How's it going I'm very new to traditional archery but I'm very intrigued with the idea of building something and goin hunting with something you built with your own hands. anyways I'm about to go to Lowe's to pick up some red oak for my first board bow. I just need help with the glue on riser and arrow shelf. if someone's got a diagram or something that would defiantly help. thankd

Don't have a diagram.
After marking center. I mark 2 inches to each side for a 4 inch handle. Then 2 more inches on each side for the,fades..
Total of 8 inches.
I like to glue up my handle and fade combo with several 1/4 inch or less thick laminations. Better luck keeping the handle from popping off later.

The shelf is what ever you want. I've used no shelf shooting off the hand to glue on leather shelves to cut in shelves.
I just put the bow in my hand after shaping the handle and mark just above my hand maybe 1/8 inch.  This keeps it where there is plenty of thickness for strength.

Awesome advice thinks. I just started my first bow ever and I messed up the width so now its waaayyy to skinny. but hey that's how you learn right? Well I really do appreciate the advice

I glue on leather for an arrow rest.

Wow those pics are gonna help out so much thank you. hopefully I can salvage this one and try to turn it into somethin ill post pics tomorrow of what I got so far to see if I can get more advice

Wow those pics are gonna help out so much thank you. hopefully I can salvage this one and try to turn it into somethin ill post pics tomorrow of what I got so far to see if I can get more advice

I make my bows with equal length limbs, I find the center of the bow, measure up 1 1/2 for arrow rest and down 2 1/2 for bottom of grip. That gives you a 4 inch grip, I also measure up 2 1/2, so that gives you a 5 inch handle so to speak. Then from the 2 1/2 marks I measure out another 2 inches for the flares on top and same on the bottom, then I measure out 2 inches from the flares and that is where the riser fades into the limbs. In the second picture down you can see in yellow BH and TH, that is 5 inches, and just to the left of the TH and inch down is another line, that is where my arrow shelf will be.

Ok awesome thanks Imma try to post pics from what I got so far to see if the limbs are to skinny(width wise)

My limbs are 1 1/4 wide at the flares, I keep that 1 1/4 width out 6 more inches, then do a straight taper to 1/2 wide at limb tips. I use Osage, with red oak I would guess your limbs should be 1 3/4 wide to 5/8th wide at tips.

Ok Imma write that down it seems a little better. I believe mine was 1 1/4 at the end of the fades and went straight to like 7/16 at the tips. I was in the middle of shaving some excess off with my KA-BAR and snapped the wood so Imma have to just try again when I get more wood that and the shaver on my rasp snapped completely in half so gotta grab another one of them too. but ill probably use this piece as an expierement on the riser and shelf. as soon as photobucket place up ill post some pics to get more input

Make your handle taper gradually to the limbs like the bows in Roy's pictures. Most newbies make their fade out handle sections much too abrupt and steep with the end result being a handle that won't stay glued to the bow and pops off at the ends.

Yeah I kinda had that problem I just gotta find the right angle to cut them at.

Start with a 13 inch riser, lay it out like I said above, cut the angle from the top and bottom lines of the 5 inch handle section to the end of the riser. Ya dig? Look at the side view picture.

does this look to skinny or is it just me?

Yes it does look very thin. Go  ahead and finish it up for a kids bow of say 10 to 15 pounds. Will be good practice. And it will put a smile on a little ones face like you won't believe, and it will feel good in your heart. For a kid, you will want to cut it down to about 48 inches long.

That's an extremely good idea! I gotta niece that would love that! Thanks for all the advice

When you pick out your boards, make sure you look for a board with very straight grain with few run outs on the side, end to end. 1/4 sawn is best but rift sawn will work too.

Click this link below, it will tell you everything you need to know about building your first bow.

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