Making a backed bow: Hickory Vs. Bamboo

[Pat B]

Edge or bias grained for hickory for me.
I was visiting James(Robustus) yesterday and one tip he gave me about using boo backings is to not scrape the rind off. When you do this it leaves a small divot where the scraper begins and ends at each stroke which leads to the splintering. He also said you have a tendency to add more pressure in the middle of the stroke which can get you into the power fibers.  He uses a scotch Bright pad to buff the rind so it will accept dye, etc.
   To me, hickory is way easier to work with. Basically you get the glue surface smooth, sand the tool marks out of the back and glue it down. You can also tiller some from the backing side after glue up if needed for fine adjustments.     Pat

[adb]

Edge grain, for sure. What I did: I bought a 2" thick, 6'board, which was 8" wide, plain sawn. I turned it on edge, and ripped 3/16" thick strips on the table saw from the 2" face. Viola! 2" wide edge grain backing strips. The hickory board I found was very straight grained, with no run off. Then, I ran it through a thickness sander to true it up, making them 1/8" thick. Each strip ended up costing me $10. Not bad. No fuss, just glue it up and go.

[Justin Snyder]

OKAY...new question for all you hickory proponents:

plain sawn or edge-ringed?

Before you spend a lot of money on power tools and wood you NEED to buy TBB 1 and do some serious reading.  It will tell you how to select wood by grain pattern for bows and backings.  It will be the smartest $20 you will spend.  Or just get the whole set.  http://www.horsefeathersranch.com/cgi-bin/shopper?key=archbookBIBLEALL&preadd=action   Justin

[Pat B]

I did the same as ABD but bought a 10' board, cut it to a 6' and a 4' pieces. I have already cut the 6' piece into strips and used or traded them. I still have the 4' piece that I will eventually cut to backing strips that will be spliced at the handle under an overlay. I don't have a thickness sander so I reduced the thickness and removed the tool marks with my table top belt sander.     Pat

[Jesse]

Bamboo from Rich would be my choice. I have not had boo splinter on me yet but I've seen it on others bows. I agree that a scraper leaves marks but they are really easy to get rid of. Just scrape the first shinny part of the rind off lightly with a scraper and then sand the rest. I finish the back all the way to 1000 grit paper. It shines like glass and I think thats why I have not had a failure. Extra care around the nodes is also important. If you leave some of the rind on around the node I think it will be prone to failure there but if you go to deep you will violate the power fibers which can run close to the back. Its actually easy to work bamboo it just takes a little more time than hickory.
 If you use ipe for the belly it does not mater how thick the boo is. Thicker might even be better but thin is good too.
                                                                                                                   Jesse

[radius]

i've never had any trouble with plain sawn hickory, so i'm not worried about that.  As for bamboo, i remember marc st louis writing that he has been scraping the nodes off bamboo for years with no problem at all.  So i did that.  No problems at all.

[Jesse]

i've never had any trouble with plain sawn hickory, so i'm not worried about that.  As for bamboo, i remember marc st louis writing that he has been scraping the nodes off bamboo for years with no problem at all.  So i did that.  No problems at all.

good to know. I never tried scraping the nodes down flat but I do like to get them nice and rounded with no sharp ridges. maybe we are talking about the same thing.
     

[Justin Snyder]

Pat, I quit scraping the rind off the boo.  I use a little orbital sander with 400 grit and sand just until I see the color start to change.  I don't remove all the rind, but I get all the color blemishes out of it.  Justin

[radius]

i just use a fine file to get the nodes off, and a scraper for the rest...i find if i'm careful, it's no trouble at all

[mullet]

  James Parker,everybody saw the backed bows he posted this month, told me not to scrape the rind off of boo. He said eventually it will make it lift a splinter. Now I've scraped all of mine and haven't had it happen. But I haven't been making backed bows but about 10 years, and I don't have a lifetime warranty like James. I don't sell many either.

[Pat B]

Eddie, Alan and I spent the day with James and Becca watching James work on bows, cook boo belly slats  and just talk bows, etc. When it comes to bow building, self or laminated, knapping and primitive skills I'll take what James says as gospel. He ain't lied to me yet!       Pat

[radius]

yeah, there's no doubt, looking at robusto's bows, he knows what he's doing