douglas fir will not make a bow.
much too hard and brittle.

if it's anything like the stuff i have then the orange stripes are also impregnated with resin, giving a very uneven bend - not that it actually bends :-)

[quote author=curious_aardvark link=1214709247/0#1 date=1214717434]douglas fir will not make a bow.
much too hard and brittle.

if it's anything like the stuff i have then the orange stripes are also impregnated with resin, giving a very uneven bend - not that it actually bends :-)[/quote]

That is why I said I was going to use them for (arrow) shafts :P ... while ive had several failed attempts at making a bow I have spent alot of time learning about them.. its more of a equipment issue lol...

I've made two bows of red oak; the first one (my first attempt at a bow) failed after about two weeks.    The second is going strong.
Here's another good site with tons of information:

http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage/buildingbowsfromboards.msnw

There are several more.

My advice is to keep your design simple.  A "bend in the middle" design is very simple, and puts less stress on the wood than one with a built-up handle.

Second, use a backing.  It's very hard to find a "perfect" piece of red oak; you're almost always going to get at least one grain "run-out" on each limb.  A backing will prevent failure, and prevent injury if it does fail.    I used silk for mine; linen is just as good.   
Old pure-silk neckties can be had from thrift shops for a buck or two, and they work great.   take 'em apart with a seam ripper or sharp pocketknife, and glue on with plenty of Titebond.

After roughing out your basic shape, remove wood with a 4-sided rasp or Stanley "sure-form" rasp.  Use this ONLY for the rough work.  When it gets to the point that you can "floor tiller" the bow a bit, work carefully and slowly with the 4-in-one rasp and even scrapers.
Plan on spending some time at this; but it will be worth it.  You cannot replace wood!

I've taken to using scrapers for almost all the final tillering.     A guy on the Primitive Archer site sent me some banding material; this makes excellent scrapers with a bit of file work.

Primitive archer is a fine site too, lots of great bows for inspiration!   Genuinely helpful guys too.

i dont know C_A, scrapers blades are usualy put on a weird handle thing and shaped like a box knife blade, just bigger.

The definitive source for bowyering is The Traditional Bowyer's Bible series.   They just issued a fourth volume.
The first is actually the most informative for the beginning builder, it covers wood selection, board bows, traditional yew and osage construction, making strings, the whole ball of wax.

They run around 12 bucks per book in paper, readily available from Amazon.  Most good libraries can get them as well; that's what I did before buying the set.

thanks HHornblower  for the great site.

I´m dutch so that made it very easy too read for me

I gotto lok for a nice piece of wood so I can start on a bow myself!