My first bow build along. (red oak D bow)

[George Tsoukalas]

Thanks, bubbles.
lenador, there is a buildalong for red oak boards on my site. You can vary t width to 1 3/8" and potentially get 45-50# if you do your tillering well.
Note that the bow has no narrowed handle and no glued on piece.
Jawge

[lenador]

I've decided to continue to chase the ring on this because it'll be good practice. Might not help or really be worth while in terms of the performance of of this bow but I'm the kind of guy that believes experience is invaluable. From what I've seen of Osage, chasing the rings in this oak is really tough. But I'm enjoying it because its kind of like building a relationship. I'm learning a lot by just looking at the woods lines and figuring what its wanting to do.

BTW. There is tons of great info in your site jawge. That ks for that.

[KellyG]

good luck and keep us up to date.

[DC]

Don't build to close a relationship yet. Bows can be a fickle mistress

[lenador]

Here is my progress. Going a lot smoother now I started properly using the draw knife.


How do I work out this little bit of middle layer of wood. I don't know what its called exactly but its the thin layer between the two growth rings but its in a sort of low spot in the area. I've been sanding them out but its really really time consuming to do that. There has to be a better way.

[JW_Halverson]

Scrape it with a pocket knife.

[J05H]

Scrape it with a pocket knife.

+1 

That "thin layer between the growth rings" is known as early wood. The thicker, more dense portion is known as late wood. A single growth ring is actually comprised of one layer of each.

[lenador]

Ahhh. Another case of the KISS method.
Okay that makes sense. Well this once beautiful tree that was sawed into its doom as household lumber is slowly becoming a stick again....I think it likes it.

[bubbles]

Lookin' good! You're making me want to start chasing rings on oak.

[lenador]

After a sharp learning curve I feel good while working the bow down now.

I've got the whole back ring chased down and I just have to work the remaining early wood out of the dips and spots I missed. Then I'll be on to the belly of the bow. I left the 1 extra ring on the back figuring I can always take more off and you never know what's going to happen during tillering. So it is 5/8ths thick plus a ring so more like 3/4ish.

[Eric Krewson]

You clean out the valleys with a curved nose scraper like the one in the top right of the picture.

[lenador]

Is that something you made your self?

[lenador]

Back is chased down with a ring left for a buffer. The belly is chased all the way down flat. Looks really nice, has no twist and has a small amount of curve. That curve will.lend it self to the set.
 I guess I kind of don't know where to go from here. I should rough out the fades and Knicks and start long string tillering but there is not a bunch of info on bend through handle fades that I could find. I'm going to have to do my research.

[J05H]

The term "fade" refers to the transition from working (bending) limb to static (non-bending) handle area. A bend through the handle bow doesn't really have fades because it doesn't have a static handle. The handle is not narrowed much if at all and is just thick enough to bend slightly at full draw.

Your next step would be to draw the profile shape on the back of the bow. Refer to "Building a board bow" on George's website.

[Blaflair2]

There is no fades. Start at the tips and get them bending. Then gradually work your way to the center. U can buy old up the grip with leather or coke after ur done if u want more of a bulbua handle.