Persimmon Wood

[Silver Gray]

Has anyone tried persimmon wood for a self bow or backed bow?  Have a tree to cut and was just wondering.
By the way, new to the forum.  I live in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains.  Retired civil engineer and full time knife maker.  Thought I would try my hand at making a few traditional bows.

[david w.]

Persimmon makes a great bow from what I hear and the wood is pretty

[DanaM]

Yup it will work just fine, most fruit and/or nut woods will work. Welcome to PA

[david w.]

Once I gave my sister an unripened persimmon fruit

[TRACY]

Gotta be good for bows if it can launch a golf ball several hundred feet

[bcbull]

  iv made a few works great a lot like workin hickory  have fun brock

[Hillbilly]

Welcome aboard. I have a couple staves cut and seasoning, haven't used them yet. I'm looking forward to trying it. What part of the Ga mountains are you from? My dad's family came from down in Rabun and Towns Counties.

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

yeah it works ok, takes some set and seems just a little sluggish to me, but it is very effective and very pretty.   the black back is the natural color it takes if you peel the bark and seal it, takes a little while fo rthe pigment to come to the surface. - Ryan

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[ballista]

nice bow man, liking the back, looks great- oh welcome to PA, id love to see some of your knifework in the future, when you say knifemaker do you make stone, or steel, maybe both? -jimmy

[woodsroamer]

I agree with TwistedLimbs in that persimmon, including Texas persimmon (Diospyros texana) will take some set so you need to build the bow accordingly. Also, I agree that it seems a little sluggish but nonetheless it makes a good bow. I've made about 10 bows with persimmon wood because it's so easy to work with and seems both good in compression and tension and thus quite forgiving. I would however stick to bows less than 50 lbs with persimmon as over that weight set becomes more of a problem. It also seems to work best with bows of about 60" as opposed to much longer or much shorter. I did, however, make a TX persimmon bow that was just 52" long t2t and it shoots fine. I wouldn't recommend it for longbows but others might disagree. Good luck.

[Pat B]

I have a nice stave that Hillbilly gave me but haven't tried it yet. Be sure the tree hasn't grown in a spiral. Most of what I have access to does.    Pat

[koan]

I would just split it in half and let it stablize for a bit before you split it anymore, it likes to twist...least here in Mo. humidity....Brian

[Pappy]

Like Koan said and also keep it dry like Hickory when tillering ,I like it and it make a beautiful bow.
   Pappy

[Silver Gray]

Thanks for the valuable information and the nice welcome.  For those who asked, my knives are steel, mostly fixed blade hunters and Bowies.  The pictures posted of the persimmon bow look great.  Thanks again and a very merry Christmas to all.
God Bless

[Dave Dellinger]

I'm in Gainesville Ga, and my mom has an old persimmon tree in the yard of her new house. It doesn't produce fruit, is old and sloughing limbs. It will probably get cut this year. The trunk appears straight and uniform for about the first 12 feet, about 14" in diameter. I figured there might be some good staves in that tree, but the trunk has about a 45* twist in the bark in that 12'.
Won't the staves most likely have a propeller twist to them? Any way to remove the twist or is this tree destined to be firewood?