Okay, I'm officially hooked.  Went to Lowe's for something else entirely and spent most of my time looking through the oak boards.  Our Lowe's doesn't have any hickory.  I believe the grain runs correctly, but what is first?  With a board do you chase a ring like with a stave?  Please help the new guy again.  Some day I hope to return the favor.

Here's where I went for info; seems pretty thorough.

http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/index.html

No need to chase a ring.  I would recomend cutting the board to 66" then lay out the bow.  First find the center of the board, 33" then measure out 5" each side of center for a 10" riser.  This will leave 28" working limbs.  Measure up 14" from each end of the board and place a mark.  This will be where your limbs taper.  Then find the center of each end of the board and measure 1/4" each direction, giving you 1/2" limb tips. Connect your taper line from mid limb to limb tips and then cut out.  After cut out glue on a riser and start floor tillering.  Good luck and take it slow.

How about a backing.  Think it is necessary, since I'm not following one ring?  Also, where does somebody find a hickory board?

If you chose a board with proper grain, and do not intend to make an insanely heavy draw weight bow, no backing will be necessary.  However, a proper backing will only decrease the chance of the bow breaking.  Hickory boards can be purchased at most saw mills, or wood working stores such as woodcraft.

I second the above mentioned website.  I learned alot from this site when I first began.

You can also use rawhide, silk, linen or brown grocery bag paper(any heavy paper) for a backing on your board bow. It will give you a bit of insurance being your first bow. Tite-Bond III glue, found at most hardware stores, will work with all of the above backings.

Dave Bowers  already posted Sam's site. You can also check out Jawge's site:   http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/  

both are linked on my site:  http://analogperiphery.blogspot.com/.  I've got some selfbow stuff on there as well, but not board info.

I just finished up my second red oak board bow with plans from this site.  I found the instructions easy to follow.    Ferrets board bow

In the How To section is a thread call " Tim Bakers First Bow" follow the instrucions and you will have a bow in two hours that shoots real well.  it is a practice for tillering the next bow you make.  OH YEAH you will make more than one ;-) have fun go slow