Ryans Yew ELB

[Spider 1]

Hey guys, I've been working on a bow lately. My second Yew English longbow. The first one didn't turn out so hot, in fact it sort of detonated in my hands! I got the Yew from a buddy of mine in Alberta (Thanks Ears). He sent me 2 sets of billets...good thing too. I want to get it done by mid march for Ryans Birthday so I figured I would post what I have done so far and maybe it'll light a candle under my butt to get it finished in time.
Well, here goes. I hope ya enjoy

[Spider 1]

First off I'll post a couple pic's of the stave, forgive my photo skills...I'm a machinist, not a photographer!

[Spider 1]

This stave had a few bendy areas and one small knot that gave me a few fits. But it started to look ok after I thinned it down a bit.

[Spider 1]

After a few days of scraping here and sanding there, I was able to get it on the tillering tree. After another day of scraping, It was starting to bend pretty well.

[Spider 1]

Did I mention, Ryan is my grandson, he'll be born sometime in mid March and I want to be ready for him

[Carbon Caster]

I about passed out when I saw the length. Congrats and fine looking LONG bow!

[Spider 1]

I got the nocks glued on the other day and just finished the final shaping.




Then I roughed them out.

First the top.


then the bottom.

[Spider 1]

Thanks Carbon caster. It's about 24" long. I figure a good ELB is at least as tall as the archer and both my son and his wife are very tall. 24" should do it

[Spider 1]

I just couldn't stop there though, I needed the nocks finished so I could get the bow back on the tree.

The top nock, complete with a hole drilled for a piece of green silk ribbon.



And the bottom nock.

[Spider 1]

The next step was to make the string. I hunted around a bit and found just what I needed, some waxed linen string at the local hobby store. It was kinda thick, so 4 strands was all I would need. I twisted up a flemish loop for the top and tied the bottom on with a bowyers knot. A little tweeking and it came to a brace at 2 1/2"!



With a little more work on the tree and a bit more scraping in the handle area, I was able to get a nice bend to a full 10"!!