Boards vs staves ???

[dbb]

For me it is availability that rule.depending on where i live staves of bowworthy wood is rare to say the least.
Beggars cant be choosers...i happily ruin whatever wood i get my grubby hands on,be it stave or board 

[bubby]

Jordo pop a cold one and chill bro, y'all are making too big a deal out of this, look I've mostly built board bows, I've built a lot of them, and I have built bows from tree splits, the ONLY real difference to me is a tree stave takes more thought and becomes more personal to the builder, they have more personality, bub

thats exactly my point, theres not a big enough difference to warrant being argued over. i would actually really like to do a side by side comparison though simply out of curiosity.


well I know you have hickory boards, get a hickory tree stave and build two bows of the same design / length everything, same guy has to build them with the same skill set  for an accurate comparison

[BOWMAN53]

then i guess ill have to find me some hickory

[George Tsoukalas]

Boards don't have to be backed with anything. Best to choose straight grained stock.
No backing needed.
Ah yes what is straight grained stock?
Hard to recognize but if you go to my site you can see a straight grained board.
I started making bows long around '89 in the last century.
My addiction was insatiable.
I ran out of bow wood.
Then I picked up TBB2. Forgot the year. 94?
I started following Tim Baker's directions. Made some board bows.
Boards are just another option.
It doesn't have to be either...or.
It can be both.
Jawge

[bubby]

x2 with jawge

[PAHunter]

My 2c: I've just finished my 7th read oak board bow (no hickory at Lowes) and have made more from staves.  Of the 7, so far only one has broken and it was well after finishing it.  I flight test all my bows and have generally experienced the same performance from staves and boards, though I will note my most efficient happens to be from an osage stave.  Board bows are much easier to build as they typically don't have any knots and bends to contend with.  I'm helping 2 beginners now do board bows as their first.  I have backed mine in linen, cotton, and raw hide; though I'm sure most would have held up fine without it.  My board bow poundage's range from 40 - 60.  I've just look for the growth rings that run the length of the board as much as possible, never found one that goes the whole way yet, and ideally ends with the horizontalish = rings (not sure how necessary this is).  Starting with a tree/log/stave definitely has a cool factor but board are just cut logs after all so no hate here.     Good luck man!

[ohma2]

After seeing what a few like baker can do with a board it would be pretty silly to say they dont make good bows.l have to say though that theres nothing like taking a tree down and building a bow from there.

[bow101]

Some may say that a board is a board, is a board.   But I beg to differ there are so many variations with board material.  2 lams, mulitple lams, take down, straight board and I won't get into the other type here      lets just say Traditional   
I just like working with square flat stock.    But I do know that the work involved in making one from a stave is time consuming and only one variation, its a stave, chase a ring, tiller it and its a bow.

[bushboy]

i agree with slackbunny that staves seem more robust ,a very close or at par lam style and lastly self boards from what ive seen so far.i think the idea of a board bow(decrowned stave)has been around for a while with the neolithic,stellmor or backwards bow.i don't get bored with so called cookie cutters because ive never built two the same from board stock and my experience with staves is limited.i just build with whatever i can get my hands on with no bias.

[lostarrow]

Jordo pop a cold one and chill bro, y'all are making too big a deal out of this, look I've mostly built board bows, I've built a lot of them, and I have built bows from tree splits, the ONLY real difference to me is a tree stave takes more thought and becomes more personal to the builder, they have more personality, bub

 +1 . You guys are comparing apples to  (osage) ;)oranges. Two different  critters. It's like asking what design is best.  They all have their place.

[Knosaj]

Opps. Lol. Great stuff guys!

[JackCrafty]

My goodness. Gotta fight the same battles every 5 years with new bowyers. LOL.
At least I no longer hear that kiln dried lumber won't make bows.


Yes, these threads are getting more reasonable these days.  Good to see.

[Pappy]

  Still at it I see.
   Pappy

[okie64]

To me the most satisfying part of building selfbows is taking it from tree to bow. I enjoy the whole process from picking out the right tree all the way to rubbing on the finish. Board bows are boring and have no personality and theres really not much primitive about them. They are machined and sawn out flat. Im not saying thers any difference in performance if designed properly. If I were limited to building board bows I would go ahead and move into building FG bows since the material is all machined flat anyways. Just my opinion

[Onebowonder]

To me the most satisfying part of building selfbows is taking it from tree to bow. I enjoy the whole process from picking out the right tree all the way to rubbing on the finish. Board bows are boring and have no personality and theres really not much primitive about them. They are machined and sawn out flat. Im not saying thers any difference in performance if designed properly. If I were limited to building board bows I would go ahead and move into building FG bows since the material is all machined flat anyways. Just my opinion

...so, then, what you're saying is, ...Board Bows = Fiberglass bows.  Hmmm....  (That should set the kindling to sparks!)

OneBow