Did you ever notice...

[vinemaplebows]

Did you ever notice how many bow woods are either medicinal, or have thorns?? I have been thinking about this, and find it quite ironic. Both life, and death in many species we take for granite in our hobby. Just a thought.


VMB

[PEARL DRUMS]

Its a love/hate relationship for sure Brian.

[WhitefeatherFout]

Definitely cool to think about.  Also, have you ever noticed how many of the better bow woods have higher BTU ratings than other woods?  Kind of a side benefit to building bows is you usually end up with some hot burning wood in the shed.

[Onebowonder]

Poison Sumac make a good arrow shaft???      If you don't kill'em, you'll make'm wish they was dead!

OneBow

[Carson (CMB)]

I have noticed that too Brian.  The methodological naturalist in me wants to say, "well, maybe there is just a lot of trees that are medicinal or have thorns, and we just notice our bow trees and overlook the others".  But the mystic bowyer in me says, maybe there is something to the idea of bows being feminine in spirit (what, you didn't  know bows have spirits?  ).  Clearly the bow has very feminine attributes, whereas the arrow is clearly male (A widespread belief  of "primitive" cultures).  So logically the trees that bow wood comes from would be of the female spirit too, right?  So that explains why bow wood trees have the power to heal and the power to poison, why they hold great treasures of beauty but are wrapped in snarly thorns, why they always want to go out, but can't ever seem to get the dishes done...

[Peacebow_Coos]

+1 Carson well said.  The phenomenon is definitely rooted in the spirit.  From an evolutionary standpoint it also seems that the climates that originally mutated/fostered certain types of trees was a factor.  Conifers survive  in these PNW climates because of our year round amounts of moisture, temperatures, soils.  Most conifers don't make suitable bows, except a few that have adapted to grow slowly like Yew, or stand up to the winds and storms have developed mechanisms to add extra meat to their leeward side making compression or tension wood.  It's amazing what goes into a bow from seed to shot.  A lot of the trees we make bows from were older than our fathers or grandfathers.  I remember reading a rad article in an old primitive archer about the belief that the bow was the moon, cradle and sustained life. 

[Pappy]

Deep,real deep.
  Pappy

[NeolithicMan]

I was trying to put up a picture of Keanue Reeves from bill and teds excellent adventure  saying "Whoooooooa man"...would have been funnier than writing it out.


Seriously though Ive used mostly white woods and I think medicinal is a broad term a lot of trees fall under. Maybe thats how woods were first discovered, an ancient human gathering medicine decides they want a bow of good medicine too. Also if a wood (lets say osage) has medicinal properties it has chemical compounds in the wood as well as the leaves and fruit, and the wood is usually oily. does this transfer to the wood being dense an hard as well? I have sassafras that has tight growth rings but is lighter than popcorn right of the stump, yet seems to be an oily wood that was used medicinally.  I am no historian or scientist and I have never studied ancient peoples academically so let me know if I am completely wrong!

[blackhawk]

Hold on guys....lemme go hit the pipe so I can enter into this conversation 

[IdahoMatt]

Hold on guys....lemme go hit the pipe so I can enter into this conversation 

.

Lol that's pretty good.  Didn't see that till now.  Needed that this morning.

Matt

[Gus]

Hold on guys....lemme go hit the pipe so I can enter into this conversation 

Now that was Phunny...



-gus

[dwardo]

I lost my ability to look at trees for their beauty and "spirituality" when I started making bows.... Now all I see is bow wood and not bow wood. 
 There are exceptions, off the top of my head aspirin is derived from willow which is a rubbish bow wood.

Yew has been called the tree of life and whilst there is ongoing research into taxol i think it comes from the fact that it looks almost flesh like when the bark is ripped down to heart wood. A lot of old herbal medicines are based on what certain parts of certain plants look like. Certain tubers of plants were prescribed for piles because they looked like errr farmers.

I would imagine BTU has a relation to density which has a relation to good bow wood.

Am i taking all of the fun out of this? Will get my coat.
 

[Carson (CMB)]

Dwardo, that reminds me of a bit I came across on the internet once referring to what you are describing as the "doctrine of signs".  It pointed out that the three arguably best  bow woods, yew, osage, and ipe, all held medicines that treat female reproductive cancers.  Citing the belief that bows are feminine, this fit with the doctrine of signs.

Hey, where did Blackhawk go?...must of got sidetracked.   

[seminolewind]

Hold on guys....lemme go hit the pipe so I can enter into this conversation 

Ha ha that made me laugh out loud...still laughing !!

[JackCrafty]

A tree that produces nuts or fruit
will make a bow that is good to shoot.


Or is it,
A bow that is good to shot is produced by a nut or fruit?