Latest Bow - Cherry

[H Rhodes]

Awesome!  I am gonna have to give cherry a try.  Fine looking bow.

[BowEd]

To me I like to call it red cedars' big brother.Compression strong but more brittle and tension weak.You put plenty of length on yours to make it work.If the back is crowned it calls for a shallow D belly even on a flat bow I think.It seems to be a bit denser than red cedar but work much the same as far as taking shavings off it.More soap woodish kinda.No real aggessive files needed or should'nt be anyway unless your just roughing it out.Cabinet scraper and sand paper to get it to tiller out.Way different than doing an osage.A rawhide backing on shorter bows is a safer bet to survive.I like it too because the limbs are so light and spunky.It's high on my list at the moment until........well I'm working a winged elm now and that stuff to me is as dense as my hickory with the same qualitys.Got it at the classic from someone from south carolina[Local wood I think there] and I can't remember his name.I'd like to get some more of it myself.Looks like a flat belly heat treatment is on the agenda.

[Trapper Rob]

Nice bow.

[David_Daugherty]

Beadman- Absolutely correct on the density of the wood.  I tillered this one with a paint scraper!!  Took off the shavings smooth and not too aggressive.  Alabama creek drew her back the other day and made the comment "she's limby".  As you draw her back it feels like the limbs are spring loaded.  Very nice feel to it.  I will upload some more pics maybe tomorrow to show how much set she took on unbraced after being shot in.
If anyone is going to work Cherry into a bow - be prepared to back off of the aggressive tools

[soy]

Thanks for the tips!!! got one in the works myself....very nice job on that one

[Pappy]

Looks like a shooter to me.
Pappy   

[Christian Soldier]

Looks great! How wide are the limbs? I've got a couple 4 ft sections of cherry that I might splice together to make something like this.

[David_Daugherty]

Christian - the handle is 1" width, at the fades it is 1 1/4",  midlimb is 2 1/4", and at the nocks it measures  3/4".  Because the limbs are pretty long I began tapering to to notches at 8" from the tip.  I hope this helps.

[David_Daugherty]

 
Pic added to show not much string follow with this cherry.  It did take on about 1" of set.  So overall very pleased with the way this one turned out.

[Cameroo]

You did a great job teaching that stick to bend.  The tiller looks great. Nice