In some parts of the country, the traditional woods for bowmaking are hickory, honey locust, mountain mahogany, and juniper. Can't say when the tree fell, but the brambles all over it had some say in my getting over there. I don't know if they are different or just the growing conditions are different. The Maples, the Oaks, Beech, Black Locust (Robina Pseudoscacia) or Honey Locust all work, and many other. Thanks for any advice. When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. Not a stave. Don't know about that, but the bark and the regular branches make me wonder if it is BL. Out on the West Coast of the United States, people have reported good luck with Juniper and Bay Laurel. Again the TBB1 will give you all the info you need on this, and everything else you need for your first bow for that matter. Bow woods fall into 2 general categories as to how they are treated. Right in between are tons of Oregon Oaks and the Locust aren't native but can be found all around the area from the old homesteads. The taller oaks do have a elongated acorn while the more crooked ones have rounder acorns. The premium bow woods Osage Orange and Yew require special preparation and I am not considering them here. This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our. Bow Lay Out. Hot. The latewood pores of Coffeetree tend to be in circular clusters, while they are usually arranged in tangential bands in Honey Locust, being connected by confluent parenchyma. there is a place not far from my house where locust trees grow, the two types look the same but one type has white flowers hanging beneath the leaves, whereas the other type has no visible flowers. It will however make a bow if everything goes right and it can make very fast bows. The locust stave is a classroom. A few Bow Staves of other types of wood are now in stock.We have Hackberry (nice wood for the beginner,and this is clean straight stuff,nice!! If a locust bow is tillered perfectly and still develops frets, this is locusts way of saying we havent designed the bow properly for its weight, length and draw. All those … moments will be lost in time, like tears … in rain.”. The locust stave is a classroom. Turn limitations into assets. And you'll learn a lot more about bow making than just chucking this piece of HL in the fire after figuring out it won't make the 50# 28" drawing bow. As Marc is now 78 years old he wants a bow 30-40#. The stave is about 1½â€ thick and 1¼â€ wide, clean free of knots and with a nice relative even reflex. Claim is that it is a very pretty wood. I borrowed the book myself, read it cover to cover and then returned it. It looks like a smaller version of the Valley oak, Quercus lobata. To guys experienced with locust: do i have to remove all the sapwood? HL is light and brittle, it chysals easily and is not very strong in tension so it all snaps in 1/2 easily. I would like to own it for refference however. Thanks for the reply. I ain't no botinist so I don't really know what they are. Eastside of the state is heaven on earth! I've made black locust bows with all but a little sapwood. QUESTION about locust: is black locust identified by its white flowers? It might be adequate to build a kid's bow. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Pine Hollow Longbows. I hear you about the money thing. Its sapwood is about twice as thick as that of black locust. on the wood selection, i would reffer you to the Traditional Bowyers Bible Vol. One of the first chapter is on selecting, cutting, and seasoning of wood. I found that the Osage Orange tree was not so trashy after all. The stave in my avatar is Garry oak. The Honey Locust has pinnate leaves about 1 1/2 inches long where the Osage Orange leaves are larger and appear randomly on the twig. The best woods for a bow are Osage orange, yew, ash, or hickory. Building bows from natural materials can be dangerous. I see a lot of novice bowyers trying to get 66" bows drawing 50# on a 28" draw, because that's what everybody wants. The lower limb has much more reflex than the upper, it was natural grown. Some commercial bowyers are offering honeylocust under glass. It produces yellow-green flowers and grows to an average height of 35 feet. It might not be as stately as the native Pecan, the Live Oak or the Cot-tonwood but it is a tree with an important history. The best bow woods are Osage orange (bois d’arc), yew, and ash. I just now read your bow making instruction page, and it looks like I was doomed from the start. There is some juniper trees around too and I hear from my co-worker yew can occasionally be found in the nearby mountains. Splitting bow staves from a twisted tree makes for a bow with a lot of “propeller twist” which is just what it sounds like. Better ask someone else what the best cross section for a locust would be. Quercus garryana , AKA Garry oak AKA Oregon oak is a white oak native to Oregon and California. I tried to straighten it with steam, and it turned to mush. Backing is red and black dyed rawhide; … LOCUST, honey .66 A little less dense than black locust.. One of the prettier woods. Board bows can be every bit as good as a self bow from a stave but you need to hand pick a board conducive to bow making. I wouldn't really say one wood is better than the other though in my opinion of course. The branches, however, were fully alive, leaves and flowers growing 20 feet in the air from the trunk of this fallen tree. Incredible because it is so consistent. Thanks George. I think that is honey locus if it is one of the locusts. I may still see if I can split a few staves out of it. View attachment 910874 The drying shelf in one corner of my shelf is made from some rails salvaged from a bunk bed, so they are a bit over 6' long. You are better off ordering a board from a bow making site as they hand pick every board for bow making. garry oak also grows on southern vancouver island. In some areas of the country honey locust, mountain mahogany, and juniper were used. Honey locust has a smoother bark and larger pods (about 9") than black locust. I have never heard the oak trees around here refered to as Garry oak. This is a board and will make a board bow. Learn the botanical names and how to identify them. Jawge. Their best part is the inner heartwood and not the outer sapwood which must be removed immediately or eventually. Most of these staves will produce a bow in the 50 pound range at a 28" draw, but you can easily remove enough material to make a bow in the 40s. well it has the same leaves as honey locust but it has the white flowers wwhich hang underneath the leaves as well, which i thought were b.l. I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly and bow often. That way the sapwood would be stronger. wow, man, where are you living? The best indicator of this is the bark; if the bark looks like it spirals up the tree it does, and so does the wood beneath it, dont use a tree like that. You can definitely make an all or mostly sapwood bow, but it wouldn't be my first choice. The bowyer cuts and splits the wood into 4 inch sections (or so). I will have