So, seriously want to get into bow making. What's first?

[KellyG]

Tawangy any peacan or hickory in your area. If so there is your bow wood.

[Twangy]

Originally posted by KellyG:
Tawangy any peacan or hickory in your area. If so there is your bow wood.

I'll look into it.

[Twangy]

I really haven't been able to find much in the Pecan or Hickory wood here, but I'm probably looking in all the wrong places. Anyone have any suggestions as to where I look? Most of my looking has been for lumber mills on google and I hit all dead ends. In any case, I still got time. I checked Amazon and "The Bent Stick" will arrive tomorrow by 8 PM. That bottle of wine beckons!

[LittleBen]

Let's see, if you're in the panhandle it's probobably not terribly far to somewhere that Osage grows and you can try and get some.

Then there's always red oak boards ... not great bow wood but it works.

also white oak, hard maple, hickory, pecan, Ipe (common for decking, would need a backing of hickory or bamboo)

[LittleBen]

http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/florida_forestry_information/forest_resources/trees_of_florida_common_hardwoods.html

here is a resource for the hardoowds typical in florida forests.  http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/florida_forestry_information/forest_resources/trees_of_florida_common_hardwoods.html

any of the oaks, maple, hickory, flowering dogwood, holly, birch, beech, hophornbeam, Eastern red Cedar, the elms, ash, and probably many others are all suitable for bows. Some would just need to be wider than others.

Google "bow woods list" and you can find a thread on another forum which is all the bow wood information from TBB vol I and IV. Hope that all helps some.

[Twangy]

Thanks a ton. that will help me pinpoint a few woods I can use. Central FL. not the panhandle, BTW. But I guess my question was more to the nature of where to procure the woods more than what woods to procure.

[takefive]

You could check the big box stores (Lowes, Home Depot) to see if they have hickory boards.  The ones in my area only carry red oak, but that might just be a regional thing.  O/w you can make a good bow from red oak if you find a good board and make it wide and long enough.

[George Tsoukalas]

There is a red oak board bow buildalong on my site. You can rip the straight grained, knot free board to 1 3/8" for 45# if you do your work.

 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/boardbowbuildalong.html

Jawge

[Twangy]

Originally posted by takefive:
You could check the big box stores (Lowes, Home Depot) to see if they have hickory boards.  The ones in my area only carry red oak, but that might just be a regional thing.  O/w you can make a good bow from red oak if you find a good board and make it wide and long enough.

I know that ours has maple, cherry, and poplar. I was thinking of doing a few maple board bows backed with cherry.

[takefive]

As long as it's hard maple, not the soft type, you could use it alone for your bow if it's a good board.  Cherry is tension weak so I wouldn't use it as a backer.  O/w backing the cherry with maple would be a better combo IMHO.  I made a hickory backed cherry board bow and the cherry fretted badly.  MIght have turned out better if I'd made it wider and made the backer thinner.  One of TBB's shows a cherry board bow that turned out to be a great shooter, but those guys have tillered thousands of bows.  On the flip side, I've seen quite a few hard maple bows and the guys who made 'em rave about the qualities of that wood.

[LittleBen]

General rule:

Only very straight grained boards.

Buy the densest board that has the required grain.

Hickory > oak > maple > cherry/poplar.

An oak board will work just fine. Also hard maple, but I'd take oak over maple.

[Twangy]

They may have oak, I'll have to check next time I'm in there.

[fujimo]

4est trekker has a nice build along for a board bow- with glued on tips- nice looking style of bow- and very simple- georges site has tons of info!

[Twangy]

Originally posted by Twangy:
They may have oak, I'll have to check next time I'm in there.

For my first few bows, I really am going to take a cheap route. No sense blowing money on really nice pieces of wood just to screw it up or make a sub-par bow. Once I get comfortable, I'll make some "real" bows.

[Twangy]

My first book arrived today. I'm slotting some time on Friday to read it. I'll let you know what I think.