Been watching videos and would like to make a selfbow. I saw home Depot has 1x2x8' hickory boards. Would this be OK to use?

I did a board bow last Winter. Red Oak with grain that ran longitudinally over 6 feet. Was warned the boards are cured too quickly. End product lasted about 200 shots. Hickory might be better. The effort was worth it in the end.

Hickory is a good beginner bow wood; it gives you a little wiggle room for mistakes that other woods like oak will not tolerate.

Grain runout is not as critical on hickory as other woods but it is best to go through the available boards to try to find one with as much straight grain down the back as possible in the part you are going to cut out for a bow.

The formula for a durable wood bow is your draw length doubled plus 10" in the nock to nock bow lenth. On a board bow I would add a few more inches just to be on the safe side.

I came up with a neat tool (I don't sell them) that will mark where you need to remove wood to get the limbs bending right. It is great for beginners who are still stumped as to how much wood to take off and where.

Google "tillering gizmo" to find out how it is used. There is a thread over at the Primitive Archer site in the "how to section" on how to make and use this tool.

Here is what one looks like, this one is a bit fancy, one made out of a piece of a scrap from a pine board will work just the same. I donated this one to a St Jude auction, it brought big bucks. I was putting the finish on this one when I took this picture and have a dowel in the pencil hole.

Yes, with certain parameters. Find a heavy board. Check out Primitive Archer's archives, as there is tons of info. Follow all the cautions for first time bow makers, and do not rush for that first short brace. You will read this often, but time is your friend. When I took just a bit more time, I came out with much better bows.

I had a friend years ago who told me he had broken about 50 bows and never made a shooter. I told him to come over to the house and I would help him make a good bow.

I gave him a nice osage stave and went back to working on my bow when I heard him cuss. He had taken the stave to a belt sander with a 36 grit belt to speed things up and in the blink of an eye had sanded one limb almost all the way through at the fade and ruined it.

He said he wanted to have a shooter by the end of the day and got in a hurry.

Turns out that was his problem, he always grabbed something that cut faster to speed things up and ended up with a poorly made and tillered bow that broke. I taught him; hand tools only after ruffing out the profile on the band saw and no rasps past the bow blank stage. His next bow was a shooter and every bow after that just because he slowed down.

Here is the fancy gizmo with the adjustable pencil in place;

I bought several boards after picking thru a lot of them. I learned on each bow as I went. Slow and even slower as you begin the tillering process. The best thing is to have someone that you can send pics to as you work for them to see and teach you. I had a good friend that did this for me from another state, he was a good teacher. I made 3 or 4 board bows before I attempted my first stave. My biggest problem at first was just getting in too big of a hurry and ended up with a lot lighter bow than I wanted. Don't be afraid to ask questions, if you don't know for sure, you don't know.

On a hickory board bow can you round the edges of the back of the bow?

Fiberglass tape looks like crap to me, what other materials can be used for backing?

You can slightly round the edges, sharp edges are more likly to raise a splinter. Make your bow 1 3/4" wide.

Look up the pyramid bow design if you want the easiest bow to make. Jim Davis is the pyramid bow expert on this site, hopefully he will chime in.

A good piece of hickory doesn't need backed. You can round all corners and edges.

Not knowing where you live, but maybe you could find a small sawmill. Green to air dried would be best. A heavy slab with bark on to make the back of the bow would be an easy way.

Getting ready to start my hickory board bow build and I have some questions. The stave is 1 1/2" wide and 7/8" thick with a 1/8" hickory backing strip. 7/8" stave seems very thick, I am looking for a draw weight around 45#. Do I need to take down the thickness of the stave before I start and if so what should it be?

I go to the lumberyard, and they order me a piece of premium grade Hickory with straight grain . $22

J Berk, it is likely you will end up with about 1/2" thick limbs give or take 1/8" more or less.

Red oak 1x2 from home depot. Made around Christmas and still shooting daily. Bow is not backed. 70" and 47@28.

Red oak pyarmid style bow in the works.

Need to get some pics on the tiller tree. This was a red oak 1x3 . Leaving the handle unshaped till its further tillered.

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