Black Walnut?

[Arrowind]

I've been wanting to make a bow from Black Walnut for a while now.   I've made all three of my brothers bows for their birthdays this year and now one of them wants to make one himself.  AWESOME! 

He told me the other day that he thought it would be cool to make a bow from Black Walnut...the next thing you know we are at the Woodworkers Source sorting through stacks of lumber and after about an hour near the very bottom of the Walnut stack found a really nice straight grained beautiful peice of Black Walnut.  We cut out two board staves from that peice.

The plan is to make two long bows 72 inches ttt 1.5" at that widest point and about 50lbs at 28 inches.   

I recently made some backing strips from a very straight grained peice of hickory about 1/8 of an inch thick and have glued them up.

 - before we start tillering I wanted to get some opinions.

It seems there are some conflicting views out there on Black Walnut...   I have heard very positive things as well as very negative things.

Some say its a wonderful bow wood that is often overlooked.
Others say it is one of their favorites
And still others say it is good bow wood and you can make either all sap wood or all heart wood or bows with a combo of both...
I have also read some say they cannot recommend black walnut as a bow wood.
And some have suggested that hickory is not a good choice for a backing and suggest that Ash or Maple would be better.   Others say hickory is just fine for a backing....
Others say don't use black walnut becuase it will fret too easily....

What do you all think?  Any strong opnions one way or the other for black walnut?

What recommendations do you have? 
We have already commited to using a hickory backing...should we sand it down to be just slightly thinner than 1/8th of an inch? or is the thickness good?

Any suggestions on making a decent bow from this wood?

Thanks in advance!

[Josh B]

I've made a few black walnut selfbows and I really like it.  But I have never hard backed a bow, so I don't  think my input will help much. That being said, if I were to back one with hickory, I would make it two inches at the fades and glue in a couple  inches of reflex.  Since you are well past that point I'm afraid  I have absolutely  nothing helpful to offer.  Which is just as well  since  I'm only speculating  and have no proven experience  to back it up.  I look forward  to seeing how it turns out for you.  I would like to try the.samething  sometime in the future.   Josh

[TurtleCreek]

  I think Halfeye on here would be helpful to you with your black walnut questions.  He has made some great bows from it.

[Matt S.]

If it were me I would proceed like this:

1) design these to be bendy handle D-bows. Black Walnut has a Specific Gravity of about .55, which is a little on the light side. You'll want as much working limb as possible at 50# and only 1.5" wide.

2) 1/8" thick and full width hickory may be a bit too much for the walnut belly. I see two simple options: A ) sand/plane the backing down to about 1/16" - 3/32" thick, OR B ) trap the back. Option B would be a lot easier and would be my first option.

Now, consider that I haven't made any black walnut bows (yet, have a couple of boards just waiting to get bent) but I have worked with hickory backed maple and maple backed cherry.

Get the thickness taper correct from the very beginning, before bending the wood at all, and keep the tiller spot on throughout the whole tillering process and you should be good. Best of luck and keep us informed!

[mikekeswick]

As above!
I'd also trap the back fairly heavily.
It will chrysal fairly easily but ONLY if overstrained! People say the same about b.locust but design the bow properly and get perfect tiller and no problems. Easier said than done tho....

[Slackbunny]

My experience with getting opinions on the internet is that one good reveiw is worth about 3 bad reviews. So as long as the number of negative opinions is no more than 3 times the number of positive opinions, you are probably good to go.

My experience with black walnut is that material can be removed quite quickly, so keep an eye on that.
 

[Arrowind]

Gun Doc - The fact that you have made bows from Black Walnut means you know a whole lot more about how that wood bends than I do.        Your thoughts and speculation are valuable to me.   I have never hardbacked a bow either so we'll see what happens.  Thanks!

Turtle Creek - Yeah I was hoping to hear from him.  I think he was one that has said good things about Walnut as a bow wood.

Matt S. -  Thanks for taking the time to explain how you would approach it.  I definitely have a lot to consider but you are helping me narrow it down.  Thanks.  Now I wonder how much the back should be trapped...

mikekeswick - yes the holy grail of bow making ...the perfect tiller.  I'm still trying to figure that one out...

Slakbunny - thanks for your thoughts.  I'll be sure to watch wood removal and go slow.   I've heard enough positive opinions that I feel like it's worth a shot for sure.  I'm excited about the challenge too.

[tattoo dave]

I've made a black walnut board bow, backed with 1/8'' thick maple. It's great, the only reason I backed it was to up the draw weight. Cause I overshot my target weight, but that's a problem I have often with all woods. It shoot great, and looks nice.

Tattoo Dave

[Arrowind]

Tattoo Dave - Cool! I'd be interested in hearing about the dimensions of that bow... How long is it? How wide? Draw weight? Pics?

[tattoo dave]

It was 66" long, 1.5" wide up to about 12" from the tips, then tapered to 3/8" tips.  I don't have the bow anymore, gave it to a friend. Here are the only pics I have.

Dave

[Steve Milbocker]

I have made one bow from black walnut and it turned out pretty well. Half heart wood,nice contrast. I'm in the process of building another right now but it will be mostly sap wood. John McCullough told me years ago that walnut was one of his favorites back when he was building self bows. Tim Baker likes walnut as well and I would say these two bowyers know a good wood when they see it.

[Arrowind]

tatto dave - Nice bow!  The tiller looks perfect to me.  Thanks for sharing.  I makes me feel more confident with the intended design.   Yesterday I actually spent some time on it and have tillered to 25" so far.  And so far so good.  I'm excited to see how it will turn out.  Thanks again.

Steve Milbocker - That's definately the kind of input I was looking for.   Would love to see your bows too.   As mentioned above I'm getting closer and closer to finished tiller and I'm feeling much more confident about this wood.   Thanks for your comments!