Making board bow material

[Jwwood]

Several ? 1. To make hickory backing is it best to use qsawn wood for this? 2. when making board staves what is the best way to cut them out of the log , plain or qsawn?. 3. Best way to cure the backing and staves. Just started building bows and got to take my first deer with a bow I made , which was exciting, but have bought all my material and want to start making my own. I have 3 Osage stave put up and drying so I can try to make a self bow. I have been reading books on building bow but looking for people with experience for advice because unfortunately I have made more kenneling than bows.

[Stick Bender]

Im no expert I have only made 3 sucsesfull bows 2 where made from strait grained 1/4 sawn hickory the other was made from a maple stave that I guess would be considered plain sawn as it followed the ring of the tree with white wood staves you can just gently peal the bark off & used that as your back I made my first sucesfull bow using the book called  The Bent Stick by Paul Comstock , Im preety much of a newbie & learn new things every day here on PA good luck with your bows maybe some body with more exsperience will come a long with more info for you.

[bubby]

I've built a lot of of board bows and stave bows, personally i would use the trees for self bows and buy my lumber

[Jwwood]

Stick bender I just got and started reading the bent stick, I have made 9 bows so far with bought material, just wanting to make my own material for board bows and self bows.

[Stick Bender]

Oh ok on the board bow material ,I have made milled boards out of logs for furniture  I'm assuming your looking to make your own for the purpose of air drying as opposed to kiln store bought , you didn't say if you had any exsperience with making boards the only problems I have ran into with making air dried boards is early on  I wanted to make realy wide boards and I have a 23 in band saw so I made them as wide as the tree & dried them on weighted stickers but ended up with a lot of torsional warpege ,those boards were plain sawn ,when I have made quarter sawn lumber it tended to warp less but I still make narrower boards now,hope that helped.

[Dances with squirrels]

1. Yes, quartersawn hickory, with no (or very minimal) ring runout.

2. 'Best' are boards cut from straight sections of tree trunks that grew straight up, which have minimal differences around their circumference in tension and compression stresses. Its grain would be straight, not spiraled or barber poled, and the boards cut from it, whether quarter, rift, of flat sawn, would be clear of shakes, checks, knots, pins, etc and have no runout of growth rings. It should also be properly cared for and seasoned. I concern myself more with those things than whether the resulting boards are quarter, rift, or flat sawn, but if all else is adequate and equal... I prefer them in that order.

[Springbuck]

QS backings are probably best, but quartersawing DOES NOT guarantee the grain doesn't run off back to front.  In almost any other board, the rings tell you if the grain is straight, but in QS boards, you can't see it, and the radial grain can run back to front too steeply WAY too easy.  So, it's best to start with a board you can see, orient the grain and THEN do your sawing.

Making perfect boards from a log is a lot of work, but I don't think any grain orientation is "best".  Just keep that grain straight.  Split the log and work from flat, straight, smoothed surfaces, or work from the outside inward.

[Dances with squirrels]

Springbuck, I agree. It's unfortunate that grain and growth rings are understood by so many folks to be the same thing.

[willie]

a split can show where the grain differs from the ring line, and re-orienting the rip on a flat sawn board can help if you have the width.   

[PlanB]

From a practical standpoint, I just plain saw my logs, to 4/4 and 8/4 boards, stack and sticker them outside, then pick out what is good for bows, leaving the rest for other uses. I don't edge then unless I have a special need.

For 8/4 through the center area of the log, if you leave the waney edge on, you can strip those off with a band saw about 2" thick when dry and that is a true stave for a self bow. If you're lucky you get two of those per board, plus the center can still be used.

However on some species (black birch for exmple) the center board should be split in half before drying -- or it will split itself. Tensions are too high. It doesn't hurt the bows, but it wrecks the center for other uses.

The top and bottom wane boards on a log can also be cut thick and yield staves if you then edge them. All of these above are true staves for selfboaws, not board bows.

The 4/4 boards will yield board bows. Just pick the best of those in your stacks, either quarter or flat or whatever ring pattern is your preference. Likely to be better than store-bought if air dried, hand selected and cut to follow the log contour.

For plain sawing with the mill for best bow usage, you want to wedge up your log so the cuts are parallel to the top edge of the log. Then flip it, and re-wedge it so the new top surface is parallel with the track. You'll end up with a double tapered center piece usually, but your other boards will follow the rings better. Then wedge up your center piece so its centerline is parallel to the track. First board will be a wedge trim, but the rest except for the bottom will also be parallel to the grain.

Other things like sweeps, and leaners will add some complexity in terms of how to cut for bow usage, but you'll get it all eventually.

Hope that helps.

[Jwwood]

PlanB this will be the first time I've used a mill so we'll see how it goes but thanks for the tips. Stick bender and springbuck thanks for the tips.

[PlanB]

Jwwood, I've been trying to get a pic up for you, but Photobucket has been down all afternoon and evening. Guess I'll attach it then.

Something like this will get you both board and stave bows. Basically you're cutting 8/4 or thicker near the top and middle of the log, and 4/4 or 5/4 in between. You then trim up the pieces including the normal waste pieces of waney flitch, and also the waste edging of the boards into staves. The boards themselves can be cut into 2x boards for bows, with good ring orientation (according to preference), with plenty of useful boards left over for other projects.

Note that even boards with an angled wane can be bevel ripped afterwards to make the wane perpendicular, if they are thick enough.

[Stick Bender]

Great diagram PlanB !

[Springbuck]

  Plan B is the MAN, today! 

See where he has "possible board bow staves" deep in the log in the big 8/4 piece?  And again in the thinner board just above that?  If you cut those right they can be QS backings or flat backings.  The wrench in the gears is always whether the log was tapered a lot or not.  And sometimes flat sawn backings are easier to see what you want in.  I look for 8/4 flat sawn boards that came out of the log just like that big middle one in his drawing, orient the grain and saw QS backings from those...

 Good luck.

[Jwwood]

Plan B that is great, that will help me greatly thanks a ton.