Hello friends.

I came to a decision yesterday that I AM STARTING ON MY FIRST BOW BUILD.

Just wanted to do a simple board bow.
Wanted hickory.
Long story short, went to the only place in 100 mi around me that stocks Hickory..no good wood.
Went to 4 other yards..not any oak, maple, hickory of bow quality at either of em...ggrrr

So, I'm going to break down and make a wood lam bow of simple design.

I want to make a bow with a little reflex.
Much like Eric's here...
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=009703

Thinking strongly on the bamboo back.

What would be better on the belly..Yew or Osage?
I'm leaning towards Yew as it's lighter.

What say you?

Thanks

John

Your on the north end of the greater Detroit/Pontiac metropolis and you can't find any hardwood lumber??? Huh???? What???

Honestly skip hardwood backings and keep it simple for your first and learn how to tiller on a good clean stave or properly chosen grained hickory/red oak board if staves aren't available...plenty of woods around you too...go cut a hickory,elm,hard maple sapling etc... and learn on it for free instead of putting a bunch of money into bamboo and belly slats n glue n clamps n forms etc...there's a VERY good chance you'll mess up on your first whatever kind of bow,or second,third,fourth etc....so keep it simple at first  

Thank you for the advice.

I guess I'm afraid of making a bow that is poor performing if I don't use better materials.

That's not true...it all depends on proper design,tiller and the execution of both...its been well documented and proven many many times a board or stave will shoot as fast or faster than your average factory glass bow....its all in the bowyers hands...not the materials...besides you shouldn't even be worrying about making a high performance bow right now anyways(speeds are overrated)...your focus needs to be on design and tiller...and if your gonna use boards then you need to know proper selection..grain has to be near perfect,or in my small book...perfect or it stays on the shelf

Zradix, My first bow was a hickory self bow, and i built it having watched a couple youtube videos and reading TBB Vol 1.... also i had never shot a trad bow before at the time. it turned out... ehh... it shoots... thats about all you can say. i cut corners and rushed things. it is what it is. I AM proud of my second bow.. the one in the buildalong.  having the real-time help here on the bench, and taking the time to get the right advice before just winging it, and just making sure i had the right tools made all the difference. tillering my BBI was no different than tillering the selfbow, except that i did it slowly and correctly. the wood source I referred you to will treat you right. I myself would probably go with Osage... and he probably has some. I know he has a couple staves (I'm buying one of them) but he probably has some boards too... he sent me an osage slat for use as a power lam.

is it ok to mention businesses/products that are not sponsors here?

Zradix go to Menards. They have piles of hickory boards. I promise you will find at least a few perfect boards, I do each time I look.

Zradix, a board doesn't need to be perfect... exactly. Just very good. The rest will be up to you to work with. Back a nice piece of hickory with Rawhide or white oak, I personally don't care much for bamboo, but we all live by our own experiences. But ya have to have experiences to learn in the first place so get some wood and a set of instructions that you can trust and start cutting wood. Don't be nervous about messing up a stick. It will bum you out a bit but you will most likely learn a good lesson on what not to do. Lessons like that are sometimes priceless, and they don't grow on trees... but good bow wood does, so have at it.

Yeah pearl..I was just there last night. They didn't really have piles at my closest store..about 40 mins away.
About 15 1x2's, 10 1x6's, and a few 1x8's.

What store are you going to that has PILES?

it must not be too far away from me.

I couldn't even cut a strip of good wood outta the wide boards.
Really disappointing...

On another note..you ever played one of those funny looking Peavey drums from a few years back?
I helped design those. Got to meet Bobby Rock..lol

For a bowmaker who hasn't made many bows, if backing with bamboo, I advise osage over yew. There's less chance of the bamboo overpowering the osage.

@ John; I feel your pain    :(   The two Menards stores in my area are a real crap shoot as far as finding good boards.   I've only made 3 bows so far and was lucky to find 2 good hickory boards and one good enough red oak board for my last one.  Had to buy a wider red oak board and cut it at an angle to follow the grain, but it did make for a decent bow.  Probably is good advice to start with a simple board bow just to get your feet wet, esp. the tillering.  If you have your heart set on a bamboo backed one, though, I'd say go for it (but go very slow) and check out Echatham's build along.  I'm following it for the one I'm working on now, walnut with a boo back.  And I'm already worried about that combination.  Probably should have gone hickory/boo, but I really wanted walnut.  We'll see what happens and good luck on your bow.

I mean these boards were bad..lol
There was one I thought about but too much early wood on it.

I'm sorta grudging leaning towards going to my local lumber place tomorrow. They're getting a new shipment of red oak in today.

Maybe I can find a red oak board that is acceptable and back it with some silk or something.

Really didn't want to use oak..heard it's "ok" but not the greatest.

I just really want to make a bow..lol
..and I'm not too awful afraid of admitting it.

HEY!

I just had a thought..now bear with me...

I've read about people using paper grocery bags, drywall mesh tape etc for backing.

I'd think a happy medium between those two might be brown reinforced box tape. I have rolls and rolls of that on hand.
The kind that has a gum adhesive back.
..just a thought..

QuoteOriginally posted by Zradix:
HEY!

I just had a thought..now bear with me...

I've read about people using paper grocery bags, drywall mesh tape etc for backing.

I'd think a happy medium between those two might be brown reinforced box tape. I have rolls and rolls of that on hand.
The kind that has a gum adhesive back.
..just a thought..

You mean duct tape? Also known as West Virginia Chrome?    

don't do it. The main rason for using "light" backings of this type is to slightly keep the back of a bow from pulling a splinter and failing. It'll work... sort of. Don't skimp on your backing, order some rawhide from a supply shop. You will not regret it. I've used rawhide, canvas, denim and silk for backings other than wood or bamboo. Rawhide is my favorite and as far as I'm concerned, the only non-wood material that I would use any more. As far as drywall tape and stuff like that... man that stuff turns out butt ugly.

You mean duct tape? Also known as West Virginia Chrome? [biglaugh]

Mitch, LMAO:)

oh yeah..I didn't say I wanted to use it..that drywall mesh is way to ugly.

Silk sounds kinda cool though...

if i was going to use paper or dry wall tape i would cover it with snake skin or at least the imitation stuff... but thats just me, and just for looks.

Zradix do you got woods around you? woods that you could take a tree out of?

yes, but the whole drying time kills my impatient soul.
..though harvesting the tree for a bow has a certain appeal.