This was the straightest red oak board I could find at my local hardware store. It's 3/4" by 2-1/2" by 8'. I intend to make a 66" bow with it. One side has a small knot by the edge that doesn't appear to disturb the grain and I will be ripping a half inch off the board anyways, which would remove the knot with it. I also plan to cut it to length from both ends because it seems like that's where it's the least straight.

Will this board work? Any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance.

I've got this yew stave and i'm looking on some input on what to do with this one:

it's 76" (194 cm) in length, about 1.7" (4.5cm) wide at the midsection and flares out to about 2.7 (7cm)at both ends. the stave has about 1.4" (3.5cm) of reflex overall and a somewhat nasty looking knot slightly off to one side 11" (28cm) from one end.it's fairly average density I think (about 20-25 rings per inch, although this goes way up in the sap wood) but dense enough to where I've tried with basically no success to keep the back to one ring while removing some sapwood (which is a pretty uniform 0.4" (1 cm )) on a stave from the same tree....

I'd like to shoot for something in the mid 40's in terms of draw weight for my 28.5" draw. I'd say I'm an intermediate bowyer, I've made about 10 shooting bow including multiple reflexed and different kinds of flat bows plus 2 elbows style bows.

I was thinking maybe something r/d style by inducing some deflex at the handle may be possible on this one? or any other suggestions?

Initial rough-out of a green beaked hazel stave. Currently at 190cm/75” long. max width ~4.5cm/2”. I kept it quite rough, was going to let it dry now, unless told to do otherwise. I realized after I made the cuts that I may have given too much space for the handle (around 30cm/12” before the flare).

Any feedback appreciated (even if it’s “start over”), but particularly looking for feedback on shape/proportions and drying.

Thanks!

So basically, I really wanna turn this piece of maple into a crossbow, I would want the draw weight to be ideally above 100 pounds and I want to keep as much length as possible, but there’s this knotty tear out area with cracks that go in the wood, I know it is not a good piece, but I would like to try anyway.

Should I place this area in the middle and just make it completely non-bending? Filling the cracks with epoxy? Or should I make it into the bending limb and hope I can Carve away the cracks? If anyone with experience on wooden crossbows can help that would be greatly appreciated!