Boards vs staves ???

[sweeney3]

, a bias as such,


Nice pun.

[bubby]

, a bias as such,


Nice pun.
[/quote


Glad somebody caught that

[BOWMAN53]

if i chase a ring on a board and make a bow out of it, when i give it to you and say its from a tree stave, would you even second guess me? or would you be able to tell right away it was from a board?

the answer, no, you would be non the wiser so enough with this boards are inferior stuff, wood is wood.

[DavidV]

My shop and tools are more set up for boards so I like them more. Plus you can laminate different woods together to get the best characteristics of both of them (I guess the same can be said for staves but it's more labor intensive).

You have to be carefull when buying lumber from someone else. Logs may have been left out in the elements too long, or it could be too dry from the kiln, etc.

[Bryce]

There's a right way to making bows from staves.....and then there's boards 

[BOWMAN53]

ok who wants to put this to the test? two people make the bows with the same exact wood, design, draw, and weight. one is made from a stave and another from a board. each made by a bowyer who has mastered them.

i vote for a Chris vs. Chris (blackhawk vs. pearldrums) build off.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Boards are just fine. But without a hard backing they are very limited IMO. Its not easy heating in an RD shape into a board, its not easy bending statics into a board, its not easy heating in 4" of reflex into a board. Conversely, its all easy to do with tree staves. But if you want to mess with glues, planers and hard backing a board can be any shape a stave can be.

Jordo Ive only built maybe 15-20 boards, Im far from an expert. For that matter, Im far from an expert on either side of this debate! 

[BOWMAN53]

i meant blacky build the board and you the stave. and i dont think anyone would debate that your one of the top bowyers on here and plus you guys are close(or atlease i think you are) and can actually meet up and compare the two in person.

[Pat B]

Trying to build two identical bows, one from a board and one from a tree stave doesn't seem practical or balanced to me. Board bows are pretty cut n dry to lay out but with a tree stave you follow the grain of the stave to set up your bow.  I like the challenge of unwrapping a bow from a tree stave and going where the stave wants to take me. Board bows don't challenge me enough. I don't mean this as a negative statement about board bows. Look at most boo backed bows. They are made from a board with a backing and they are top shelf as far as performance goes. I don't build boo backed bows because I prefer selfbows from tree staves.
 Boards give more folks the chance to build a wood bow because boards are relatively cheap and available. They are a great learning bow stave but they can also make a high performance bow so they cover a wide range of folks and abilities.

[Pago]

I still can't understand how you know how the grain runs by looking at a board. I fully understand that if the growth rings run straight up the board on the top and sides but how does that tell me if the grain has some wiggle in it.

It is not easy.  I am trying to teach myself to visualize in 3D where the board originated in the tree with varying levels of success depending on the board and the wood species.  I have read the chapter on board bows in TBB (chapter 2 volume #2) probably 15 times and will continue until I can wrap my head around this skill.  The real trick is learning to read the wood fiber direction which is different than grain.  There is a neat trick where you look at all four corners and find where the rings converge to V shapes, mentally peel one of the V sections off the board and you can see how the board lay in the tree.  If I understand what I have read correctly it is easier to build a more reliable bow from a stave because the wood fibers are oriented correctly automatically when you chase a ring etc.

[BOWMAN53]

these would be self bows. and itll be all about performance, not looks or the amount of work that goes into them since thats what matters most.

no offense taken, i love board bows but it does get very cookie cutter and boring thats why i make stave bows as well. i personally havent notice a major differnce between the two performance wise

[Pat B]

A tree stave runs with the grain making it inherently stronger than a board that was sawn out, cutting through the grain. By choosing the right board with the right grain configuration you can make that difference narrower. Lumber today is sawn out to get the most usable materials from a log with very little thought to the grain. For constructing buildings this is adequate , for bows you have to choose the board with the right grain configuration and not too many of them in a stack of lumber. In the old days when lumber was quarter sawn it was sawn to maximize the strength of the grain. You couldn't get as much materials out of a log but what you got was stronger. If you can find true quarter sawn lumber today that would be a good source for bow staves. Also with lumber you never know how that wood was handled from stump to store shelf. It doesn't really matter for building materials because one 2x4 helps it's neighbors hold up the building. A bow is a highly(relatively)stressed use of the wood so you want the woods positive characteristics to be at their max, whether it be the wood grain or fungi free bow building material.

[George Tsoukalas]

My goodness. Gotta fight the same battles every 5 years with new bowyers. LOL.

At least I no longer hear that kiln dried lumber won't make bows.

My board bows are generally faster than log bows. I test with flight shooting; This is probably due to their flat backs and flat bellies.

I've never broken a board bow from wood I've chosen. I wish I could say that for log stave bows. LOL.

Boards are easier to turn into bows than logs are. They are homogenous and lack character which is why I haven't made any board bows in awhile.

Boards are just as strong as log staves probably stronger provided the grain is straight tip to tip.

Beginners break bows -log and stave. Boards will break because of poorly chosen wood. Poor grain, knots.

Boards are a viable alternative for many.

Jawge

[bubby]

Jordo pop a cold one and chill bro, y'all are making too big a deal out of this, look I've mostly built board bows, I've built a lot of them, and I have built bows from tree splits, the ONLY real difference to me is a tree stave takes more thought and becomes more personal to the builder, they have more personality, bub

[BOWMAN53]

Jordo pop a cold one and chill bro, y'all are making too big a deal out of this, look I've mostly built board bows, I've built a lot of them, and I have built bows from tree splits, the ONLY real difference to me is a tree stave takes more thought and becomes more personal to the builder, they have more personality, bub

thats exactly my point, theres not a big enough difference to warrant being argued over. i would actually really like to do a side by side comparison though simply out of curiosity.