As a fellow newbie, I UNDERSTAND where you are coming from!
My (very limited) experience consists of a grand total of two bow making attempts. The first one was a spectacular failure, and the second one was reasonably successful. At least I am happy with the second one!! It is a red oak, handled, 72 inch NTN, board bow and has a draw weight of 40 pounds at 28 inch draw. So far, it is holding together!! Oh, also I have no backing on it.
Here are some hints based on my TWO bows and 50% success rate. ("Success being defined as a bow that is, so far, holding together and that shoots!) The reason I am offering this is because I remember the questions I had two bows ago!
1) A red oak board bow is a fantastic way to learn!! If you break it, you are not out much money and time, and you have learned a lot in the process. The instructions on poorfolksbows.com and George Tsoukalas' website are excellent and are probably enough to get started. The books that were recommended are outstanding if you can get them.
2) Take the time to find as near perfect a board as possible. On my first bow, I was anxious to get started and compromised on the grain. There was a runout that splintered while I was trying to brace the bow for the first time. Poorfolksbows recommends getting a 1 by 2 board, but I found that it is easier to find a suitable board from the wider boards at Home Depot or at Lowes. What you want is dead straight grain end to end on what will become the back. If it is also straight grained on the edges and the belly side, so much the better. It will be bias ringed. You can rip a 1 3/4 wide bow blank out of a wider board.
Leave an extra 3/4 to 1 inch of length on each end of the bow outside of the nocks. This is to give you room to use a stringer. (See below)
3) The TBB books are outstanding. "The Bent Stick" is outstanding. All Herrin's book on Cherokee Bows and Arrows is excellent.
4) Use whatever tools you have for roughing out the bow. Be sure to do your best to leave it a bit oversized. Don't try to get too close to the lines. For tillering, I settled in on the Stanley Surform (flat blade about 10 or 11 inches long) and I got a handled carbide scraper from Home Depot. It has replaceable blades and works great!!
5) Go ahead and get some Brownells B-50 Bowstring material and make your self a proper tillering string. I wasted time trying other stuff. Make it with a Flemish braided loop on one end and just braid the other end straight and use a bowyer's know to make the bottom loop. You can make it long enough for long string tillering and then just adjust the bowyer's knot up to do short string tillering. You can even use it for shooting once you are done with the bow!
I made a continuous loop adjustable string jig and made a couple of continuous loop strings on it. I finally took the time to figure out how to do the Flemish loop and it is incredibly easy!! I made a Flemish loop jig, but quickly figured out that it is totally unnecessary! All you need is a spool of B-50 and a knife. YouTube has some good tutorials.
6) On the tillering, GO SLOW!! Stop and check your tiller frequently! The Surform takes off more wood that you think it is!! I got impatient on my second bow, and tried to go too fast. Created a weak section in the upper limb so that section was bending too much. Worked to smooth out the tiller on than limb and finally got a decent tiller on it. Then I had to catch up on the lower limb. Tried to go too fast and created ANOTHER weak spot, this time on the lower limb!! By the time I got that straightened out, I had lost a lot of draw weight.
7) Once you get to the point of bracing the bow for your tillering, make yourself a stringer. You will be stringing and unstringing the bow a LOT!! I used an old belt to make a couple of loops to fit over the bow tips and a length of paracord. I drove a nail in the wall near the ceiling and hung the stringer from it. Then to string and unstring the bow, I just reached up, fit the loops over the tips and pulled DOWN on the bow handle to string and unstring it. This was a LOT easier on my old back than stepping on the middle of the stringer and pulling up!!
While tillering, don't pull your bow any farther than you need to in order to see the shape of the tiller. You want both limbs bending smoothly through their length. Once they are bending smoothly throughout their length at 6 or 7 inches of draw, then pull another inch and stop to check the tiller again. If there is a weaker area of the limb and you pull too far, you will damage the wood in that area and create some set.
For me, the easiest way to see the tiller shape is to take a digital photograph. Then look at it with a very critical eye. For a D-bow, a good tiller will be a circle. For a handled bow, the overall shape will be more parabolic. Also, each limb will be circular on separate circles. You can open the photograph in Paint or in Google Sketchup and then overlay circles or an ellipse on top of the photo to check. Solid Edge also has a free 2D drafting package that is fantastic.
Do NOT try to pull to your target weight until you have a good smooth bend for your tiller over the entire limb. Also, you want both limbs bending equally.
On my successful bow, I had read about not going OVER your target weight, so was careful to not do that. HOWEVER, I got impatient and pulled TO my target weight BEFORE I had a good tiller. I wasn't critical enough on the tiller, decided it was "good enough", and gave it a pull up to my target weight of 50 pounds. The weak spot in the limb took a set when I did. Not only that, but I did it AGAIN later on the OTHER limb!! Now, I have about 2 inches of set in one limb and 2 1/4 inches in the other. This isn't too bad for 'a 72 inch bow, but if I had been more patient, I would have ended up with a better bow! Much better to sneak up on your target weight an inch at a time.
These are areas where I either wasted a lot of time, or else made mistakes or that will make things easier. It is a LOT of fun!!!
