Board bow question

[Eric Garza]

I've been making a lot of board bows over the past year, mainly because I haven't had as much time to get in the woods and make staves. As of late I've also been having a hard time finding really nice boards, and wonder how much grain runoff people tolerate in their board bows. For the record, the bows I've been making range from 58-65 inches nock-to-nock, draw up to 55 pounds, and are backed with rawhide. I've been using primarily hard maple boards, but might look into other woods if I can find decent boards.

[lenador]

George has a lot of great board bow info on his site.

http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/archer.html

[arachnid]

Goarge says that if making an unbacked board bow, 1-2 runoffs per limb are tolerable.
But I think it depends on the location of the runoff. If you can shape the bow
so that the runoffs are at the least bending spots- the better.
I`m currently working on a red oak board with some dodgy grain.
I marked the straightest grain pattern with a pencil and designed the
bow to match the grain lines.

But do pay attention to the grain on the sides.
Runoff on the side could lift a splinter if facing torwords the back (unless you
back the bow).

BTW, I never used maple but I did used white oak. Great stuff, tough as nails, bends like rubber...

Hope this helps...