I'll just give you all some more info on how this redbud seems to work.
It bends VERY easily with dry heat, I flipped the tips in about three minutes and they have kept most of the bend.
It works real well with tools, but it tends to smell like broccoli (not my favorite smell) when you're scraping on it. When you heat it it smells like roasted peanuts! (crazy info I know but the bending made be want to grab a snack!)
This is a branch from a tree that was pruned about ten years ago. I was lucky and there were no knots or extreme twist in it. I did straighten on limb to get the string to line up.
I believe the heartwood will make a very fast bow but it does seem to be less tension safe than the sapwood. The heartwood is almost as yellow as Osage.
Easy to chase a ring. I just played around with the scraps of the heartwood and did a bend test with it vs. sapwood. heartwood is about 1/3 again as strong.
Ideally I think a small amount of sapwood as backing would be as tension safe as anything else.
Just some info for you guys thinking about using it.
Mark
P.S. thanks again for all the comments. I really tried to study this wood while I was making this one so if you have any more questions about it I will try to answer them!
