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English Longbow
by ineverfinishanyth on October 2, 2010

Table of Contents
English Longbow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Intro: English Longbow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 1: Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 2: Gluing and Initial Cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 3: Marking and Grinding the Sides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 4: Tillering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 5: Adding the Nocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 6: The String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 7: Congratulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

Author:ineverfinishanyth
I make chainmail part time; armor and jewelry

Intro: English Longbow

It was about time I tackled the project of a period-type English Longbow, and with much inspiration and guidance from alanesq's website
(http://www.alanesq.com/bsb.htm), I was able to complete a simplified version of the English longbow.
The final product is about 6' 4" with a low draw weight of about 25 lbs at 24 inches, perfect for simple target shooting. As you can see, I wasn't going for a battle ready,
armor-piercing warbow or anything. It looks nice, took about 5 hours to make, and was under 10$. This is the perfect bow for a nice weekend project.
**DISCLAIMER** This bow is, in fact, a weapon! I take no responsibility for how and in what fashion these instructions are used. A bow is dangerous; don't shoot arrows
at anything you don't mind hurting or destroying.
For a video of the bow in action, check the link on the last step!

Step 1: Materials
This is a VERY cheap project...if you already have the necessary tools, that is. Most, if not all, of the tools and materials can be found at a Home Depot or other similar
store.
Tools:
Angle Grinder (with sanding attachment)
Sand Paper
Hand File(s)
Clamps (optional)
Wood glue
Materials:
6-7 Feet of 2"x1" Red Oak
6-7 Feet of 2"x1/4" Pine***
Twine (for the string)
***I made the assumption, not very educatedly, that a pine "belly" on the bow would handle the compression much better than the red oak, seeing as pine is much less
dense than red oak. Well in my haste, I got cedar instead of pine, which resulted in a very useless "belly" that did not handle compression very well. In my last couple of
steps I included a picture of the...consequences...of a cedar "belly".

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

Image Notes
1. Sanding Attachment

Image Notes
1. cedar = big no-no
2. Red Oak

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

Step 2: Gluing and Initial Cutting

The first step is to glue the Pine to the Red Oak. The pine was a little rough so I sanded it a little just to make sure that it would glue well. After that, lather on the wood
glue and clamp it all together. I didn't have any clamps, so I used Gorilla Tape to keep the two pieces together while the glue dried.
Once it is all dried, cut it to size; I cut mine to 6 feet 4 inches, but anything around 6 foot is realistic for a longbow.

Image Notes
1. Gorilla Tape!
2. Gorilla Wood glue!
3. Wood!

Image Notes
1. 6'4" piece
2. Extra

Step 3: Marking and Grinding the Sides

On your stave, mark out (on the red oak side) the general shape of your bow. My finished bow was about 3/4" wide at the tips and 1 1/2 inch wide at the handle. Once
you have marked out the shape, use the angle grinder to grind down to those lines. A bandsaw or tablesaw could be used for this step, however, I do not own nor have
access to either one. The angle grinder is incredibly fast at grinding away wood, so it wasn't much of a problem.

Image Notes
1. beginning of the handle

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

Image Notes
1. all ground down

Step 4: Tillering
By far the most important step, this will take up the most time and concentration. Using the angle grinder, and sandpaper when necessary, grind down the limbs until they
flex evenly. The best way to test this to string the bow and watch it curve by pulling on the string. Be patient during this process, and take you time to make sure it turns
out right.
A couple things you need to avoid:
Hinges: when you grind too much in one area, the bow will bend more at that spot than on the rest of the limb. In order to fix this, ground above and below this "hinge"
to alleviate the curvature.
The thin pine "belly" will grind much faster than the Red Oak. Make sure you take away just a little bit at a time.
Keep your grinding straight and flat; if you grind the limbs at an angle, the bow will torque when you pull the string back.
Some Specs on my bow:
Handle: Red Oak 3/4" thick, Pine 1/4" thick
Tips: Red Oak 3/8" thick, Pine 1/8" thick

Image Notes
1. Watch to make sure the limbs curve evenly like this
2. the string!

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

Image Notes
1. Thinner

Image Notes
1. Thin

Image Notes
1. Thick

Image Notes
1. Thicker

Step 5: Adding the Nocks

About an inch or two away from the tips of each limb, use the hand files to make the nocks for the string. As shown in the pictures, these should be angled toward the
"belly" of the bow (the side that faces you when you shoot it).

