How to cut backing strips?

[Springbuck]

Thanks mikekeswick and Springbuck. I kinda thought plainsawn had similar attributes to peeling a stave down to one growth ring (grain-wise anyway) - just wanted someone with more experience than me to confirm it.

  Yeah, that's right, and that is why a plainsawn board with nice parallel rings visible toward the edges is a great choice for a board bow.  The TL:DR of my post is that not all QS stuff is the same.   I would use a really nice flat sawn backing, too.  I just saw a bow here where one of us PA guys just took the wood under the bark just like a stave bow, and made an elm backing. 

  Let's say you took a nice, straight, round hickory log and split it exactly across the rings, so that every ring in both halves was now a semicircle.  The best possible hickory backing would be obtained by smoothing the flat, split sides, and taking your backings from right there on that surface.  Got it?

[Hamish]

Do you mean where a grain line "leaves" the back of the strip (looking from the side) and travels to the belly side?  That distance the grain travels should be no less than 2 & 1/2"?

Sorry for all the questions. I've worked with wood since I was a kid, but only fiddled with a few board bows. No shooters yet, but gettin antsy to have a real go at it.

Yep.

[willie]

if one is not sure of the reading of the grain on a board, the board can always be split to see just how the grain runs

better to loose some usability of the full board than to put soooo much work into something that doesn't hold up. odd pieces get used up on something or another sooner or later. some species actually have grain that can be seen if you look hard enough, and in some boards the grain can be traced with a sharp knife tip

[russell]

Got it Springbuck

Thanks again Hamish and everyone else for the help.