to keep my eyes out for a better tree, but that fork has to come down before if falls on my kids. They say locust was is a favorite cherokee bow wood, and they had longbows, I believe flat bellyed and crowned backs, or just round cross section. Most people think of mossy soaking wet evergreen forest when they think of Washington, but thats just the west side of the Cascades. Our first love here at Pine Hollow Longbows is traditional archery. The trees that grow along creeks and in the draws usually grow taller and straighter that the ones that grow in the more dryer areas. I've got a lot to learn when I get time. The problem with getting to the heartwood is that there was very little heart on any of the staves that came out of that small log. http://traditionalarchery101.com/archer.html. Osage, Black Locust, Maple, Black Walnut, Sassafras, Red Elm and Honey Locust. Some sap layers are on and has a really nice color. It is very similar to premium hickory. card. Boxelder numbers depend greatly on a bountiful crop of maple seed. United States. I would chase a heartwood ring, personally. This is another limitation in locust: whereas in other species just take off the bark , and we back of … 836 Honey Locust Ct is a 2,014 square foot house on a 0.47 acre lot with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. If i do, i'm looking at one bow from each stave instead of two. Adult female box elder bugs lay eggs on just about every available surface near their host trees; I've had these bastards lay eggs on t-shirts I'd hung in the sun to dry; those eggs hatched and tiny 1mm nymphs emerged (below). Exotic Wood "Project Packs": Each Honey Locust exotic wood project pack contains a specific amount of lumber. Jawge. It is always recommended that you have some degree of training and knowledge before attempting to build bows with natural materials. this bow comes from nice clean stave, which was gentle heat treated and heat corrected. LOCUST, honey .66 A little less dense than black locust.. One of the prettier woods. Generally, the different woods used by the native Americans were native to the various geographic regions in which they lived. This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our. Laminate bow staves can be made to order, these will usually be used for making an English Longbow style of bow, They can be 2 or 3 laminates, The make up of these staves is usually Hickory or Bamboo Backing and Lemon wood belly, The 3 laminate bows will have a tapered hard wood core from a suitable quality bow wood Common names often change from county to county, and what one calls a "live" oak in Northern California is a very different species of tree from a "live" oak in the S.E. View attachment 910873 I sticker stacked the slabs of osage and the few pieces of honey locust. It sounds like this paticular tree wouldn't be that great as the bark does twist around a little. A variety of sizes are available and are highly popular among woodworkers. witnessing that transformation is a big step in ‘getting it.’ if you can do so without risking to waste what could have been your good bow, all the better. I think there may acctually be two different types as I have noticed a difference in some of the trees. I got to slab up some more tonight, along with a block of one of my favorite woods - honey locust. Black is better than Honey locust, Honey is a bit softer, but im sure you can back it. garry oak???? Calculate your estimated monthly payment for this home. This made me think over not to waste that good wood. Weather is hot and dry in the summer, cold and wet/snowy in the winter, and wet and mild in fall and spring. So maybe you can turn that stave into a 40# drawing 55" bow at 23", spitting arrows like hell. Honey Locust bears a much closer resemblance to Kentucky Coffeetree, which is similar both in color, grain, and anatomy. 1. The nymphs are smaller, wingless versions and start out bright red. I have the Cascade mountains to the west, Simcoe mountains couple mile north and the central Columbia Basin on the other side of the Simcoes, rolling grass lands south to the Columbia, grasslands to the east. Sometimes the stave wants you to go in another direction, for example because there was too much sapwood, or because it wasn't wide enough, I dunno. A primitive skills and aboriginal technology message board for those interested in Stone Age, Bushcraft, Survival skills and Pal. I guess I should talk to the department of natural resourse and find out for sure what these oaks are. I have two very good staves, one osage and one hickory that were given to me a year ago, but I don't dare touch them till I have enough experience to make something that works. I would almost say they save me, and daily. If you are harvesting wood from the woods and are new to making bows (like i am still) then here is a good basic guide line: you want to find a LIVE tree as close to arrow streight as you can atleast 8" in diameter. Next you want to make sure it is not twisted. Our goal is to provide you with the best in traditional archery, primitive archery, self bows, self-bow classes, and all the traditional archery equipment and supplies you could want. Bow Making Directions. That stave has two bows in it. It is the classroom of bow woods. Once you have the bow at your preferred weight, simply sand and paint or stain it. Black locust, osage, mulberry, etc are considered heartwoods. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I had been looking at reviews of that series of books, but if you couldn't tell from my first post, I'm a tightwad and didn't want to pay hard earned money without being able to flip thru the pages first. Thanks for the advice. I'll keep a photo record and when I get far enough to show anything, I'll post up what I have done up to that point. The yew is up in the mountains, so I've been told and juniper to the east in the arid grasslands. i advocate playing with it – just make a bow-shaped object from it and see if you can get it to bend smoothly. I would definitely go for only one all heartwood bow there. It is pretty dry and windy around here during the growing seasons and I think that is why most oaks grow rather crooked as they aren't protected from the wind like the ones in the draws. Honey locust has all kinds of problems as a bow wood. Honey Locust Lumber. I try to avoid spending money at all costs. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a gook oak tree. If a locust bow is tillered perfectly and still develops frets, this is locust’s way of saying we haven’t designed the bow properly for its weight, length and draw. Most of the ones around here, due to the climate I guess, grow pretty crooked. Howdy - I'm new to this whole chatroom type of stuff and not sure how to do this but here's my first attempt. The flips are also made with heat. With your description, this tree must be black locust. Hot New Top Rising. The honey locust in my area is going to be much different than the honey locust in your area due to different growing conditions, sub species, soil conditions, growth rate's, and so on.