Image Notes

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

Image Notes

1. Nock

1. "belly" of the bow

2. "back" of the bow
3. STRING!

Step 6: The String

I know there are plenty of ways to make much stronger and much more historically accurate bowstrings, but I went for the cheap and fast option. My bowstring is quite
literally just three strands of twine braided together. While this makes the string a bit on the thick side, I find it still work well on regular arrow nocks.
My string, both loops included, came to a length of 71 1/2 inches. The two loops on the ends slide into the nocks created in the previous step.

Step 7: Congratulations
String it up and you're ready to shoot! I feel safe pulling back to 24 inches but I have recently gotten back to 28 without any difficulties....except for the strange ripples in
the cedar (see picture for clarity). Apparently the cedar I accidentally used is not capable of taking the compression on the "belly" of the bow. So, lesson learned: make
sure you get pine, not cedar, for your "belly" :)
A video of the bow in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Az3Q5sS86U

Image Notes
1. weird-looking "compression ripples" appeared on the cedar about every 6
inches....strange

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

Image Notes
1. Success!

Related Instructables

Making a
medieval style
English
longbow by

archery basics
by bedbugg2

Fletching a
Medieval Arrow
by WSayin

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/

How to make a
REAL
homemade bow
by
homebowyerboy

Bow and Arrow The Archery of

for Dummies by the Office by
NapoleanDynamite Bad Donut

alanesq

Comments
9 comments

Add Comment

leendertbob says:

Jan 10, 2011. 12:08 PM REPLY

Find out which wood can be compressed and which wood can be stretched.
It's all on Google and you know what wood to use to get an English longbow.

Anhan12 says:

Dec 15, 2010. 7:17 PM REPLY

maple is my favorite wood for making bows. i made a maple bow a couple of weeks ago for only 13 dollars, and thats with a 6 dollar string from gander mt,
so the bow only cost 7 dollars!

503sPzAbt says:

Nov 15, 2010. 6:32 PM REPLY

Is it possible to use poplar, cherry, or white ash inplace of pine? I've heard this a few times but I am not sure this is true.

Don,t try this at home says:

Oct 5, 2010. 6:05 PM REPLY

Can i have the dimensions of you bow i need to know the end of it were you string it how thick that is and how wide.

ineverfinishanyth says:

Oct 6, 2010. 9:57 PM REPLY

The tips of the bow (where the string is strung) are:

3/4 inches wide
1/2 inch thick

spenfisher12 says:

Oct 6, 2010. 9:47 AM REPLY

25 lb at 14 inches of draw 1 25 lb is nothing 2 28 inches is where its draw weight should be mesured

ineverfinishanyth says:

Oct 6, 2010. 9:54 PM REPLY

As I stated in my instructable:
"The final product is about 6' 4" with a low draw weight of about 25 lbs at 24 inches, perfect for simple target shooting. As you can see, I wasn't going for
a battle ready, armor-piercing warbow or anything."
In case this didn't make it obvious, I was not going for an extremely powerful bow. 25 lbs at 24 inches, although a low poundage for an English Longbow,
is perfect for "simple target shooting". It was not until recently that I attempted a 28 inch pull, but as I have now discovered, 28 inches results in just about
33 lbs of pull.
The whole point of this project was to make a bow that was affordable. My total bill came to just over 9$. I don't believe I have EVER seen a bow (even
one that shoots at 25 lbs) go for that cheap. As the point of Instructables is to create and document homemade projects that yield some benefit over
store-bought items, I believe 9$ for a hand-made English longbow would fall under that category.

LeOSSJ2 says:

Oct 6, 2010. 6:50 PM REPLY

Hi!
I really liked your bow, i'm some kind of bad for the wood working, but, this is my favourite instructable of all of this contest, so..
You have my vote!
Goodbye!

rimar2000 says:

Oct 4, 2010. 4:25 PM REPLY

Good work! When I was a kid, at Robin Hood age, I was crazy for bows and crossbows. One of these had plenty of power for my little boy's view. The iron
headed arrow sinked in an old wooden door, and had to move sideways several times in order to remove it. I used paradise tree wood, because at home had
one.

http://www.instructables.com/id/English-Longbow/