Next board bow, hoping to avoid some issues...

[halfseminole]

So I bought a new piece of red oak, as that is all there is around here.  This time I went with 3" wide, and I tried to get the densest thing they had.  

 

 

The last bow I built was too light, and whip tillered to boot.  It shoots well.  Only after I backed it something like 50 feet of mason twine.  While I may well back this one with cabling to offset some of the issues with red oak, I'm more interested in simply learning to make a good board bow.  

I'm reading a lot of sites that are giving standard dimensions for red oak to hit a certain poundage.  Any credence to such claims?  If so, it would seem that any fool with a band saw could turn these out all day.  I figure at my rate it'll get done in October or so.  Awful lot of wood to remove for either pyramid or flat bow with only hand tools.  I'll get it done, though.  I'm just a lot slower than you guys.  

Any chance of a Holmegaard design with this board? I wonder if something like that would be functional, and if it had issues it would be dead easy to cable back.

[Mike Most]

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

Check out 4est trekkers boards in his board bow build, you want yours to look somewhat like his.

His attention to detail in his build is what got mine finished. Unbacked 62 lbs at 28 inches.

[George Tsoukalas]

I've made lots of red oak board bows and most were unbacked. There are no issues with it provided you find a straght grained board. That board does not have a good grain. I'd return it. It's too wavy and there are too many run offs. My site has info on boards. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html

[halfseminole]

That was the best from four different Home Depots and three different Lowes.  This place is a desert for wood.  I'll see what I can do.

[George Tsoukalas]

Sometimes you just walk away and try again at a later date. Jawge

[Mike Most]

I walked in to a home depot and that bow above happened to be the first board off the rack. Other days I walk away. It was a fairly tight quarter sawn board with grain running straight for the full length of the board.

[Black Mockingbird]

Plenty of saplings and small trees in Alabama I reckon...easy to attain and quick dry and be ready in a month easy to make a quick bow and to have something to learn and work on...go cut a few and reduce em down to near biw dimension and set em up to dry...in the meantime go cut a couple more and do the same thing etc... for a month and then the ones you cut at first will be ready,and prob not looking g as good because you will have gained experience in choosing and harvesting wood...red oak boards are fine if you choose wisely...but in most cases they are not the best wood available ...look for hickories(pecan is hickory too),elms,oaks,etc...hardwoods saplings...they can make a mean bow and don't require a lot of effort or wood removal to make if your lacking tools....all you need is a hatchet to make a simple sapling bow...and its fun too  

[monterey]

His attention to detail in his build is what got mine finished. Unbacked 62 lbs at 28 inches

I for one would like to know the length NTN, length of riser, length of working limb section, width at fades and width of nock tips.  Probably would not equate perfectly with every possible board but it would be a good starting point for swagging new builds.

That's a very nice looking bow!

[scars]

I'm reading a lot of sites that are giving standard dimensions for red oak to hit a certain poundage. Any credence to such claims? If so, it would seem that any fool with a band saw could turn these out all day.

In a word that is possible, but red oak is not a cookie cutter material. Even a prevailing wind can change the cell structure from one side of a tree to another. Measurements given should be considered generic and treated as estimates only.
Using a band saw and a simple belt sander I can ruff out a board bow and get it pretillered (floor) for backing in one to one and a half hours. Once the backing is glued on the board may take from 2 to 8 hours to tiller it to it first arrow test. multiply that time by 2 or 3 days and I have a bow that is good enough to give away. My first bow was a molly bamboo backed ipe. 29# there is more bamboo then ipe and the tiller is still bad. But I love it for being the first, I'll never get rid if it.
For me the three easiest styles to learn and be successful with the pyramid, molly and Cherokee longbow.

[scars]

Originally posted by monterey:
 

His attention to detail in his build is what got mine finished. Unbacked 62 lbs at 28 inches

I for one would like to know the length NTN, length of riser, length of working limb section, width at fades and width of nock tips.  Probably would not equate perfectly with every possible board but it would be a good starting point for swagging new builds.

That's a very nice looking bow! [/b]

With this  http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=007103  I was able to figure out what was needed.

[halfseminole]

Mockingbird, there's lots of it out here, but my health isn't good enough to take the best of it by a long shot.  I have to take a black walnut in the back yard because of storm damage, and I was thinking of loading it up and taking it to Hobby Hardwoods above Huntsville to get sawn up since there's no way I can split it here.  My strength is really not what it used to be and I really overdid it trying to get our water hooked up in the new place (I did it, though) so I can't pick my left arm up to level yet.  Saplings/small trees are an idea, but I need to ID them and get the axe in there, which would require once again my arm to heal up some.  Chainsaw is electric, can't run a gas one with nerve damage.

I'm not giving up, though.  I've got a design I'm messing with here that'll take a fair bit more work before I know if it will work, but is in progress and I've got my eye on quite a few staves out of that walnut.  Taking a sycamore sapling would be dead simple, have birches growing, and quite a few oak types.  Hickory seems to mostly be established stuff.  Think I may walk the woods with a camera tomorrow and start mapping ones to take.

[monterey]

Scars, thanks for that link.

[George Tsoukalas]

No wood is cookie cutter. Beginners should not use power tools as they take off too much wood too fast.

Straight graied boards wil do just fine. They make quick hard hitting bows becasue the flat back.

Jawge