first completed bow is a broken one...

[LC]

I don't know if it's true or not but supposedly someone asked Thomas Edison once if he ever got discouraged with his first couple hundred failures. He replied no because he learned a couple hundred ways NOT to make a light bulb!

Funny story either way if not true. We've all had failures.

[Whitehawk23]

Lol thanks for the inspiration Roy. I actually went out and bought another board tonight I got lucky and they had ONE with straight grain.
LC its funny you said that my father in law JUST told me the same thing tonight. guess great minds think alike

[Whitehawk23]

So I got me another board tonight got all the dimensions drawn up cut a lot of the fat off, but the board splintered bad not on the limbs bot just outside of where I.was cutting. does anyone else have this problem with red oak?

[Eric Krewson]

I cut a deep shelf (recurve mentality)on my first bow. It snapped at the deepest cut point of the shelf.

That was my last deep cut in shelf and my last bow failure in the handle area.

[Whitehawk23]

Yeah that's pretty much what happened to me. BTW Eric I measured my handle on it and it was just over 3.5 inches so it wasn't that far off of the 4 inch rule

[Whitehawk23]

So I got to looking at both bows I made (1 I didn't complete because I messed up before I could finish) but both bows broke on the belly side so what could be the cause of that?

[m2bowhunter]

Just my two cents worth.  The bow appears to be a board stave  and the growth rings were perpendicular to the back of the bow, in other words, in stead of one late wood ring there were multiple rings and the notch created by the arrow rest just followed an early wood ring completely up the bows limb. It couldn't happen any other way. Great attempt. Keep at it. My first bow developed the dreaded tic sound when drawn, that's been 16 years and I still remember that first feeling of accomplishment plus failure. Keep at it!

[Whitehawk23]

Yeah its pretty heart breaking. I'm starting to wonder if red oak just isn't the wood for me but its basically my only choice

[KellyG]

Whitehawk have you read over 4est board bow build along? If now do so it is a very good build along.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000122#000000

Also keep your head up and just see if they sell hickory boards also.

[Whitehawk23]

Yeah that's the build along I used just not to the letter. I didn't do the risers and I made a cut in shelf. but yea its an awesome build along. Thanks

[m2bowhunter]

If you only have oak for a stave, find a board that is flat ringed, not edge ringed. If you can find a hickory board, you can just about make it how ever you want. Surely you can find a stave somewhere. Osage/hedge, hickory, black locust, maple...something that you can get flat ringed. That would be easier to "see" the bow in the wood that you are working.
thanks

[Whitehawk23]

I honestly don't know the difference in the rings. and red oak is all I got I have no way of getting my hands on hickory or anything else

[m2bowhunter]

Picture a stack of loose leaf notebook paper. A stack of 100  stacked neatly on top of each other. The side of the stack of paper is your bow. Stack enough paper and make a bow from the side of the paper, when cut thin and stressed, the movement will follow each piece of paper. If you made the bow from the top, or the stack, the bow has no growth ring to follow. On  page one of your post, notice Mr. Erik's bow. Looks like a stack of paper fanned out doesn't it?  The stack is stair stepped, but only on the belly. Your edge ring board combined with a flat ringed board could hold up to the strain of flexing.

[m2bowhunter]

Do you live any where around western KY?

[m2bowhunter]

Picture a stack of loose leaf notebook paper. A stack of 100  stacked neatly on top of each other. The side of the stack of paper is your bow. Stack enough paper and make a bow from the side of the paper, when cut thin and stressed, the movement will follow each piece of paper. If you made the bow from the top, or the stack, the bow has no growth ring to follow. On  page one of your post, notice Mr. Erik's bow. Looks like a stack of paper fanned out doesn't it?  The stack is stair stepped, but only on the belly. Your edge ring board combined with a flat ringed board could hold up to the strain of flexing.

[m2bowhunter]

Oops on posting twice, hope that helped.
Jeff

[Whitehawk23]

Ahhh I got ya. wow thanks for putting it in perspective for me. yeah I live in hopkinsville, ky about 45 min from fort Campbell

[m2bowhunter]

That's 1.5 hours from my place. Surely there's a good ol time lumber yard close to you.get a hickory board and a cedar board  glue them together to make a bow from that. Poor mans yew, they call it. If interested I could probably find you somethingnaround here.

[m2bowhunter]

That's 1.5 hours from my place. Surely there's a good ol time lumber yard close to you.get a hickory board and a cedar board  glue them together to make a bow from that. Poor mans yew, they call it. If interested I could probably find you somethingnaround here.

[Roy from Pa]

Justin, flat ring would be like taking a log and cutting a slab off of one side of the log. So if you looked at the end of a board, the growth rings would look like this ) but the high point of the arc would be facing up. Just take this ) and flip it 90 degrees. Then there is rift sawn where the end of the board looks like this ////. Then there is quarter sawn which looks like this ||||.