Help picking first time wood. My first attempt failed

[Airborne890]

Im very new to making bows and have gathered scattered ideas from across a wide resource pool. I went out to home depot to buy a maple board.

I shaved and rasped and worked that board until both limbs bent evenly (or what I percieved as evenly). It was 1.5 inches wide in the limbs (tapering to .5 inch tips) and 1 inch in the handle, to which i glued a riser and reinforced that eith rawhide. After tillering I applied a rawhide backing.

 I still have no clue how to make string but i managed to rig a string that was roughly 3 inches shorter than the length of the bow nock to nock. The bow snapped when i drew it roughly 30 inches.

I want to try again, this time ordering a stave online. Any suggestions for wood and bow styles?

Also, what was my main problem with the first bow? It splintered on the back (the rawhide held the back together well.
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[JoJoDapyro]

Did you slowly draw the bow (a few inches per pull, over a lot of pulls?), or right back to 30? I am not an expert by any means, but I am under the impression that you have to work the bow out to get to full draw. My advice would be to stick to boards for a bit. Make one unbacked that works and shoots first before trying to back it. If you can make one that shoots unbacked, you can make one backed. One has to crawl before he can run. I have finished 4 bows so far. 3 red oak boards (2 kids bows), and an osage stave.

[wizardgoat]

Sounds like you rushed it. Never pull a bow past your intended weight or length, and for sure don't pull it past a weak spot. It's a very small amount of wood that separates a perfect tiller to a bad one.
Post pics of your work, it's the only way to get real advice.
You can't just carve a piece of wood to look like a bow, then pull it to 30" and expect it to not blow up

[wizardgoat]

Where do you live? If there's any experienced bowyers around you, or bow building classes ?
You will learn more in a weekend build on 1 bow, than you will making 10 by yourself.
Get the bowyers bible volume 1 too

[Dean Marlow]

I see a-lot of good white wood staves on the big auction site that are not bringing very much money. There looks like there are several good Hickory staves on there. Can't go wrong with a good piece of Hickory.

[wizardgoat]

It costs around 50$ to ship a stave, or around 90$ to ship 3.
To Canada anyways. Buy a few to make it worth while

[DC]

How long was the bow? 30" is a long draw, not unheard of but long.

[mhof86]

Its hard to say what went wrong without more details and pictures (worth a thousand words).

What draw weight were you going for?

When you said "both limbs bent evenly" was that from floor tiller, on the tree, at full draw?

Were at on the bow did the failure happen?

A couple things that might help...

Take a closer look at the tillering process you used. Don't stress the bow by drawing past your draw weight, length, or past a weak spot like Wizard said.

Another thing is the wood selection. I only have experience with red oak board bows not maple, but I would say that for every 5 trips to a big box home improvement store I end up with a single piece of wood that I would feel comfortable turning into a bow. Make sure the wood you are starting with is setting you up for success.

[scp]

If at all possible, I would buy a dimensional lumber and split a board or two out of it.

[George Tsoukalas]

Was the board straight grained and how long was it?
It's hard to beat a hickory log stave.
My site has info.
Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html

[Airborne890]

Thanks for the replies. I gradually tested the draw of the bow. Thats to say i didnt go straight for the 30 inch draw. Im not quite sure what poundage im going for. Is there a suitable poundage range relative to a certain type of wood or style? The board was pretty straight grained as far as I could tell.

How do i post a pic on the forum? I get an error saying my file is bigger than 250kb.

[Springbuck]

I see a-lot of good white wood staves on the big auction site that are not bringing very much money. There looks like there are several good Hickory staves on there. Can't go wrong with a good piece of Hickory.

+1.

[Prarie Bowyer]

Hickory and Osage are hard to mess up.  They come in boards but what ever you use don't bother if you don't back it.

[Airborne890]

Would a nice straight piece of Yew be a good starting place for a native american (plains style) shortbow?

[wizardgoat]

Yew is always a good choice, but expensive.