Now that a few people told you that saplings make good bows as well, you've become over-enthousiastic. That wood, my friend, is firewood. NOT bow wood at all! A sapling is not the same as a random piece of wood laying on the forest floor. Do yourself a favor and buy or borrow the book "The Traditional Bowyer's Bible volume 1" and start reading. Really, it will help you A LOT.
When looking for (sapling) bow wood, there are a few very basics to consider. No-one told you this in the previous thread, because they are so inherently basic to building a bow, that everyone just assumed you were aware of this. But appearantly you were not.
- You must cut living wood, or wood that fell from a tree less than a week ago (for instance due to a storm). NEVER use dead (standing) wood. Yew, osage and black locust are the only exceptions, since these woods are incredibly durable and don't rot very soon.
- You need to know the tree species you are cutting. You cannot simply cut any species and start chopping away. While almost any wood species can make a bow, you need to match the design to the species. You need to figure out the species BEFORE cutting. You don't want to cut a willow, if a hickory was growing right next to it, without you knowing this... Also, we cannot ID the woods you collected based on this one lousy pic without any details provided or macro pictures supplied.
- A sapling is not the same as a branch. In general, vertical trunks, trees and sapling make superior bows as compared to branch bows. Do yourself a favor and cut a vertical sapling, which is basically a young tree of about 2 to 4" across.
- Any bow wood needs to be as free of knots and branches as possible. Due to the fact that there are at least five cut off branches in each piece of wood you collected (except maybe for the one on the far left), these pieces are totally unsuitable for bows. You need to looks for zero or maybe one knot/branch when looking for bowwood. Tackling several knots is for advanced bowyers.
- Length is important as well. The three sticks on the right are too short for bows. 60" is just too short for a beginners bow. Aim for at least 70" when you cut the wood, preferably 6'. Personally, I advice a beginner to make his first bow between 72" and 74". This length also needs to be reasonably straight. Your long piece of wood on the far left is just too curved to make it desirable.
Bottomline: dump the firewood you've collected so far. Take a small folding saw with you and go into the woods again. Cut two saplings SELECTIVELY, considering all of the above - and everything else that was mentioned in the Traditional Bowyers Bible vol. 1. You'll have to look at about 50 saplings, yet find only a few that are suitable and meet all the criteria to quality as bowwood.
