??? about plum wood

[danny f]

hi all not posted for a while just been reading and looking at all the fine bows being posted, anyway i have been working on a 50" sinew backed osage and a plum bow which i have fully decrowned and spliced 2 billets together the bow is 63" long and 4.5" handle and 2" fades, it is 1"1/4" to mid limb then tapers to .5" tips, i am aiming for around 50# at 27". the questions are is it a good idea to back plum with sinew? is the stats ok on this bow or is it going to be overstrained and not worth the effort of sinew? also i was thinking of either flipping the tips or adding statics. any advice would be welcome also if anyone could post any links to plum bows it would be great, i have tried the search bar but very little comes up. cheers danny.

[Marc St Louis]

I see no reason why the bow wouldn't work especially with a sinew back.  I've never tried bending Plum, steam or dry-heat, so have no idea how it reacts to either but I suspect that it should bend easily enough.  Plum is very strong wood so the slim dimensions shouldn't be a problem.

[Pat B]

 "...sinew backed osage and plum...?        Decrowned?

[Gsulfridge]

"...sinew backed osage and plum...?        Decrowned?

Sinew backed osage bowand a plum bow.  Don't think he meant sinew backed osage/plum.

[danny f]

yes they are 2 different bows a short sinewed osage which is drying, and i am working on this plum stave.  i decrowned the back so it was fully flat so it is now similar to a board. i just need to straighten one tip to get the string running correctly, then i may flip the tips or static recurves i was just after some ideas as there doesnt seem to be much info on plum, i knew it was bow worthy as im sure i have seen them on here, but i cant find them. i didnt want to go through the effort of sinewing if it wasnt really a good wood to do it to. thats why i asked. thanks for the help 

[WillS]

Hi Danny.  I won't be of any help at all, but I can tell you that a couple of the warbow guys like Joe Gibbs and Jaro Petrina make excellent bows from Plum that are very heavy, so it can definitely take some punishment.  What type of plum are you using?  Is it yellow?

[danny f]

hi will cheers for the info, i dont have a clue which plum it is, my dad cut it in his garden last year, i asked if he was sure it was plum and he said there was defo plums growing on it lol. are some varietys better than others?

[Bryce]

Plum works well when wet heat is used. And I'm suspecting that a sinew backed plum would be a great bow.