Chestnut

[bow101]

Anyone ever try making a bow out of chestnut.?  THere is some horse chestnut trees around here.

[wapiti1997]

Horse chestnut is closely related to buckeye, doubt it would make good bow wood.  Chinese chestnut or american chestnut are dense like oak and likely similar for bow wood.. I could be wrong, I'm sure someone has tried these...

[Joec123able]

Only way to know if it is good bow wood is to try it yourself

[swamp monkey]

Wapiti nailed it on the ID. 

I have made a bow of American chestnut but backed it with hickory.  American chestnut is not super strong in tension.  I used lumber recovered from an old barn and the wood was wormy.  It made AWESOME sounding dulcimers but I found it caused compression frets.  I drove tooth picks in to shore up the holes.   http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35509.msg467974.html#msg467974

I plan on making a similar bow out of a cousin to the American Chestnut known as the Ozark Chinquapin.  The tree is also declining due to the Chinese chestnut blight but a few exist.  One blew down in SW MO and a few of us are making objects to use in programs to raise awareness of its decline and restoration efforts.