So, I'm getting back into making bows and I have a couple pieces of ipe that I'd like to turn into hickory backed longbows. Also, I just want to have some hickory backing strips for other bow building projects. I have a piece of pretty questionable looking ash, and frankly a couple of the 1x pieces of hickory I have kinda look like they might be questionable too. Picking perfect boards is just one of those skills that I still need a lot of practice with. These boards (with the exception of one), were all ones that I felt were somewhat questionable at the time but figured I could get away with using them to make bows, especially because they were hickory. Anyway, here are the photos.
This is the one piece of lumber that I think will make good backing strips. It's plain-sawn and looks like it was mostly fairly parallel to the surface of the tree it was cut out of. Seems like I remember reading that rift-sawn might be a better choice, but I think if the grain is reasonably flat, even with plain-sawn lumber that it should still make decent backing strips. Correct me if I'm wrong of course.
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1095_zpsea143d68.jpg)
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1094_zps6bc17217.jpg)
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1087_zpsef11f52b.jpg)
First questionable board - I actually thought I might be able to get an unbacked bow out of this board, but I think the grain is too wavy with too many runoffs
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1084_zpsa059e8af.jpg)
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1081_zps39683d43.jpg)
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1079_zpsf7a3c55a.jpg)
Second questionable board
Straight grain on one side until that faint line I've drawn, then it begins to run off
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1070_zps8bbebf44.jpg)
Looks pretty straight along the side too
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1071_zpsf7f60402.jpg)
Fairly straight along the other side, but a bit of grain runoff
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1072_zps39255406.jpg)
Some runoffs
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1073_zpsedc32289.jpg)
Third questionable board
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1075_zps7c0c82a4.jpg)
Looks pretty straight on this side though
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/MCampbell/DSC_1078_zps0ed88d26.jpg)
Anyway, like I said, I'm not the best at picking boards. Is any of this salvageable for backing strips? The main thing is I want to get some backing strips for the two ipe longbows. If I could get backing strips out of one of these boards then maybe I could back the questionable hickory boards and the questionable bit of ash I have as well. I'm planning on hitting up the lumberyard again in a few days so I can probably do a better job of looking for boards then. Will hickory tolerate some minor runoffs when used for backing strips, just as a hickory board will make a selfbow even with some pretty serious runoffs? Thoughts, or suggestions?