Osage ELB

[JW_Halverson]

It has been a great while since I have fiddled about with this classic bow style. I seem to remember doing a few about 15 years ago, including one of hickory that rattled fillings in my teeth loose, busted up a kidney stone, and bruised my left heel with it's rather excessive hand shock. But the other day I was in Antler, Hide, and Claw down in Custer and happened to come across a nice pair of deer antler tips that are about the right size for making tips, so...

I think I will shoot for a nice, comfortable 45 lb draw at 28" and an overall length of 6 ft. The osage stave I am looking at does not have great thick rings, but the early/late ratio is not bad. It has a short back and forth snake in one limb, but I think I may pull out my Indian flute and charm it into straightening out some. Not much twist, and that is always easy enough to fix, too.

What say you, my merry band of mischievous bowyers? I want to stick to the classic lines, but I cannot find any of my books that detail the front profile. I seem to remember that they should not taper at first coming out of the handle area, but at some point on the limb begin a straight taper to the tips. And the classic dimensions are 5 parts depth of limb to width, right?

[superdav95]

I would say del would be the one to ask here.  He would be able to get you off to hood start for sure.  He’s got lots of video posted as well. 

[Muskyman]

I’m kinda hoping you’re going to do a build along with this venture JW. I’ve got a piece of Osage that I’ve thought might make a good ELB and I’ve never even seen one.
Either way, good luck with your build.

[Kidder]

I agree - you need to make this a build along! I find a true ELB design to be extremely intimidating and as a result I’ve never tackled one.
This post will answer your questions pretty well - and as you can see from the consensus there are no rules per se.
https://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,70356.0.html
Have fun!

[bassman211]

I built one from a not to dense piece of elm wood. I made it 70 long at 45 lbs. Turned out nice with very little hand shock, but to much for me to handle now. After not being satisfied when shooting it I cut a shelf in it. Not good for me with out a shelf ,and a string nock.  Not a replica at all now, but I sure enjoyed shooting it at one time. Good luck with your build.

[Del the cat]

The front profile is not a straight taper from grip to tip, although some bowyers make 'em like that. It's basically two tapers one for the first 2/3 of the limb and then tapering further to the tip. All blended in to a graceful curve (I often describe it as being like the wing of a Spitfire). Tend to rough taper them straight to about 20mm at the tip, until the limbs are coming back nicely, then taper the outer 1/3 to fit the nocks. Leaving it wide early on gives wriggle room in case it tries to bend side ways on you, as you can narrow the tip from one side or the other to help correct.
Ignore the "D" section stuff, until it's coming back nicely, then you can round off the corners of the belly... (for same reason as leaving the nocks wide).
Some people make the mistake of shaping it like a longbow before even flexing it.... I tell 'em you tiller it until it becomes a bow... you don't make a bow then tiller it.
Have fun JW
Del

[Hamish]

I have seen ELB's made that taper in a straight line(or a gentle curve) from the handle to the tips.
I have also seen them stay constant width for the middle third, then taper to the tips.

The first method is trickier, as they tend to twist to the side, more so than the second method. I have had really narrow elb's made from hard wood want to bend side ways, at the first stringing. They need to be trained and pulled back to straight. If that doesn't work, you might have to tiller the side of the belly as well as the keel.

I personally use the method that the late Chris Boyton used. 12" long middle section, at the widest. Then measure back in around  6" to 8"  from either limb tip, make a line perpendicular to the centreline of the bow, to a width of 3/4"
 I draw a straight line from the ends of the middle section until they meet the 3/4" section. From the 3/4" section I then draw a lines to 3/8" tips.(you can leave them a little wider1/2 to 5/8" to have room to align the string if necessary.

This method maximizes the lateral stability.

There is no one single right way to make an ELB, as you will find many historical variations in the design. I agree with Del that the graceful, subtly curved taper does looks the best.

My process involves making the rounding of the belly when floor tillered, or at least by the time you get to brace height. My reasoning for this is it allows me to get in early and tiller the sides of the belly(rather than just the keel) and adjust any lateral bend as early as possible, if its necessary. You can lose a lot of weight very quickly if you use the faceted method before deciding to round the belly off in the later stages of tillering.
Anyway if you use the other method, like Del{A real master) and it works for you then no need to change. It's the end results that count. Horses for courses and all that.

I also like to put on the horn tips before the bow is  fully tillered, so I can tweek string alignment at brace height if necessary.

[superdav95]

I agree - you need to make this a build along! I find a true ELB design to be extremely intimidating and as a result I’ve never tackled one.
This post will answer your questions pretty well - and as you can see from the consensus there are no rules per se.
https://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,70356.0.html
Have fun!

Plus 1 here for the build along!  I’d watch it. 

[Muskyman]

After looking at some ELB designs the stave I thought was perfect for one turn out to be exactly backwards for a ELB. I actually thought for some reason that the back was rounded and the belly was flat.  I’ll have to look for a different stave for a ELB. My recent and better staves won’t be ready until next fall anyway. I’ll still be watching with much interest. I’m not sure I’m ready to build one yet anyway. To much to learn yet.

[JW_Halverson]

I’m kinda hoping you’re going to do a build along with this venture JW. I’ve got a piece of Osage that I’ve thought might make a good ELB and I’ve never even seen one.
Either way, good luck with your build.

I would be happy to do a build along, but you all better be some of the most patient persons on the planet! I hop, skip, and jump between projects, abandoning something as soon as I hit a tricky bit that needs to be thought over. Also, I am finding it difficult to reduce the size of photos with my phone and laptop (both are fairly new), and this platform is notorious for wanting 2002 flip phone size files for posting. But yeah, I will consider it.

[Muskyman]

Slow and steady wins the race JW. As my momma used to say.

If you have an iPhone I might be able to help.
On my phone I select attachments
Then I select attach:
Then I select photo library and it brings up my photos
On the bottom left side of my photos it says options
Select that and it takes you to a screen that shows photo size
I select medium and then I select done and it takes me back to my photos and I select the photo I want to post. I have to do it for every photo I post to resize to post on here

There might be a better way but that’s how I do it but I’m technologically challenged 😀

[JW_Halverson]

This one is an android and it doesnt seem to have the options to edit the size of images. Infuriating, to say the least.

[Muskyman]

I’m sure there’s a way to do it. My son has an android and I’ll ask him how to do it. He lives and works on his phone so he’ll know how, almost for sure. If no one else chimes in I’ll see if I can get him to show me next time he stops by the house.

[Aaron1726]

I use an android.  Go to your picture and tap on to open it.  Tap the little pencil icon at the bottom to edit the image.  Then hit the 3 little vertical dots in the upper right hand corner and a menu will open with the option to resize the image.  You can then verify the image size by hitting the "i" that is beside the edit icon.

I save copies of my images I want to resize into a separate folder and then resize those, that way I also keep the full size images.  I also crop out as much as I can so that the final image quality can be as high as possible for the file size.

Hope that helps.

[bushboy]

Osage is dense for a long bow. Slow cast and hand shock can be an issue. Bamboo backed Osage is different beast. Cuts down on mass and superior in tension    My.002$