Bois De Fer

[rileyconcrete]

That is some nice looking stamped concrete,  oh I mean bow wood.  I would back it if you are worried about it.  If nothing else it will make you feel better.

Tell

[Parnell]

I feel like this stave is dry.  It hasn't lost any weight in weeks so I'm going to give it a go.  I've started my reduction, I'm going with a flatbow, 65" long 1.5" at fades down to .5 and I'll go from there.  I don't think I am going to back this bow.  May as well make an interesting project out of it to see if the wood will hold up, as I don't think there is any evidence of it elsewhere, so what the heck?

There is a little twist in the stave but not a lot.  So, anybody want to take a guess as to what type of heat will be best for working with this?

I'll post as I go!

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[Parnell]

The second picture has a glimpse of one of the rays - how it runs down the side just above my hand.  It's still not even close to ground tiller.  I'm rasping at this point, though.  The band saw has done it's job. 

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[Kegan]

Looking good! What weight are you looking for?

[Parnell]

I'm turning into a 55 lb. flatbow man.  That's where I'm finding my ideal power/comfort  range.  D bows I'm liking more upper 40's to 50.
I may smoke this bow over a fire, from some advice given to me...
Just not sure if I should take out twist and add reflex first.

[bowstring]

 Hey Parnell, Looks like you got a tiger by the tail !! A guestion though,, did the bark bleed kinda red? And does the tree have long buches of needles
aaaaaaaat the end of the branches? The bark and the grain pattern looks the same as the "Australian Pine I posted on.  "bowstring"

[Parnell]

Heya Bowstring,

It's Australian Pine, I'm just going with one of the other about a hundred names for this tree.  I'm trying to get away with Australian Pine because, well, it's not pine, and I think that name is misleading as well as colloquial.  I liked the Bois De Fer name because another name for Osage is Bois D'Arc.  So I figured, well, why not Bois De Fer, others have called it Ironwood, which is misleading to because I think HHB is also called Ironwood and Beefwood is another name more commonly used but I think it sounds kinda nasty, Bois De Fer rolls off the tongue a bit better, me thinks.

Just my thought process.

[youngbowyer33]

maybe a spokeshave would help you get to floor tiller better than a rasp? JMO

[Parnell]

I use a surform rasp which, I've found takes it off plenty quick from when I get it close enough with a bandsaw.  Haven't used a spokeshave, I have one but there's just something about them which I haven't gotten the feel for yet...

[George Tsoukalas]

No not a pine. Very dense. I made my bow 1.5 in and should have gone narrower for 50-55# probably 1.25 or 1 3/8 in. The stave I had also had drying cracks on the back so I backed with silk. That leads me to believe that it needs to be polyed asap if you take the bark off. Jawge

[Parnell]

I was curious about that when I cut this tree.  I left the bark on the staves for a month before I started thinning them.  I had some left over chunks that I left some with bark on and off.  I didn't see a difference with them in drying checks.  Those lateral lines on the wood are just naturally there.  Now, the ends of the stave did get some small splits even after being sealed with Titebond II.  But they didn't run far and I left the staves longer than I needed so I just cut them out.
I've been givin some good experiential advice to smoking the wood and processing the back.  This one will be experimental but I think I'm going to go and cut some more trees over the next week to start and get a better perspective on this wood.  I'm starting to think about doing one of these in the not so far off future using no power tools or synthetic materials.  That's been on my list for awhile...

[Badger]

   I saw an add for this wood from a Saudi charcoal manufacturer, he wants to buy 2,000 tons of it. Steve

[KenH]

Parnell - you get an extra piece there, toss it up my way!

[Parnell]

It's in the tiller.  I added some reflex to the tips yesterday - this wood is the easiest to bend with dry heat I've used so far.  Easier than Osage.  Got some work to do tomorrow evening on the tiller.  It's drawing about 40 lbs. @ 18 in the tiller tree picture.  I'd given this bow some time smoking over a fire this past weekend...

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[Tommy D]

Where have you got to with this? Very interested in outcome....