There is hope!

[critman]

Tired of digging thru a ton of red oak boards at the big name stores. My brudenlaw (yes this is spelled correctly) cut one of my mom's pecan trees that was next to her home. I now have a 6 foot x 24" diameter log and a 6'x18" log that I am fixing to have sawn into boards for bows. I plan to leave the boards as wide as possible so I can choose what to cut for bows. Any tips on what to do or not do before having them sawn? Never been down this road, but pretty excited to have my own boards cut. Should have plenty for backings, etc. I am at the sawyers mercy on how this goes. He is using a large portable band saw to cut this and have had several folks tell me he is good at it. Reckon I should have different thickness boards cut or just maybe stick with 1" and do the rest myself? Advice is appreciated guys.

[John Scifres]

Why not split it into staves?

[KellyG]

WHAT get the bark off it and make staves!

[critman]

I knew you guys were gonna say that! I am thinking to split the smaller into staves but have absolutely no tools to even start trying to make a bow from a stave or even spilt the log. Not saying I won't try but I have several folks wanting bows and can dry the boards and turn out a pretty nice bow fairly quickly. But you do have me thinking.........maybe time for some more tools    
Man I'm glad my wife doesn't read these post. I have sold 2 of my unused for several years wheelie bows and have a 3rd for sale now. That will make me wheel free so this years deer will be trad or nothing. Bring it on.  

[John Scifres]

2 wedges and a sledge to split them - $40.   A draw knife or hatchet to rough shape - $30.  You will spend way more than that getting it sawn into boards.  And then you'll still be making board bows which are fine if that's all you got but that's not all you got.

[critman]

John, I haven't done anything with the logs. I DID go out on my property and cut some young trees.  Took off the bark, sealed the ends and waiting for them to dry. I now have 1 hickory, 2 beautiful pecan staves, and 4 sycamore staves. Now to figure out what to do with them. How do you decide what is the belly and what is the back? Particularily on the hickory, it had several small branches. What to do with these? Work around them, file them into the limb? Any build alongs I can check out on how to work these staves. They were all small trees, the largest is about 4" in diameter and 7' long. Can I split this and get two bows? Lots of questions but don't want to ruin good wood. Any advice is appreciated.