Cordage backed red oak board bow?

[scp]

It's not that difficult to get decent hickory or oak staves at around 10 to 20 bucks each, if you are willing to by a log for $100 from a local mill.

[Marin]

Drew up a design tonight. How does it look?

[Marin]

I was curious about the belly cross section. I heard a slightly rounded belly makes it easy to tiller. What do you guys think of the idea? Should I keep the belly flat or slightly rounded?Also, do the dimensions all look fine? I based it off of the dimensions bubby gave me. Also, bubby, where is your board bow build along? Can't find it

[loon]

Also, bubby, where is your board bow build along? Can't find it

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html
I think it should be stickied :p but it isn't..

[bubby]

That looks about right, i would keep the belly flat but with nice radius's on  the corners it will appear slightly rounded

[Onebowonder]

Red Oak is Tension strong as a bow wood, so you'll likely want to keep the belly as flat as possible.  Certainly radius the corners, but the rounded belly you have drawn would likely NOT be good for Red Oak.  When you round the belly, only the wood fibers nearest to the peak of your curve are engaged in holding the maximum compression strain.  ...which would be counter to the nature of this particular bow wood.

If that doesn't quite make sense, let me know and I'll make another run at trying to explain what I mean... 

OneBow

[Marin]

One wonder,
I think I understand what you are saying. I should round over the edges but not to much as red oak cannot handle compression as well when the force is concentrated in a particular area (which would occur if I had a rounded belly). Correct?

[Marin]

Bubby,
 Saw your board bow build along and noticed that you had runoff on your board also at was slight (like mine). So even if you have a slight runoff on either the sides of the board or the front of the board, you can still make an unbacked bow so long as you keep the limbs wide enough?

[loon]

I think there was some rule of thumb like max 4 runoffs in the entire bow

http://traditionalarchery101.com/boards.html hmm

I think it'd make more sense to trap the back? that is, make the back narrower than the belly
and leave the belly pretty flat, this would make it so the back doesn't overpower the belly?

[Onebowonder]

One wonder,
I think I understand what you are saying. I should round over the edges but not to much as red oak cannot handle compression as well when the force is concentrated in a particular area (which would occur if I had a rounded belly). Correct?

You said it better than I could!  Thanx, and yes...  -OneBow

[Marin]

Do I need to trap the back? I can if I must but I don't think my bows runoff is more than 4 and I don't have good enough tools to trap it.

[bubby]

Do you have to trap it, no, is it a good idea, wouldn't hurt. I don't know what kind of tools you have but you can do it with just some 36 grit sandpaper and a block of wood or a sanding block

[loon]

Do you have to trap it, no, is it a good idea, wouldn't hurt. I don't know what kind of tools you have but you can do it with just some 36 grit sandpaper and a block of wood or a sanding block

Could a rasp raise splinters? I don't think so.. and it'd probably be faster

[bubby]

Rasp or file will work

[Knoll]

OK, time to stop the writin' and start the doin'. Will be cool to watch your progress. Good luck!