My first build

[LimbLover]

Well you have all truly inspired me. I couldn't stop after finishing up my U-finish hickory project. I had to do a board bow. This is red oak from Lowes. I backed with drywall and am now starting to tiller. The limbs are at 5/8" and will have to come down quite a bit I would imagine, but I didn't want to take them down too far initially. I'm a little concerned about the board itself. It had the straightest grains out of all of the boards I inspected and no warp whatsoever, but I'm new to this and have little experience with picking good bow building wood. It could fail on my first shot for all I know, but this has been a great experience. I did all of the woodworking with Sure Form and files.











Tattoo Dave has been a HUGE help. I've been PM'ing daily. A big thanks to him.

[darwin]

Looking good so far might have to be careful or your handel will pop off when you shoot

[Eric Krewson]

Yep, the handle piece is too short, needs to be about 2" longer on each end so you can feather it into the limbs like this.

[DarkSoul]

That oak has some pretty poor grain How many layers of drywall tape did you put on? And what glue did you use? Three layers of drywall tape embedded in wood glue would be best, but still, I really hope it will hold it together...that grain run-off might be too severe for even such a backing.

[Pappy]

Also be very careful to not let it bend up to the fads when you cut in the shelf,I almost guarantee it will pop a splinter there if it bends into that cut of where you violated the longitudinal grain. Not sure on the rest,never built a board bow but the shelf cut in is the same on stave or board. 
   Pappy

[Del the cat]

Just my take on it... other opinions are also available.
Don't worry too much about the handle/arrow shelf etc until you have the limbs bending smoothly.
It's all about the tillering, you don't make a bow and then stick it on the tiller.
You rough it out, tiller it, then finish it.
The advantage of this is you do the important bit first and hopefully get a smooth working bow.
IF you then cut the grip and shelf all wrong and it breaks at the grip you have at least learned how to tiller it. You've also learned how much you dare cut out for the arrow pass.
It also gives you room to make the grip and arrow pass match up to the string line if there are minor adjustments needed.
Don't get suckered into finishing it before it's done.
Del
(I don't go out and sew a leather grip onto a tree, and then fell it  )
 

[Pappy]

Good advice Del,you see a lot of folks do that,I don't wast a lot of time working on any part but the limbs/tiller till it's shooting. 
   Pappy

[darwin]

Don't get discourage if it blows up (not saying it will) my first blew in my face. Which I later decide I would rather it did that at home than out in the brush. My next couple were both good shooters though. Just use your first as a learning experience and have fun

[LimbLover]

Thank you very much for all the comments. I've noted them all. I wondered if the block was too short and if I added it too soon. I added the shelf, but you are right I went too far up the limb. Grrrr.

I've kept the limbs a lot thicker on the handle. I hope I've kept them thick enough.

Yes the grains ran out which is why I thought you backed these. Never heard of using more than one layer of tape before. Will the application work? I can't just add another layer of tape to the layer of glue and tape that is already there...can I???

Sounds like this is prone to breaking!!! hahahah

I popped off the riser block to finish tillering. Even if there is a good chance it is going to splinter and break, I want to at least get the practice tillering. The limbs are at 1/2" and bending well thus far. I'll keep going till she breaks. No sense in buying a good blank/block etc if I don't know what I'm doing. Might as well learn what I can from this one.