E. red cedar questions

[Jim Davis]

I cut a small eastern red cedar on my new Kentucky property, just because I wanted to try making something of it. The "log"  is only about 4" in diameter but long, straight and only  a few tiny knots.

My reading tells me the wood is not strong in bending strength and if I had not read of bows being made of it, I would never have considered it to be bow wood. I cut a shorter section from the same tree wondering  if I could make arrows from it.

I saw Marc St. Louis's ash-backed ERC. Really great work as always. I'm wondering what is the experience some of the rest of you have had with this wood?

Jim Davis (Reparrow man)

[Pat B]

Jim, ERC will make a very good bow but usually a rawhide or hickory backing would give it a better chance of staying together. A few years ago a guy came to my camp-o-rama and brought an ERC all sapwood ELB style bow(unbacked). I was amazed at how well that 45# bow shot.
  ERC should make pretty good arrows. They will probably be pretty light physically.
  When ERC bows do blow, they are very exciting and end up in many pieces! 

[Jim Davis]

"When ERC bows do blow, they are very exciting and end up in many pieces!"

Heard this several places. VERY encouraging! Ought to smell nice for a moment anyway!

Jim

[Pat B]

Some very nice bows have been built with ERC. I think the problem is when knots are present. A good backing should eleviate this problem.

[bcbull]

ash  iv made several  i  tend to leave more sap than heart wood on mine  seems the saps a lot stronger  ya iv blew a few too stay away from the knots  if your  using sawed  erc  backin it   keep ur ash or hickory thin  i make mine 1 /8  then i take it down even more the problem  is  the hickory  or ash  if to thick crushes the ceader  under tension  hope that helps  if you just use the stave as is  id go wide  wider is better on erc  and shoot for 50/50 sap to heartwood rito  brock

[medicinewheel]

Another ERC question, two actually: I have a 60" piece, knot free, no sapwood, want to sinew back it and put on a bit of recurve.
Is that a good idea?
What's the best way of bending it??

[bcbull]

you  could do that  but id  use rawhide  on  erc befor id use sinew  keep in mind that  you usally do not get a high poundage bow  with e r c  on sawed slats   but if it s sawed   slats id go with  hickory real thin  and  maybe look for a 35  40 # bow   brock

[medicinewheel]

No actually it's a nice stave I got through a trade.
I'll start a new thread and post pictures when I get started on it.

[sweeney3]

Looking forward to following this.  I am working on a 66" ERC stave that I "found" on an uncle's property.  No knots to speak of on the back, but there are several on the belly.  I had been considering a slightly crowned bellly since it's compression strong anyway to let it compress more and help out the back, but with those knots on the belly I think I'll make it as flat as possible.  Planning to rawhide back it.  This should be an interesting thred to watch.

[sailordad]

ERC can make a gorgeous bow
i remember seeing one on here about a year back
it was wide,and unbacked,pyramid style if i remember right
i think it was 4" wide at fades and tapered to 1/2 or maybe 5/8 nocks
i thought that was one of the most beautiful self bows on here
the front profile full draw shot was incredible with that bow
the width and the color were intimidating 

[beetlebailey1977]

I am working on one also....will interesting to see how everyones turns out.

[Pappy]

I have seen some beautiful ERC bows,I tried it many years ago on the first selfbows I tried to make,had some luck with all sap wood but not as much with all heart wood,never got one to hold
even rawhide backed,I will say at the time I was doing this I knew even less than I do now about building a bow,I still blame my short draw problem on them cedar bows, to just say they blow is not giving the word BLOW justice.WOW.
   Pappy

[gpw]

 We've built several ERC longbows in the past ...   72"  ELB style , backed with thin hickory and bamboo ...  60# @ 28" ... Wood was harvested from  a friend's hunting lease in Mississippi ...    Backings were about 3/32" ..  Never had any problems , all were sweet shooters ... Light in the hand , somewhat thicker  D cross section ... and I was able to shoot larger /heavier arrows (ramin wood dowels ) with adequate speed and good knock down power  and  very accurate ...  50/50 sap to heartwood , even some small knots ...  Easy to work , smells great ... 
  I even did one backed with polyester camo cloth (2 layers) ... "not Primitive"   , but an Easy alternative backing ... shot just fine ... 


  Ps. I did glue on the backings with some  "Perry reflex" , so all had very little or No string follow after shooting  ...and would creep back into some reflex as the bow relaxed...


 Never tried an ERC board bow , but that's next on the list ... 

[crooketarrow]

   I've built 2 a whlie back. I kept mine 6o and 62"s long amd 2" s wide. The first was 1 7/8's and sinewed. Backing a good idea with ceder. Its a fairly solf wood.
  I old bowyer I knew cut a  stave from one of those big 100 year old dead ceders you see standing dead.Ruffed it out thin. Made it 64"s by 2"s sinewed it.
   He used it like a form and heavyly sinewed it to 52#s.It tuned out to be a real shooter. I laugh at him while he was making it. It's amazing what sinew will do.