Black walnut questions

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Today at work I was playing with a sinew backed osage and bamboo arrow that I have been working on and the editor of our local TV station saw me playing with them and asked if I would like to be filmed making a bow and bowfishing. For the bow I'm thinking about using a short piece of black walnut that I have and making a bendy handle selfbow. I have never used walnut before and am wondering what it's strengths and weaknesses are and if I need to do any straightening which can it be straightened with dry heat? The bow will be about 54 inches from nock to nock (might sound backwards but I made a string that turned out good but too short for the bow I made it for, so I want to make a bow for it) and am wondering what dimensions would be good and what draw I can expect it to handle. I'm going to aim for 50# at 25", do you think walnut can handle it? I'm thinking about making it 1 3/4 inch at the fades going parallel for half its limb length then tapering down to 3/8" and having the handle 1" wide. The stave has some nice dark heart wood and bright white sapwood so I'm thinking about chasing a ring so that there will be about 1/8" of sapwood to get some contrast. How does this sound? I'm not too worried about speed as long as it holds up and is atleast a decent enough shooter since the guy wants to film me bowfishing with it. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Jude]

I think that's a bit short and narrow, even for a 25" draw.  Walnut is a fairly decent bow wood, but not a great one.  I think you want to be over 60" and 2" wide at the fades for that weight and draw length, especially if you don't want to back it.

Julian

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Ok, I'll probably make it as long as the piece of wood will let me. I don't think it's much over 5 feet though. And I've also got hickory, black locust and ash if the walnut won't work, though the locust and the ash has a little bit of twist and I've got some very straight hickory and the walnut it just as straight. With the walnut I think I can go up to about 2.5 inches wide but I'm not sure since I havn't looked at it in a week or so. And I don't plan on backing it unless it has to be done.

[soy]

You wowld realy need to seal hicory it loves water. Walnut is a better wood in that app.imho
As far as stats seams a bit thin but maby the doc o guns will chime in he did a real nice shorty out of walnut

[Josh B]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28346 http://

This is one I did last fall.  I believe it was 2 1/4" at the fades with an 1 1/2" narrowed handle.  The back is perfectly flat.  This is about the very limit that walnut will take so make sure your tiller is perfect.  Josh

[mikekeswick]

I like b.walnut as a bow wood. I've made a  few elb's from it backed with hickory. 73 inch and 1 1/8 wide all around 60lbs @ 28.
I think it's possible at 54 inch to get a 25 draw. I would rough out the width to around 2 inches most of the limb length, tapering to the nocks about 8 inches from the tips. As long as you make the handle area work you should be ok. Be careful to get a good tiller early.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll bump up the width to about 2 - 2 1/4" and I'll try to get the bend at brace as perfect as I can get it before I try to pull it back any further. And I played around with a bow to see what my short draw would be of anchoring at my chin instead of the corner of my jaw and I draw a tad over 24". That's how I plan to draw and shoot this bow with it being short.

[Josh B]

Oughtta work.  Look forward to seeing how it turns out.  Josh

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I looked at the piece of wood last night and I had for got that it has a little bit of a snake at one and and a decent sized knot about a quarter of the way from one of the ends. For my skill level I don't want to try working on this one being filmed, so I dug through my stash and found a piece of black locust that is almost perfectly straight and knot free, so it should be an easier build for on camera. I got it shaved down to about 2 inches wide and 3 inches thick and I left the bark on, I'm going to try to force dry it in my truck during the hot days and in the house when it's not. The tree was cut about 3 months ago, I'm hoping it will be dry by the time they want to film me. Which I have no idea when that will be, if they even still plan on doing it. But I will work on the walnut short bow for fun. When I get started on the walnut and the string doesn't line up with the handle can walnut be bent using dry heat to get it in line? I want to leave as much snaking as I can with it too.

[Josh B]

Small corrections can be done with dry heat if you use some sort of oil or grease. Crisco works well.  Steam works better.  I have had fair luck on minor string tracking corrections , but zero luck trying to induce reflex, whether it be flipping the tips or correcting deflex.  It just pulls right back out immediately .  Josh