Looking for some recommendations for reasonably priced lumber for building board bows. I'd like some Osage or Ipe. I can saw it dimensionally myself from larger pieces. Not looking to spend $100 a board from 3 rivers. Thanks.
Quartersawn Osage will be hard to find unless you have a local Sawyer cut it for you. Menards is a good place to look for hickory oe pecan boards. Try a local deck builder for Ipe boards.
Lowes and Home Depot have red oak but you have to be selective about picking it. Any specialty lumber company should have hard(sugar) maple, red and white oak and other specialty lumber appropriate for bow building. Try a local saw mill.Also farm stores should have Osage fence posts and rails and maybe locust.
3 Rivers is ridiculously expensive. I've found ipe and osage at local small business hardwood suppliers on occasion. But most of the Osage boards I've used, I've cut from trees that I dropped myself. I never made a plain osage board bow though, I've always backed them with bamboo or hickory so I could d/r or recurve them, and in those backed bow instances, the Osage doesn't have to be quartersawn. Rift sawn and flat sawn works good too. Check local sawmills, hardwood supiers, Craigslist. I've even found osage trees to cut by contacting local forestry departments who put me in contact with landowners who allowed me to cut osage on their property. Finding reasonably priced bow quality osage boards can take a little effort and imagination.