lilac (suyringa vulgaris?), follow up questions

[Eric Kol]

hey guys,
I'm starting to ammass a bit of stave wood, ERC, buckthorn and lilac (and a few other odd balls). As a new builder still in the playing around state of mind, I'm curious about charicteristics of certain woods and the bow designs best suited to them.
I have read a few books and searched through the old threads of this discussion group and others, so I'm starting to get the idea that although some concencus on certain pairings are achieved, there is a lot left to personal taste and style! I'm thrilled to hear that.
I was reading a thread about lilac from april or so and I wanted to see what ultimatly became of the wood and experiment.
I rescued a nice trunk from a neighboor's tree removal yesterday. I the wood was frozen pretty good (I'm in MN), but I sealed up the ends with varnish and brought it into the basement. It's about 3 1/4" accross at the narrowest. It does have some twist and a bit of a split on one side, but I think I can get some useable wood from it, If not one full stave, two limbs for a take down or something? If not, I'll use this wood for making flyboxes and whistles and then hunt for better trunks. It is a cool looking wood and plenty dense.
Has any one acctually used this for a bow, and if so what would you recomend for bow dimensions?

By the way, some of the split buckthorn I have is drying up pretty well. It looks like good stuff even though it takes a while around here to find good trees.

[DanaM]

Eric my only experience with Lilac is that it checks horriblly while drying. It is extremely dense and should make a topnotch bow
if it doesn't check and warp while drying. I would suggest strapping it to a 2x4. Good Luck

[richpierce]

The beautiful heartwood color made me want to use some.  I was going to make knife scales of a lilac I took down but it was twisted, it checked, and the color faded.

[PatM]

 There is a guy from Finland who uses Lilac and thinks very highly of it. He makes them narrow and short and leaves the crown on the back.  I would not try to split the wood if it is spiraled.

[a finnish native]

I believe I know the bowyer you were talking about pat. Syringa vulgaris is really good wood. My comment on it if you really want a sure bow, is to lay it out with a bandsaw etc, and strap it to a 2"x4" because it really checks. I would seal the ends and the back. you can always put a bit of reflex into the stave while strapping it to dry. and dry it vertically, not horizontally.
Bows made out of this wood, feel like steel/metal bows. they shoot like them. Osage is at the total opposite end. it feels kinda rubbery or soft, but this wood only does is shoot like metal, is like metal. it is VERY hard. The crown can be left on as sayd before, due to the great tension of the wood. compression is also good on it, but leave the belly flat.
Here is a link to Matti's homepage. this bow is made out of syringa. http://www.utbl.net/~mkarki/

[DanaM]

Finnish, I trimmed my 100+ year old lilac tree and kept some of the bigger stuff, as I said it checks horribly and twists all up,
but now thats it dry its so hard I think I could pound nails with it

[Eric Kol]

I have been doing some playing with the stuff just to get the feel. I took a 4" wide section 12" long. Still wet, I planned all sides into a rectangle with a hand plane.  I did check over night...I wanted to see how badly and deep. Real deep and real fast. Man does that wood have a neat smell.
The stave is sealed tight on both ends, so I hope checking will be held back with a slow dry.
I looked at the Finnish bow makers site, neat bows. His Lilac was not vulgaris, but some other variety.
I for sure have my eyes peeled for good specimens.
Maybe a winter harvest, seal the ends and then use a plastic matress cover to wrap the log/stave for very slow controlled drying?
Ever heard of anything like this method?