New to Bow Making. need some advuce and tips.

[hunter791]

Hello everyone. I've got several questions I hope you can help me with.

To start. I've successfully built my first takedown bow.
Poplar riser and PVC limbs. Got the idea from YouTube. It was intended for my son. Its 25#@28 it was exactly what I was looking to achieve.

Now I have a second poplar riser is like to use.  My goal is a 45-50# @30  I'd prefer to avoid PVC and make some wooden limbs.

Should I use staves which I don't not have at the moment. When I do harvest. I'll have maple. Oak and poplar. I'm in Northern Ontario so no Osage for me.

Can I use "hobby" wood from Home depot or other specialty shops. Say 1x2x4 or 1x3x4
I can tiller boards.how thin would I have to tiller the board? Will they work as limbs?
Will fiberglass backing work with boards? I don't want my limbs to break.

Also. Can I make an all poplar bow for my younger son. He's 7. Short draw 24 maybe 10-15#?

Thanks in advance foe input and advice.

-hunter791

[Del the cat]

Maple and Oak , Poplar is supposed to be too light for bow but will make arrows... dunno if you have Hazel, that's a nice wood and easy to work.
My only advice is to cut some ASAP, you'll then have some seasoning while you learn. They'll be seasoned before you know it, gotta keep ahead of the game when it comes to gathering wood.
Del

[Carson (CMB)]

Welcome!  Like Del suggested, start cutting wood now so you have some seasoning while you play with board staves.  Rather than backing your limbs with fiberglass, you can simply make them wider than needed if you want to avoid breaking.  I would choose oak over maple for limbs from boards.  Select straight grained boards.  If you anticipate making lots of bows from boards I would suggest getting your hands on the first two volumes of the Traditional Bowyer's Bible. Tim Baker discusses bows from boards in detail there. 

[hunter791]

Thank you for responding.

Now being complety new.
What would be a good limb length. Width and thickness?

Is there a method I could use to determine this? Should I taper the ends?

[George Tsoukalas]

MY site has info. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html

[hunter791]

Thank you so much for the link. Why didn't I come across your site in my many ggogle searches?...

Apologies for not getting back here sooner.


Another question...
I harvested a maple tree. (Sugar) roughly 6 inches in diameter.
When I got home I tried to split it. It split in a horrible corkscrew. Wedges were in the center. But its now two twisted staves.
What happened? Did I make a mistake.
I can salvage some for limbs on a TD but I doubt I can make a bow with it.

[DarkSoul]

The WOOD can be twisted. It has nothing to do with your technique. If you wood is twisted, and it not always is, the log will split like a corkscrew. You can often see twist in the bark. Read the bark of a tree to know if it is worth felling, or if the wood will be twisted.
How severe is the twist? Up to 45 degrees twist is not a big deal. Up to 90 degrees might still be salvageable. But any more twist I would consider firewood.

[hunter791]

Ya... the twist is closer to 90 than 45. Bad choice for my first bow..

[bushboy]

Maybe consider making pyramid out of maple or oak as to not complicate things.learn how to form and tiller and then move on to more ambitous projects like a T/D.just a thought.

[bubby]

I have to disagree with carson about oak over maple unless it is white oak, maple is much better in tension and makes a great board bow thogh that is the only thing he posted I disagree with, just be shure it's hard maple, Bub

[lostarrow]

Where are you located?

[Slackbunny]

Welcome!  Like Del suggested, start cutting wood now so you have some seasoning while you play with board staves.  Rather than backing your limbs with fiberglass, you can simply make them wider than needed if you want to avoid breaking.  I would choose oak over maple for limbs from boards.  Select straight grained boards.  If you anticipate making lots of bows from boards I would suggest getting your hands on the first two volumes of the Traditional Bowyer's Bible. Tim Baker discusses bows from boards in detail there.

Now I'm just the opposite. I would choose maple over oak every time. I've had some good results with maple, but hardly anything good has come from oak for me.

[Ifrit617]

I have to disagree with carson about oak over maple unless it is white oak, maple is much better in tension and makes a great board bow thogh that is the only thing he posted I disagree with, just be shure it's hard maple, Bub

+1 I hate oak. Oak has a terrible tendency to chrysal easily at least the stuff I've bought does. I know JW shares my opinion of the stuff. 

Jon

[bushboy]

Red oak has it's merits,availibity,has straighter grain in most cases than maple,its cheap and is a great wood for beginners in board form! That being said ,I don't much like it either because of it's porus nature ,not onlike the ashes!

[lostarrow]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention , if there can be a difference in opinion ........................... you'll see it here ! Just remember to keep it civil and respectful.Everyone will have widely varying experiences with  everything from tool use ,to design,to wood species. No one is necessarily wrong ,........just difference of experience. Learn from it all. Climate ,region and specific species will have a lot to do with it. Take these into account for your own region.