Bow from antique barn wood????

[tom sawyer]

I wouldn't oil it at all whiile you are working on it.  Oil will clog the teeth of your tools.  It will interfere with adhesion of your backing.  The wood is good and dry, it will be fine as you work it.  You only put a finish on it when you are through, you can use an oil-based finish at that point or something else.

[Pat B]

One thing I would do is exercise this wood more than normal as you reduce the stave. The wood has been static for years and will need a bit more education in the bending process. It is liable to be very hard also. I have seen popular barn boards that you could hardly drive a nail into or even pull a nail out of...and poplar is a soft wood...until it seasons for 50 years.      Pat

[George Tsoukalas]

Slaughter, you have a good start. That looks like a good one. There are some buildalongs on my site and some that deal with board bows. Jawge
http://mysite.verizon.net/georgeandjoni/archer.html

[welch2]

Yep ,Lennie is right if you are going to make a board bow and back it ,instead of chasing a ring and basically making a stave bow from a board. You shouldn't oil it ,oil will interfere with the glue for the back.

Good point Pat. It may still be very dry ,and hard. Do you have a moisture meter? You could also bend a small piece and see how bendy or brittle or mushy it is . If it's very hard and a brittle ,you can keep to bow in the bathroom for a few days as you work it to get the moisture content up a bit.

Ralph

[welch2]

I forgot to add . In the first picture the white streaks on the right side look like dry rot ,check these spots with a finger nail and see if they are soft.

In the second picture, you could probably chase one of those rings ,and end up with a d bow.

Ralph

[a finnish native]

Badger: Like Pine? hahahah

[Slaughter]

Thank you all,

Ralph' The white spots in the picture are just a weird color variation no dry rot at all..I saw them right away and checked them first. I don't have a moisture meter but it is very dry wood indeed,
it has been very wet here recently though and it has been soaked through for several days. I'm going to try backing it with a cotton backing (like khaki) and treat it as a board bow.

Jawge Thank you I'm using your board bow method as a guide at hand all the time.

Pat I know all about how hard it gets I've built my whole house from it and other woods like it and have hand driven about 350lbs of 16 penny nails by hand with the help of ALOT of bars of soap
I'll be sure to exercise it carefully and alot.

Lennie Thank you for all the advice and support.


Well here goes nothin, I'll try to keep pics up as I go crossing my fingers.

Tony

[Slaughter]

Well..........That didn't take long..... she blew in the floor tillering stage while I was exercising it.

not sure if it was just to old or what but Iv'e got a nice goose egg for my efforts and some great kindling.

[George Tsoukalas]

Thanks. My boardbows are 1.5 inches wide until just past midlimb and narrow to 1/2 inch nocks. The handle is 1.5 wide to ad 3/4 thick. Your boards may be thicker.  Could you let me know? I'll suggest a handle measurement. Also what is your draw length and what weight do you want? Jawge

[Slaughter]

Jawge, Your welcome your building tutorial on board bows is easy to read and follow (the best I found). As soon as I cut another board for the next attempt Ill let you know about dimensions.

as in my post above this one was a failure(due at least in part I THINK to a pinhole running all the way through the limb exactly where it blew out) but a lesson I think.

Tony

[George Tsoukalas]

I've never had that happen. Could be the wood has decomposed. I assume it is a hardwood-oak, etc. You don;t want to use pine. Jawge