Bow woods easy to get?

[StrykerX_X]

I was wondering what are some good bow woods that one could get from menards or lowes or home depot?

Of the woods i could get from one of those stores what would be good for the following.

Belly wood?
Backing wood?
Core wood?

For an all wood laminated bow?

Im just trying to build on a budget

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Fine a good piece of just about any hardwood like Oak, Hickory, Ash, or Walnut....just don't get PINE!!

You need to get the one with the straightest grain you can find with no knots, and that's about all the advice I'm qualified to offer with my limited bowyer skills.
I cut my own Osage and I have lots and lots of it growing all around our place, so I've pretty much got an endless supply for free. If you want to make the drive to SE Missouri, I'll let you pick out one of my Osage staves.
Or on second thought, you should probably take 2 just in case......that's why I made sure I had plenty when I decided to build my own longbow.  

[StrykerX_X]

Hey if i paid you could you mail some osage to me?

[walkabout]

just my 2 cents but for the cost of shipping you could make a bunch of board bows, and save the good wood for when you got more experience and a good formula for what you want to end up with.

[StrykerX_X]

Ok i've decide what wood to use tell me what you think! For a reflex deflex long bow.
Walnut belly, Chery core, & red oak backing!

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by walkabout:
just my 2 cents but for the cost of shipping you could make a bunch of board bows, and save the good wood for when you got more experience and a good formula for what you want to end up with.

I was thinking the same thing.......although I Would do it, no problem but I have no idea what something like that would cost? I know they do it all the time, but these staves are fairly heavy.
Too bad you don't live closer, you could just come over for a visit and take a stave home with ya.
I'd be glad to help you anyway I can, I wish somebody had encouraged me to make my own bow a long time ago.

[StrykerX_X]

your porb. right i will make a few board bows first, but will keep you in mind if i need any osage. What do you think of my wood selection?

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I like it, but I've only made an Osage bow so that doesn't qualify me to give advice on what woods work well for what purposes. I'm just a newbie at all of this myself.
I think it will be pretty, that's for sure.
I also know that a lot of guys use walnut, cherry, and red oak for bow making so I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work together?

As far as the stave goes, if you happen to ever head south for any reason contact me and I'll give you directions to my place and you can stop by.

[walkabout]

red oak wouldnt make a great backing, but black walnut would probably work. if it were me, id usea walnut backing on red oak for the first one, then move onto something like a walnut backed cherry, then maybe a tri lam in similar laminations. no reason you couldnt use the walnut for the back and belly over a cherry core either.cherry is light and good bow wood but weak in tension, so a thin walnut backing would help that. keep it simple at first, then once you got a few knocked out start experimenting with whatever bow style that you like the most.

[walkabout]

this is assuming of course that the walnut has great grain.hickory is one of the best backings you can use really for almost any wood.

[rainman]

Plenty of info in the archives on making board bows.  I would start with a regular straight bow for my first couple unless you have someone close by with tillering experience to help you.  Deflex/Reflex pretty hard to tiller correctly for guys with a number of bows under their belt without help.

[Apex Predator]

Call around your area to lumber suppliers until you find a straight grain hickory board.  You can cut some bullet proof backing out of it for cheap!  You are gonna build more than one, trust me.  Hickory is the best, easy to work backing there is.