How to Make a Cowbell: For Use on a Cow or Craft Show Sales

Not long back, I was admiring a nice 100-year-old cowbell on a friend's window ledge. The next day, I was presented with my very own carbon copy of this large cowbell, made from a piece of ancient looking scrap metal, and a paper pattern pulled from the original cowbell so that I will never be cowbell-less again. As it turns out, cowbells are really easy to make.

Step One: Get out a piece of graph paper. Cut this paper into a block that is 12-inches long and 8-inches wide. This piece will eventually fold over the top so that you have two sides to the cowbell, with seams going up each side of the cowbell.

Step Two: Draw a line up the center of this block of graph paper that is 10-inches long. This will leave 1-inch of graph paper left over at either end. 10-inches of graph paper is 50-squares if you do not have your ruler handy. This will make a cowbell that stands about 4.5 to 5-inches high when you are done.

Step Three: On the ends of your graph paper cowbell pattern, where you have about 1-inch of paper extending beyond your 10-inch line, cut the paper off at the 10-inch mark leaving 3 graph paper squares on each corner at 11-inches long. These 3-square little corner pieces are tabs that fold into your cowbell to hold it together. Your measurements do not have to be exact to make the cowbell work.

Step Four: Hold your paper cowbell pattern the long way. Lightly sketch a diagonal line from the tabs up toward the center of the pattern line. This diagonal line will start at the bottom and be only 3 graph paper squares deep at the center of the cowbell pattern. Cut the line that you have drawn.

Fold the paper cowbell pattern in half and cut the rest of the line up the side of the page to match your first cut. You should now have a line that goes from tab to tab that sweeps inward at the center of your paper block. Fold to cut the other side of the paper cowbell pattern to match. When done you have cut your graph paper into an hourglass shape.

Step Five: Fold your graph paper in the middle so that your end tabs line up. At the center fold, go down two squares on your graph paper. From the edge of the paper cut in on a straight line 4-squares. Cut from your center fold line aiming down to meet the end of your 4-square cut line. When opened, your center area should now have a point on it.

Make the other side of your paper cowbell pattern match with a point of its own.

Step Six: The 4-square long area at the center of your paper cowbell pattern, with a point facing out at each end, is the top of your cowbell. Fold along those lines so that your cowbell stands up with a flat area across the top.

Step Seven: Take the bottom two-tabs on one side of your cowbell and put them side-by-side so that you have a seam of paper overlapping. Fold one tab under and toward the center of the cowbell to hold it together, the other tab outward and up to hold it together. Do this on both sides of your cowbell so that it will stand on its own and look like a cowbell. Fold the center points down along the outside edge of your bell to hold the top of your cowbell in shape.

Step Seven: Take your scissors and trim the bottom edge of the cowbell if you do not like the way that it is sitting. If you would like a bigger cowbell take you paper cowbell pattern and trace it larger, or longer, or wider, or smaller, or with fancy shaped tabs. The sky is the limit. You now know how to make a cowbell pattern.

Step Eight: You can use old scrap metal, or new metal to make this cowbell. If you are concerned about sound, take an old metal spoon and tap on your metal choices until you find the sound that you will like for your cowbell.

If you are concerned about beauty for a cowbell craft project, you may want to try easy to work with 5Mil copper. The drawback is that thin copper will ring with a dull thudding sound that is nice for wind chimes, but not nice for a dinner bell.

Step Nine: Cut your metal. Copper can be cut with metal sheers, or scissors depending upon thickness. Find the very center of your cowbell top and put a hole in it with a nail, or other hole making tool. Fold your metal the same way that you folded your paper pattern into a cowbell that can stand up by itself. You can solder the side-seams down the side, or add a copper-wire rivet in the center of the seam for extra strength.

Step Ten: If you would like, you can use a sanding tool along the cowbell bottom to make the edges less sharp. Make a clapper for your cowbell out of wire with a fancy loop for hanging on top. The bottom part of the clapper can be any metal chunk that you would like to attach to your wire, or wrap the wire around for attachment. Experiment; different pieces of metal will make different sounds inside of the cowbell.