A good table saw with a good rip blade can cut nice backing. My friend built a wood sled, jig, that keeps the thin backing from jumping back at him. We sliced up a bunch of boards with it and got some very nice 1/8" backings
out of hickory, purple heart, yellow heart and zebra wood. The nice thing is, some of these exotic hards woods are close to an inch thick and slicing 2 or 3 backings off it still leaves enough wood for a self bow. Much less waste. We were able to cut backing up to 2 5/8 " wide and less than an 1/8 " thick with minimal sanding.
cheers fiddler49