What dementions do you use with what wood

[ccase39]

I'm a noob and have made 5 bows recently out of Osage. I have been using the dimensions Ben Harper used in his build alongs. I have based most of them on the red oak board bow build along and have modified it a bit. I've been reading The Bent Stick and am where he is talking about length, width, thickness, and tapering. I was just curious what some of you do when you build a board bow. For a heavier bow the author says to go two inches wide at least half way down the limb. Mine have been a bit thinner. I'm going to try it wider. What belly taper should I use?

[punch]

It depends.  What type of bow you want to build and how heavy is for you. If you go with a pyramid bow there is really no belly taper.  With a red oak board bow 2.5" wide then straight taper to 1/2" nocks will get you 50-60# bow. A 2" wide to mid limb then to 1/2" nocks usually gets me to the mid 50s#. For the belly I would go 10/16 then taper to 1/2# at the end. You can refine it from there.

[crooketarrow]

  Nothing wrong with building board bows for the exsperance. But I think it's time to move on to stave bows. I have nothing against board bows but , I can't see a bunch of indains setting around the camp fire passing around a board looking down it. Desideing the lenth and with to make it.

THERE'S NO EXSPERANCED BOW BUILDERS ON HERE THAN WOULD BUILD THERESELF A BOARD BOW TO USE. Not shooting across the yard.

 I realize starting out or it's easy to run down to lowes.

  I could'nt even Imagain not cutting my own tree's for staves. Much less rideing down to lowes to pick up a board.

[bubby]

Well i guess I'm not that experienced but i build and shoot board bows all the time, a well built board bow is as good as any stave bow i don't care who is sitting around the fire checking out the board, while i enjoy building stave bows better because of the challenge, i really don't get the bias by some against boards

[Pat B]

First off, Paul Comstock is talking mostly about whitewoods. Osage is a totally different animal.   What is your draw length and what draw weight are you shooting for? Tell us what wood you will be using and we can give you the dimensions for a bow.

[ccase39]

First off, Paul Comstock is talking mostly about whitewoods. Osage is a totally different animal.   What is your draw length and what draw weight are you shooting for? Tell us what wood you will be using and we can give you the dimensions for a bow.

I definitely want to learn to make a bow from a  stave. I just want to wait until have more experience and learning on the how and why of things first. I want to improve and get my technique down first. It's cheaper for me right now to learn on boards.

I have been using mainly Osage and my draw length is

Edit 27 inch. Lol oops

[Pat B]

"I have been using mainly Osage and my draw length is ..." ? 
Boards are just decrowned staves. I've made a few hickory backed osage but not just an osage board bow. 
 For a 28" draw go 64" to 66" long, 1 1/2" wide at the fades and out 8" then a straight taper to 3/4" tips for now. Once you get to first brace and everything lines up reduce the tips to 3/8".

[ccase39]

I might add that I'm looking 55-60#

[willie]

i really don't get the bias by some against boards

I would suppose that each bias is an individual thing, but for myself , working with staves  using a single growth ring as the back , less bows seam to break while tillering.

 I never saw a fret when using boards (the backs always went first).

 I also like to think that wood I harvest myself and have control of from tree to bow may keep me in better wood. Boards can have any number of unseen defects from poor health or dead/decaying of tree, felling & handling damage and kiln drying caused problems

[bubby]

Willy that's all fine and dandy but for a builder to make a statement that no experienced bowyer would build a board bow to use is a outright judgment that is uninformed and would make a newbie thats making board bows think his bows are somehow inferior because he uses boards, I know halfeye has quite a following here, i have one of rich's bows it's quartersawn ash most of his bows are board stock, perhaps better board selection would have not sour'd your opinion. And as far as kiln dried lumber i don't think it makes a differance we keep bows in hot boxes all the time trying to keep moisture content where we want

[bubby]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html

By the way this bow is still shooting and took several yotes

[bubby]

http://traditionalarchery101.com/archer.html

[osage outlaw]

  THERE'S NO EXSPERANCED BOW BUILDERS ON HERE THAN WOULD BUILD THERESELF A BOARD BOW TO USE.

This is a very inaccurate statement to say the least.  I've seen a lot of nice board bows posted on here from experienced bow builders. 

I want to find a nice hickory and maple board to make a couple of bows from. 

[OTDEAN]

I used to stress over measurements and how to measure up before starting.  If time and a lot of mistakes have taught me anything, let the bow just become a bow and throw away the calipers and tape measure.  Sure different woods lend themselves to different widths, but only experience of failure can really teach you anything.

Go cut a sapling down and just experiment.  You will soon figure out for yourself what works and what does not.  Keeping it minimal might take you long time to improve but if I can share anything that I have learned, my advice would be, just build bows until you get what works for you.

Dean

[Marc St Louis]

So far as I know every bow made from a tropical species was made from a  board.  You can buy Osage and Yew in board form and I think Dan Perry has set world records in flight shooting with bows made from Hickory boards