To sand or not to sand?

[Red Tailed Hawk]

Building a red oak board bow and found a board with real straight grain. I usually back my bows with brown paper backing, but am thinking about leaving this one unbacked. My question is would it be ok to sand the back of the bow to smooth it out a bit or do i risk creating a future splinter

[Pat B]

Sanding will help prevent splinters. Also rounding all corners and edges will help to prevent splinters.

[John Scifres]

Judicious sanding will never hurt a well-chosen piece of wood.

[fish n chicks]

Totally agree with the guys. Sanding the back is totally cool. I haven't backed any of my board bows yet, and only one has checked. It's hard for me to hide the beauty of a bow with paper backing. That includes the ever-stinky oak. Start with 220 and get her smooth. Like Pat mentioned, make sure your corners are rounded. Not like 1/16", but a good 1/8 - 1/4" radius. With a great straight grained oak board, you're going to have A LOT of runoffs, but the good kind. A good rounding will help ensure you won't be hearing any "pops".

Good luck, and enjoy the results.

[Red Tailed Hawk]

Thanks for the info guys, I totally agree with you fish about paper backing bows. This will be my first unbacked bow that I will make, It's really the only board That I have found so far that I beleive can handle being unbacked. I got my fingers crossed I hope im not wrong.