>>46267The process of making a board bow is pretty simple. The the tools required are fairly entry level and if you know someone that is into woodworking if you don't have the equipment yourself, you can usually borrow time to start out with. The basic process goes:
Before you start: choose a board. I chose a red oak board as per 4est's guide, and spent 30 minutes digging for the proper grain pattern on the board in the lumber yard.
1. Thin the limbs down to proper thickness.
2. Cut the limbs to shape (triangular)
3. Glue on handle, limb recurves and tip overlays if you want them
4. Cut notches for string
5. Put it on the tillering stick and start tillering. Tillering is the process of removing the material from the belly of the bow (the side on the inside of the bend, facing towards you when you shoot) to make the limbs bend evenly. You want the limbs to bend smoothly with now stiff areas. The tips will be slightly stiffer than the working part of the limb. The top limb should bend just a little bit more than the bottom as this fixes behavior of the bow for two-under shooting styles, but that is dependent on the user and can change. Make sure to use a tillering jig to expedite the process (do a search on tradgang; it'll show up). You tiller increasing inch by inch, checking and removing material until you get to desired draw length.
6. Shaping the handle and sanding to finish
7. Backing the bow. Sometimes on board bows or selfbows (bows made from staves) you want to back it. This means to put something like paper, linen, or snakeskin on the back of the bow (opposite the belly). This prevents splinters from lifting.
8. Finishing. Apply appropriate finish to the bow.
Picture related shows my second bow I made on a tillering stick. I made this bow for tradgang's 2011 bow swap; bowyers signed up to make bows and ship them to one another. It was a really great learning process and we all benefited from seeing each other's work
