Starting another bow and would love some help?

[Kenny H]

Here goes another attempt at a red oak board bow. This time i bought two different boards, i bought one that didn't look good to me but was the best they had at the time. Its 1x2x6. well you know the actual measurements. I bought another board because it looked to me like it had a lot better grain and very little run off. this board is a 1x4x6. so with that said this is my first question. which board do i use. I have only used the 1x2x6 boards before but i was thinking that if i made them a little wider say maybe 1 3/4 at mid limb or maybe even 2 inches it would not explode on me. One actually has exploded the others have just cracked. Here are some pics of the wood so maybe someone could chime in and tell a fellow what he should do next. I would appreciate any help i can get. thank you for taking your time to read my post.       someday ill make a shooter kenny

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[JustAim]

When l buy boards l look for straight grain lines and a 45 degree angle on the ends like your 1st and 2nd pictures. then find the center of each limb and taper to about 3/4'' at the tips. Glue a backing on if you want but that first pic looks like it has good straight grain lines so you might not need too. Glue a handle on if you want or you can leave it as is and have it bend through the handle, but thats up to you. The way l taper the limbs or tiller a bow is by using my belt sander but thats just me, its faster than using a rasp or drawknife and its alot less work and l hate to work. But this is just me talking so you might wanna wait for someone else to give you advice.

Matt

[Kegan]

That second board looks quarter sawn- excellent stock. I only give a little look at the grain (either it's straight or it isn't) and then weigh the thing by hand. If it's light- no thanks. If it's heavy and I have trouble holding it out at arms length- woohoo, it looks good!

I've made a couple wide limbed baord bows. They worked better than the narrow ones.Less easily overstressed.

[John B.]

Can we get a photo of the edge grain on the 1X4 please?

[Kenny H]

This is the side( 3/4 ) view of the 1x4. I took several pics and this was the only one where you could see the grain or lines whatever it is, you can see it. 

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[TreyNC]

I like that one! You may want to consider backing the boards with something. Any board over 25-30 lbs I have no trouble when backed. I use raw hide, because that is what I have.

[Kenny H]

I drew the bow out onto the 1x4 tonight and i did make it wider than the others i have been trying to make. I wanna cut 2 inches off one end and make it 70 inches. i measured half way (35") and drew a line across. Then i measured up and down the center line 3 1/2" on each side and drew another line on each side of the center line. I measured the board center and measured out one inch on both sides making the middle of the bow 2". i measured the nocks to 3/4" wide and marked them from the center of the board. i measured up 6" from taper which should be if I'm correct is the line i drew 3 1/2" from center line. I drew a line connecting from the 6" past the taper out to the nocks and connected them. What do you all think about this design or layout. I'm making the handle  about 7 inches long but that leaves me room for the handle and a shelf cut in a little above center of bow. I really don't want to back the bow but if thats the only way it will hold up then i will do it.   Thank you     Kenny

[DanaM]

Back it with linen, silk or rawhide and you won't have to worry about it breaking due to grain runouts. My 2 cents worth.

[George Tsoukalas]

Kenny----There are 3 important things to remember when choosing a board. The first is grain. The second is grain and the third is grain. LOL. There are  3 types of board cuts. There's plain sawn or flat sawn where the grain on the but appears like this =. There's rift sawn or bias cut where the grain on the butt appears like this  //. There's edge grained or 1/4 sawn where the grain appears like this ||. All 3 will make you a bow. I look at the edge grain. The ideal board has grain lines running parallel to the back of the board. Then I look at the face. I want that straight. I will allow 2 run ups or run outs for a 50-55# bend in the handle bow. There is an exception. The 1/4 sawn board has to have completely straight grain lines. No run ups or run outs allowed. None. No knots or imperfections are allowed on any board. My advice is make the width 1.25 - 1.5 inches. If you want 50-55# go 1.5 inches. You can't make it wider because tuning becomes really tough.  1.25 will bet you 45-50#. Let the handle bend. No glued on pieces. Back with linen, silk or rawhide only because this is your first and because you need to automatically back a board. There are directions on my site so I will refer you to that now. Please ask questions if you don't understand what I said about board selection. Remember grain, grain, grain. Walk away if you don't find what you want. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[Kenny H]

Ok fellas here is what I have so far. The pictures are of the bow to what I would call floor tillered but I think I may have taken it down to far allready. I was shooting for 40 - 45 #'s. I have on a long tillering string so the bow is not braced at all ( i think it could be from here?) after pulling 10 inches the left limb seemed to be a little stiffer than the right. However it was very easy to get to that 10 inches so i pulled a little more, at 12 I looked again and its about what you see in the other picture. All in all I pulled the bow to 16 inches and the scale read about 22#s. I thought it should be closer to my final draw weight than that. I don't know but after 12 it began to move quickly in poundage until I got to 16. I'm pretty sure that at this stage I could still back it and thats one of the reasons I stopped here and am going to wait for someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong.The other reason is because this is where I run into problems. I really don't want to back this bow. Is it possible to make a shooter out of this without backing it? Any advice and comments would greatly be appreciated.             Thank You        Kenny       

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[Kenny H]

Here is a better picture of the bow at 10 inches. The other one was kinda blurry for some reason.

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[Kenny H]

  I didn't have much to do today and I really wanted to work on my bow so I started on with the next step. I worked the fades and tried to get the limbs bending some more toward the fades. Here is a picture at 18 inches. I still hadn't braced the bow at this point. After I did a little work on the limbs I finally braced it with the normal string. 6" brace is what i ended up with.                   

  The next picture is of the bow at 28 inches. It was around 30 pounds at that draw length, maybe a little more.I worked on the ends of both limbs and tried to get them bending a little  closer to the ends. I tried to leave the last couple inches alone but it was tough.   

  The last picture is at a full draw. 31" it weighed in almost 40 pounds. more like 37. but this is as far as i have gotten and I'm looking forward to going on with this bow. I have allready missed my target weight but thats ok its close. I do know what I done wrong that made it lighter than I wanted though. I took to much out before I ever put it on the scales or tried to tiller it. I went to far with the floor tillering part.The limbs aren't perfect i know but I'm afraid to do much more cause i didn't want to lose any more weight. I did pull it to 32 inches to make sure it would be ok. I worked it to 31" about 40 times and then unbraced it and let it sit. I waited about 30 minutes and done that again. Please view my pictures and give me you thoughts and opinions.     Thank you     Kenny

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