Novice Board Bow Question

[JoeB]

I"m a complete novice at this, so please excuse the very basic question.

I'll be trying my hand at a board bow, but I've read contradictory articles regarding bow backs.

I'm going to try an unbacked bow from oak or maple.

The question I have is this.

Do I need to make sure the back of the bow is along a single growth ring?

The bowyer's bible says yes, many videos and articles say no....

[LittleBen]

You dopnt need to follow a growth ring. A board will not follow th growth rings. It needs to be very straight grained.

[Bowjunkie]

No.

The board can be flatsawn, quartersawn, or riftsawn as long as there are no(or very minimal) runouts in either direction.

If there are no runouts and it is flatsawn, you could chase out a single growth ring for the back, but it's not necessary.

[JoeB]

Thank you LittleBen,

I was worried that I would have to find a board that would allow for following a ring and that seemed impossible.

So, straight, tight and parallel grain is what I need?

[JoeB]

Another question while I'm at it.

Is it OK to cut in an arrow shelf on a board bow?

Seems all the board bows I've seen have no shelf

[LESKEN2011]

Of the woods you mentioned, straight grained white oak or hard maple are two of my favorites. I haven't had as much success with red oak. Yes you can have a shelf on a board bow, but remember, every feature you add to your bow is another complication to deal with that increases the learning curve. It is not really necessary on traditional style bows as you can add a shelf and my primary focus on early bows would be tillering. As you get a few under your belt, you may want to tackle a cut in shelf which requires a thicker handle.

[JoeB]

Probably good advice....

Given the cost of a board and my complete lack of experience, I should probably just be happy with a thin handle bow that does not explode on the first arrow  

OK, off to make a tillering stick and make sure my rasps a scrapers are ready.

[The Gopher]

Do you have hickory boards available? For board bows i think there is no equal to hickory.

[JoeB]

Hickory is available in my area, but I've only been able to find 1" thick material and I'm not sure they will have a 2-3 inch wide piece that's 6 ft long. I'll have a closer look.

I should make it clear that I do not have any kind of a workshop, so the roughing out will have to be done with hand saw, then rasps and scrapers. I can handle that, but thinning the limbs down from 1 inch thick sounds like a big task by hand...or am I making it out to be more complex and harder than it is?

[takefive]

I use a Stanley Sureform to take the thickness down on the limbs and it removes wood pretty quickly.  Before I bought a table saw I used a circular saw to cut the profile.  Just need a sturdy table to clamp the board to, go slow and stay well outside your lines.  Good luck on your bow!

[The Gopher]

Some of the first bows i made were from a 1" thick hickory board. i used a hand plane to get to rough dimension and it only took an hour or so. the nice thing about board bows is that the lines are all straight so a hand plane is often an overlooked tool for bow building. Just remember that you want to plane the grain down hill if that makes sense, other wise you can chew up and splinter any wood.

[macbow]

There was a young man on here from overseas that made some awesome bows using a angle grinder with the sandpaper disc.
These are quite inexpensive.
But something to be,said for using all hand tools.

[JoeB]

Thank you all so much for the tips and advice.

I went through some old boxes and found that I actually have 2 Stanley Sureforms. A long one with handles and a short one that almost looks like a block plane. Unfortunately I could not find my fine rasp, so its off to the store to get one. I'm pretty well set up with sandpaper in all grits, I have clamps to hold the board down and the tillering stick has been laid out.

If all goes well I should get going within a week, assuming I can find a decent board.

If nothing else, I'll end up with some kindling wood  

[JGL]

don't forget to make a gizmo they save time and hassle

[wood carver 2]

Joe, what part of T O do you live in? There's a great place to buy wood in the west end called Oliver Lumber. It's near the 427 and Dundas. Nobody can beat their prices since they are the main importer. They don't post prices online, but you can call and ask.
Dave.

[JoeB]

JGL...Thanks for reminding me. I've never yet had a project that did not require a gizmo  

Dave, I"m actually in Vaughan (Canada's Wonderland) I've heard of Oliver lumber, but never been, I'll check them out. Are they OK with people rummaging through their boards to find the perfect one?

What part of town are you in?

Joe

[George Tsoukalas]

My site has board info. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html