My 1st bow finally posted!

[vinemaplebows]

For a first bow, excellent...mine was a real ugly looking thing.

[Rufledt]

nice first one!  It's far less uneven than my first one.  I usually use paint to resize.  Depending on what version of windows you have it's different to find the resize tool, but it works great and you already have it, unless you're a mac person, in which case all of what I just said is completely worthless 

[JW_Halverson]

If you can get good results like that on your first attempt, you are ruined for life now. 

You may as well go buy your wife a really really really nice gift, take her out to dinner, have flowers delivered to the table, and apologize in advance for all the time/effort/money you will be spending on your new addiction. 

Or, better yet.  See if you can get her out scraping bows  with you. 

[oscar3b]

Hey everyone!  Thank you for the kind words and the help resizing my pics.  When I get back home I'm going to have to post pics of bows 2, 3, and 4. 

JW- I have been trying to get her to work on a bow since I finished that first one.  She actually helped MattS on a peach bow one night while I was over there working on bow #2 with him.  He had her reducing thickness with a draw knife.  Did a good job too!  Got a nasty blister though and hasn't tried it since.  She says she still want too though!  We'll see.   

[Dictionary]

is this unbacked? I've been wanting to give a red oak board another shot. Everytime i go to lowes either they have none left or the boards are all cross grained.

[oscar3b]

It's totally unbacked dictionary.  I just selected a board with really straight grain.  I've had a hard time finding straight grained boards lately too.  What I've had to do the last time or two is look through all the piles of red oak boards.  One pile is 1x2x72, another is 1x2x96.  I've found several in the 96" (8ft) length.  You can either haul it home and cut it yourself or if you have a car like me you can have them cut I there at Lowe's for you, and it only costs 2 dollars more for the 8ft piece vs the 6ft piece.  Then you can use the othe piece for tip overlays and handle risers if you want.  Another Option which will help your chance of success is to look in the 1x3x72.  These pieces are usually around 10 dollars and the real size of this board is 2.5 (I think).  The wider the limb the more likely it is to survive so if you rip it to 2" wide or even just leave that width of 2.5 you have an excellent chance of getting a good durable bow. 

This is just from my limited experience however and from what I've read.  If anyone reads this and sees anything I said wrong or would like to add please do.  I only have Four bows finished and limited experience but I still hope this helps.     

[Dvshunter]

Great job on your first bow. Welcome to the addiction.