Hickory Board Buildalong

[Pat B]

That's right, Dana.  CC, either of those end grains will work for a hickory board  bow but the grain lines running down the edge and down the back are more inportant to pay attention to, If the grain in either place runs off of the stave too sharply, thats when you get in trouble.   Pat

[Newbowyer]

Great news. My dad went to a party that a one of his co-workers had. They got talking and somehow the guy learned I made bows in a conversation with my dad. Apparently he is familiar with the subject of selfbows. He said he had a bag of rattlesnake skins wondered if I wanted them . My dad said he would ask so hopefully I will be getting a bag of snake skins! How cool is that? Also I recieved access to a wood working shop through one of my dads friends also! But I wont be able to use for a couple months because the guy is gone in florida.


So tommorow I am going to go ahead with roughing the bow out. Hopefully I can post pics

[DanaM]

Thats awesome Coca Cola a free bag of skins, I think their runnin about $45/pair at 3 Rivers. Nice find

Dana

[Justin Snyder]

Coca Cola,  Most of my bows are board bows and I have spent hours digging through stacks of boards looking for the right one.  I am curious where the big knot ended up when you layed out the bow.  Is it mid limb or in the handle or what?  If you are only looking to get 40 # you could go a little narrower, but its not necessary.  First thing I would do is cut the cracked portion out of the other board.  If you can stop the crack you can still use the good portions of the other board for built up risers. (glue on handles)   Now if you can lay out and trace that other bow onto this board with the handle over the knot that would be great.  I started to type how I would proceed, but lets see were that knot ends up first. You don't want it in the edge of the board either.  Justin

[Pat B]

Can you cut the board in half  and splice it back to your advantage?   Just another thought!   Pat

[Newbowyer]

Justin- I put the knot in the middle of the limb. I fugured it would be worse to be halfway on the limb.

With the other board I am planning on doing just that, using it for risers and what not.

Also, I searched for a long time before I could find a place that carried hickory, and as I said before their selection was not good. My other board had nice verticle grain with average ring size but it cracked. Yesterdsay I was at lowes and took a look at there red oak and they had a PERFECT board.... 0 run offs, nice rings, but it was warped a good 2 inches to the right. I realize the importance of a good board but the bowyer gods do not like me. Maybe I should start buying my bows.

Pat B- Can I splice it w/o a bandsaw?. My tools are; 4 way rasp, angle grinder, surform and a couple of generic files and a hand saw . Thats all I have until I get access to a wood shop.

[Pat B]

If you are careful, you can easily cut a "Z" or "W" splice with a hand saw. Even if your cuts aren't that good you can soak the splice cuts in hot water and then clamp the splice together without glue. When it has dried, you unclamp it and you have a splice that fits and is ready for glue-up.    Pat

[Newbowyer]

Ok, I am having doubts about this, everytime I get ready I look at it and wonder if its worth the time.



Would it be possible to Grind one of those thick rings down using the angle grinder to make a backing for another piece of wood? . Then use the backing to glue reflex into a red oak bow? I think if I look hard enough I can find a good oak board then back it with this. I think the late growth is thick enough so that I can do this. Opinions?

I am just worried it will break, even though all of you guys say its probably fine I am not sure I can get so that I put 10-15 hours into something that starts off with a problem. 

I really appreiciate the help. Whenever I dont do someting you guys say I feel like I am saying " I dont trust you so I will suggest something else". Which would be really rude. I am just trying to explore all my possibilities.

[Pat B]

Stop worrying about it breaking. If we all worried about breaking bows, we wouldn't be making them. Even if you put 100 hours into a bow and it breaks, if you learn one thing, the time is not wasted. I have ruined many pieces of good bow wood and either broke or hinged many bows in the last 20 years. I would not be where I am in bow building if it wasn't that I learned something from every break, hinge or ruined piece of wood.
  If you are uncomfortable with the piece of wood you have, find another.
  I'd say, make a bow with that piece of hickory. Place the bow in the best place on the stave that you can and go for it. You may have to make another one later but if you are like the rest of us you will do that anyway.
   Another option would be to have someone cut the hickory stave into 1/8" backing strips and find a board that you can back with it.    Pat

[Newbowyer]

Pat before I got on the computer I was thinking just that. If I didnt want failure I chose the wrong hobby. I already have started to rough the bow out. One thing about hickory is that it sure is tougher to rough out then my last Red oak board. It should be fun though. I will try to post pictures later tonight.

[medicinewheel]

pat!  -  this is OH SO TRUE what you are saying!!!
don't have 20 years of exterience but sure broke some wood alredy, and looked at it and thought: dang, learned something AGAIN!!
frank

[Justin Snyder]

You don't have to worry about hurting anybodies feelings by not doing what we suggest.  The way I do things is different than what a lot of guys do, you must make your own decisions. We are just trying to share a little of our experience.  The one thing we can all agree on is that making a bow and breaking it is better than not making one at all. 

I would make a backed bow out of it.  Being that the bow is only 1 3/4" wide, I wouldn't try to split and splice.  The finished board would be about 3/4" and awful hard to lay out a bow on.  If the board is 9 feet,is it not possible to move the bow to get the big not off the bow or into the handle.  I would take the pin knots in the limbs long before I would take the big not in the limb. I would keep a eye on the hickory pile for more boards.  If you can find one with vertical grain and no run off, I would cut it into backing strips.  You can make a bow with an average board if you get a good backing.  Justin

[Newbowyer]

Justin, Using the area with the knot was my best option. The grain got all twisty towards the other end of the bow + it was kinda warped from that point on.



Last night while trying to rough it out I realized a mistake in dimensions. My tips were 5/8 wide. I am going to erase it and redo the dimensions . Fortunately I wasnt very far in the process so I didnt ruin anything.

[Newbowyer]

Ok made a template of the fades to use out of cardboard much easier to use.

I was using my surform with some success, worked bow width down to 1.5 inches with it. Realizing how much I had to do I got to work. About halfway through I decided it was time to break out the Angle grinder. I know that this site is primative I resisted as long as I could. I only did one end of my bow I got it to withing a .5 inch or .25 inch with angle grinder and then used rasp to get it right on the line. I took pics before I did that so it looks kinda bad.

Here is me prepped for angle grinder use, you would not believe the amount of dust kicked up by it! I had to quarentine my work area by parents orders to supress dust.




Limb, mind this was before I got the limb closer to lines. So it looks uneven



The project ahead tommorow, the other limb.


Any comments?

[Justin Snyder]

Is that the knot in the second picture, just beyond where the line starts to taper?  If it is lets see a picture of the side of the limb were you cut into the knot area.  I don't really think the knot is that bad.  You are doing good.  Keep going and be carefull using power tools.  Its not that I have anything against using power tools, you can just mess up your project and your fingers a lot faster.  Justin