Oak board: Did I choose wisely?

[silent sniper]

Buy yourself a hickory backing strip and glue it to the back with TB3 wood glue or unibond 800. The wood backing will allow you to get a good bow out of your otherwise not good board.  The grain on your board isn’t that bad and will work just fine if it is backed with a good quality wood backing strip. For what it’s worth, almost every bow I have made started out as a board.

Cheers,
Taylor.

[WhistlingBadger]

DC, I think you're probably right about youtube bows. 

Wizard, the way I understand chasing rings, none of the lumber here is thick enough to do that.

Taylor, I'll look into hickory backing.  Hawkdancer offered to send me some bamboo, but with the very limited tools I have (no band saw, no belt sander) I don't think I would achieve the required smoothness in a reasonable amount of time.  Would that be true for hickory backing as well, or is a little less exacting to work with?

Again, THANKS everybody.  It is hard to imagine how long it would take me to figure out all this by myself, even with books and youtube vids.

[bushboy]

Also,look out for rift sawn lumber on the edges of other wise useless bow lumber....top view of a board...the V's show the grain violations...

[silent sniper]

The hickory strip should come pretty much ready to glue up other than maybe a little sanding. Check to ensure the backing is a perfect fit to the board before gluing them together. . Once the board is backed you can treat it like a perfectly good bow blank 👍🏻

[WhistlingBadger]

Also,look out for rift sawn lumber on the edges of other wise useless bow lumber....top view of a board...the V's show the grain violations...

So the middle would be useless, but I could get a good bow out of each edge?  There was a piece of hickory that looked like that, but it was $35 and only about 2" on either side looked usable.

[PatM]

You can flatten bamboo with a rasp and a long piece of coarse sandpaper stuck to a flat board.

[George Tsoukalas]

Look for straight lines along the edge and the board's face will reflect that. Check my site for a nearly perfect board. Jawge

http://traditionalarchery101.com/boards.html

[Hamish]

Its hard to tell from the pictures, but the board with the grain that runs all the way down the edge looks like it could make a bow.
Plainsawn lumber always looks a bit wrong for a stave, as run outs appear to be worse than they actually are.

A better bet for plainsawn boards is to measure the run of the grain(on the edge of the board, that are going to be the sides of the bow). For a 1" thick board I would look for run out from back to belly of at least 20", preferably more if you can get it. Its the standard that old time bowyers used for suitable material.

[willie]

Also,look out for rift sawn lumber on the edges of other wise useless bow lumber....top view of a board...the V's show the grain violations...

Bush boy, if the flame tips point in the same direction as shown in your sketch, wouldn't the rings on the boards edge run out? and the edges of the board be just as usless?

if the ring lines as viewed from the edge look good, then the flame tips might alternate or the best view would be islands. the bigger the better.

its the angle of the runout that important, so the number of runouts have to also consider the ring count. if the ring count is very fine you could tolerate more runouts than if the ringcount was coarse.

[bushboy]

You maybe correct...the drawing is exaggerated..I have had luck using side rift sawn or not would not have made a suggestion.certain woods like hard maple and hickory can be quite tough if tillered deliberately.i haven't made self board bows in quite a while ,but made many years ago..

[WhistlingBadger]

So, I just took a sharpie and ran couple grain lines along the edge.  There is one ring that starts on the left edge.  It wavers around a bit, but never leaves the board over its entire 10' length.  At the far end, it is about 1/3 in from the right.  So, the edge grain is actually quite straight across the length.  Also, the run-outs basically amount to a really big island about 1/3 of the way in.  That's good, right?

Just ordered a hickory strip.  I think there is hope.

[Hamish]

The pic at the very bottom left, marked with a sharpie looks good.  Now look at the wide face, see if the grain runs parallel with the edge of the board. If it doesn't, then you should be able to realign where you want the stave to run down the board. If you have a straight 2" x1" or whatever width you want, lie it down and trace around it to see how it will look before you cut it out. If the stave meets these requirements it should be good for an unbacked bow, and won't need the hickory.
If the tree didn't grow straight in that plane then the board won't be suitable for a full length bow but might be for a pair of side by side billets.

[WhistlingBadger]

The pic at the very bottom left, marked with a sharpie looks good.  Now look at the wide face, see if the grain runs parallel with the edge of the board. If it doesn't, then you should be able to realign where you want the stave to run down the board. If you have a straight 2" x1" or whatever width you want, lie it down and trace around it to see how it will look before you cut it out. If the stave meets these requirements it should be good for an unbacked bow, and won't need the hickory.
If the tree didn't grow straight in that plane then the board won't be suitable for a full length bow but might be for a pair of side by side billets.

OK, that helps, too.  I think I'll go ahead and use the hickory either way, since it's my first bow and I'm still a bit nervous about it exploding.  But the grain does run at a slight diagonal across the face.  Sounds like I can cut the backing to length, align it with the grain, trace it, and start cutting.

[George Tsoukalas]

There are 3 types of board cuts. As viewed from the end or butt plain sawn looks like this ==, quarter sawn looks like this || and rift sawn looks like this //.

Those points are in someone's pic above /\  are fro plane sawn are ok. I think it just means the trees top is decreasing in diameter.

I like rift sawn and don't favor quarter sawn.

Look for straight grained stock as the ideal. Tip to tip. I look at the edge grain but for plane and rift the edge grain will reflect the face too.

Plane sawn and quarter sawn will allow a couple of runouts per limb where the grain goes belly to back at a gradual angle.

Quarter sawn will tolerate no runouts. Look at the edge grain. It must be straight tip to tip.

I know what it is like to want to build a bow believe me. But if you don't find a good board then leave. Don't compromise. Don't compromise.

Also TBB #2 has info. TBB #4 also. I got started with TBB 2 when it first came out. I like read oak because it is s plentiful.

Check my site too. Lots of board info.

One  ore thing. No knots allowed no matter how small.

http://traditionalarchery101.com

Jawge

[WhistlingBadger]

Thanks, George.  I checked out your board bow page.  I think I can get a backed bow out of this board, but I will be a lot more selective next time and try for a self-bow.  T