Copper Cowbells

You can keep an ear on your good old woods-wandering Bessie with these homemade cowbell designs, including pattern, making it ring, assembly, photographs.

September/October 1984
 
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You can keep an ear on your good old woods-wandering Bessie with these homemade...

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By Alden Stahr

If you've ever heard the gentle tinkling of cowbells on the evening air as a herd of milkers slowly wended their way across a distant pasture, then you know what a calming effect those peaceful chimings can have on a body after a hard day's work. Maybe you even long to re-create those subtle sounds by hanging a copper bell around your bovine's neck (especially if the critter's given to hiding in the woods!). Then again, perhaps you've got a nostalgia-loving friend or relative who'd appreciate an authentic cowbell as a Christmas gift. Unfortunately, real copper bells are pretty hard to find nowadays, and the ones that are available (in antique stores, usually) are priced out of many folks' range.

Of course, you could always make your own ...in which case you might be able to enjoy those memorable (and practical) sounds for only pennies a bell! About all you'll need to produce one cowbell is a square foot of 16-ounce (23to 24-gauge) copper flashing, which you can find at a junkyard, a hardware store, or a craft supply shop. If you want a louder bell, use galvanized sheet metal or a heavier copper.

Besides the main ingredient, you'll have to round up cardboard, a pencil, scissors, offset tin snips, a hammer, a cold chisel, flatglass pliers, a handful of self-tapping screws or copper rivets ...as well as a 3/16" eyebolt with a 1"-long stem, a lock washer and nut, wire or string, a short (or sawed off to 1/2") carriage bolt, and long-nosed pliers.

DESIGN WORK

Once you've gathered up all your supplies, copy the pattern—shown in the illustration accompanying this article—onto the piece of cardboard. Then cut out the model, fold it where indicated to form the "skirt" of the bell, and either tape or paper-clip it together to make sure the proportions are right. Should it not fit together neatly, make whatever adjustments are needed. Then, when the pattern checks out, open it up and trace it onto the sheet of copper.

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