die on (pun intended) but I recently had a very negative experience with a bowyer who claimed that he built a “historical” Hill-style bow.  Foolishly, my curiosity got the best of me and I took the bait.  The end result was something that is better suited for a tomato stake than a Hill-style bow.  That said, I know if you ask the question, “What is a Hill-style bow?” you will receive multiple answers.  So, let’s open this can of worms… To me, when I think Hill-style, I think of the following:

The riser should be no longer than 12 inches. The limbs should be no wider than one inch at the riser and only .5 inches at the limp tip.  The limbs should be built with what Howard called a “bulge,” meaning that two-thirds of the distance from the end of the riser fade-out to the string nock tapers down to 75% of the width and thickness of the base of the limb, then the remaining 25% of the limb narrows to 50%. The end result is a stable, thick-limbed bow with an elliptical tiller that resembles a Gothic arch.

I’m not trying to stir the pot, but I think anything else should be called a flatbow. I will leave this video for your consideration:

[Hill Style]

Yes buyer beware. The term ASL or Hillstyle of bows has been blurred to the point of confusion. I think your assessment of the measurements are correct. Short riser narrow limbs not more than 1” wide at any point. I’d add a deep 2” plus grip that narrows on the belly side not the rounded grips some bowyers make.
There are at least 3 bowyers professing to make a Hillstyle bow that have wider limbs and not very thick longer 14” plus risers etc. These flat bows also have limbs with near rectangular shape the sides are square. The true Hillstyle will be tapered to the belly side “trapped”. The narrow deep cored limbs trapped to the belly are one of the defining characteristics of the Hillstyle longbow.There is a reason they are making these flat bows, they are easier to build quicker to produce.

Alot of people like these flat bows and that’s fine. When I first got into longbows I didn’t know the difference either. But there is a difference most definitely. A true Hillstyle bow is all I will shoot. The new fad in ASLs are shooting 3 under with a bow quiver and long hold target archer form. Maybe the wide limbed flat bows are better for this I don’t know.

[Wilderlife]

We got the final shaping done on my bow over the weekend, so the only thing left to do now is put the coats of finish on it. Very keen!

Here are a couple more pictures, but once I get it for real I'll probably make a proper build thread and link to some videos of it all happening as well.

[GregD]

Hillstyle, Who would you say are the bowyers making a true Hill style bow and not a flatbow?

[Gordon Jabben]

Without mentioning any names, I have a longbow that just seems to be perfect for me.  I have owned a ton of Hill style longbows looking for the magic bow and this one seems very close. It probably has a lot to do with the grip I like and the poundage that I can still handle.  Anyway I decided to measure it and see if it really fit the measurements given by the earlier post.  I honestly didn't think it would but it fit perfectly with the Hill bow measurements.  The one exception is that the limbs are not trapped.  Maybe that's a good thing, I can lower the poundage if need be.    

[frassettor]

 

[evgb127]

If you’re on the fence about getting a bow from Howard Hill Archery, you may want to act quickly.  It sounds like Craig is retiring soon.  I also heard that he doesn’t have a buyer lined up to take over where he’s leaving off.  This may be the end of an era.