My board bow build.

[stinkbelly]

I have been working on a board bow since around Thanksgiving. I have been doing it in my spare time and not trying to rush. I also took about a month break while waiting for my backing in the mail. If I guessed, I would say I have 20-25 hours into it. That includes my 2 hour redo when I messed up a tip. That doesn't include glue drying time.

My bow is a red oak board bow. I bought the red oak at Lowes. I backed it with hickory. The tips are left over red oak and the handle is a stack up of (from the back to belly) hickory, red oak, popler, red oak, and cedar. The cedar is almost gone due to the handle shaping but it was visible in the earlier pictures.

I have made many mistakes and hopefully learned a little from them. The main thing I learned is not to hurry. Every time I tried to hurry and take a shortcut or use a power tool, I ended up messing something up.

I started off following the poorfolk website then after meeting with Wingnut of Dryad Bows I decided to finish it his way.

I am shooting for a 62" bow with 40-45" at 28". I am close. I am at 45# at 26" currently.


Here is an early picture of the rough cut shape while I was gluing on the handle. Sorry for all the junk in the background of the pictures.







A little handle work.




Gluing the Backing on.




Gluing the tips on.




The tips before the groove was cut and a little reshaping.



The tip. Look at all the sawdust on the floor.



The handle complete with a pile of wood shavings.





Now as for mistakes I made:

Off of the top of my head,
* Used a band saw to shave the taper in the sides of the bow. This caused me to cut 4 inches off of each end when I shaved too deep.
* Shortened the length of the handle because I shortened the bow. My hand just barely fits. Any smaller and I would have to give this bow away.
* Used a horse shoe file to file the wood faster not realizing that the sides of the file also have teeth. Before I knew it, I had dug 1/4" into the side of the handle. It is scrapers for me from now on.
*Not leaving enough plateau before the string location on the tips. I had them drawn out perfectly, but I didnt' think about connecting the grooves across the back. This took away all the plateau.

I am sure there are more, but these stand out to me.

[equin]

So far looks pretty good! Wish I had the knowledge and skill to try my hand at building one.

[Bisch]

Cool!

Bisch

[Mike Javi Cooper]

Cool project...

[G Posik]

I am liking this. Cannot wait to see the finished bow.

Glenn

[T-Bolt]

Sweet!

[Ron]

That's really looking good.

[froghunter]

good stuff!!

[stinkbelly]

I am not sure how I am going to finish the bow. I honestly don't like the white color of the hickory. I would like a more natural tan or brown color. I even thought about putting another laminate layer on the back ,across the handle, to give it some more character. I don't know if that can be done this late in the process though.

[TxNurse]

Building bows can be addictive.

[jetlee]

You could add another laminate across the back of the handle and it wouldn't hurt anything. You'll just have to clean up up your glue marks etc. You could lightly or heavily stain any wood to change the color. I have lightly stained with walnut on oak and was happy with it. Just rub it down with steel wool before you seal it.

[caughtandhobble]

That's cool. Thanks for sharing...

[BigErn]

Originally Posted by TxNurse

Building bows can be addictive.

Yes it is!
Ernie

[Blood Trail]

Yeah, I'm waiting on his bow to be done, so we can start mine. Gary, get all the mistakes out now bro, so we an do mine perfect....

[meangene1969]

Great stuff

[Selfbowman]

Gary listen closely to Wingnut he knows how to build a good bow.Looks good to.

[stinkbelly]

I bought a 1/8" x 4" x 24" piece of zebra wood at lunch today. I was thinking about putting it on the back across the handle. I am not sure what it would look like, but I sure love zebra wood. The only thing that may not be the best is that the zebra wood takes the impression of my nail so it would take the impression of any bumps too.

[Ol Man]

SB - I use RIT dyes and make my own colors for staining. You can use either water or alcohol as a base. Alcohol dries much faster though. I have mad a maple bow look so much like osage it has pretty well fooled everyone.

[stinkbelly]

I decided to add a piece of zebra wood on the back of the bow across the handle. I just glued it up so it will be a couple of days before I get to see what it really looks like.

I am not sure what I want the limbs to look like, but I really like Ol Man's idea about the RIT dye.

Here are some pictures of the newest work. The zebra wood was only 1/8" thick and since I had already carved the handle it was very difficult to clamp. I ended up using blue painters tape to wrap it similar to the way I read people wrap snake skins with ace bandages. I put three clamps in the only locations I could.





After watching Wingnuts video again, I realized I made a few more mistakes. Hopefully me pointing these out will help everyone with their next bows.

Additonal Mistakes:
* When reducing the weight and gaining draw length on the bow, I did not start shooting it in. It was recommended to start shooting it in around 23-24 inches. Supposedly this will reduce the chance of losing weight after the final weight is reached.
*Since I didn't shoot it in, I also didn't shoot it with my #1 limb on the top and on the bottom. This will help work them evenly. This should be done before the handle and arrow rest are cut.

[ElfEyes]

stinkbelly may I ask what video? is it on the web or do you have to order it?

[stinkbelly]

The video I have is one that he use to provide with his bow blanks he use to sell. It takes you through all the steps to go from his blank to a finished bow. I got very close to his blank off of the poorfolk website then followed (mostly) the video after that.

[Trick]

Nice work. I really like the shape of the ends. Thanks for sharing.

Matt