Watch me finish a Howard Hill bow blank!

[Apex Predator]

When I pulled her out of the box, I was immediately excited! The bow is in the rough, but beautiful. The edges are rounded but will require a bit of sanding. The shelf is not cut in, but the location is marked with a red line. The Howard Hill website says that you can finish these with nothing but hand tools, and Craig is right. I don't have the patience though. I was itching to fling a few arrows through her! This is what I received in the mail today.

 

 

 

 

I first marked the depth and length of my shelf cut out. The directions say to cut it 3/8" deep. I marked it 1/4" deep and planned to file it to the line. I carried the line of my shelf cut-out 2 1/4" up the riser. I used my band saw, and four way rasp and had it ready to sand in about 30 minutes. I decided to add some radius to the shelf. Craig normally cuts them pretty flat. I also filed the handle area down some to make a locater style grip.

 

 

 

 

[elk ninja]

Looks fantastic!  Bet it won't be your last!  Bow building in any form IS habit forming!
Mike

[Apex Predator]

I forgot to show the rough cut riser.  It took me about 30 minutes with a four way rasp to shape the shelf and locater grip.

 

 

I put a piece of electrical tape on the shelf, strung her up, and went out back to shoot a few. Wow! This one is a real shooter. She's drawing about 53-54@27 according to my scale, so I guess Craig plans on me sanding quite a bit to hit 50. If it looses just a pound or two I will be happy, and surely stop there. Last thing for tonight is glueing on tip overlays of cocobolo to match the riser. Here they are glued on with CA Gel. I will dress them up in the morning and start sanding. I hope to be spraying finish by tomorrow evening after work.

 

 

[Kevin L.]

Looking good so far. I'll be keeping an eye out on this one.

[Longbowwally]

Very good thread - I had been thinking of tackling one of these myself...

[stabow]

I prefer the straight grip on a hill. When you ordered the blank did you have to specify the handle thickness?.....stabow

[tradtusker]

very cool thanks for that i have been thinking of getting one of these blanks to try finish up. i like what you did with the shelf and handle    

[SteveD]

Very nice. Looks good

[Apex Predator]

This is the standard handle.  I didn't specify any thing special.  It measured 5" in circumference before I started to whittle on it.  It was 1 1/8" wide and I believe 1 3/4" deep when I received it.

[LEOPARD]

Nice looking bow! Thanks for sharing!  

[Apex Predator]

This morning I cleaned up the tip overlays and cut the side grooves in with a file. I carried the groove all the way over the overlay. Total tip shaping took about 20-30 minutes.

 

 

I then started sanding. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to sand through 220 grit. I didn't sand the glass faces until I had reached the 220 grit stage. Cocobolo is an oily wood that most finishes will never dry over, so something must be used to seal it before finishing. After sanding with 220, I applied two coats of superglue to the cocobolo on the riser and tips. I spread it on with my finger, careful not to stop in any one spot and get glued to the bow! I sanded the super glue between coats with 400 grit. I will sand the entire bow with 400 tonight and start spraying.

 

 

 

[Landshark160]

Marty, are you gonna go with a satin or glossy finish?

[Apex Predator]

Chris,

I'm gonna finish this one in satin.  I'm not much for glossy, since I hunt with all my bows.

[Landshark160]

Yeah, pigs don't care much for glossy either.

[BMN]

Looks great! You do good work.

[frassettor]

Looks Great!      

[mike g]

Apex Pred....
    This was a good post....
I was thinking of getting one of those bow blanks also....
    I want to make a Ambi bow with no shelf....Butt I wanted the riser section to match an Old Lemonwood bow that I have, So I thought I could get one of these and make the riser section the way that I want it to be....
    I was thinking of starting with the Tembo 3 lambs of Bamboo, maybe have the center lamb of Lamboo if craig thinks it will make a differance....
    I have a local Bowyer frind to help me, I'm OK with leather butt I hate to work with wood....
    Your doing a great job, good luck with Her....

[Apex Predator]

Thanks for the compliments.  I have built a few wood bows, and am getting the bugs worked out of how I do things.  The finish is driving me bonkers though.  I have been using a spray lacquer which is really easy to apply, looks great, but is not very durable.  I am not set up with a sprayer yet, but that is what I need.  I bought some spar urethane in a can for this one and started spraying last night.  The can says to re-coat within 90 minutes, or you must wait 72 hours.  This stuff was still very tacky after 3 hours on the first coat! I stripped it all off and am spraying it with the Minwax spray lacquer that I am used to using.  It will scuff some, but is really easy to touch up.  It is susceptible to about any solvent though.  I have to do the ink work this morning, and I will post some more photos.

[Apex Predator]

Here she is with two coats of lacquer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AllenR]

Beautiful job!!

Thanks for posting this.

Allen