Cedar wood for bow?

[TheCelticArcher]

Is this wood any good for making a bow? I got it from a friend who told me Indians made bows from this wood but I wasn't really sure.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

That is Eastern Red ceder.
very good bow wood IMHO.
Actually my favorite bow wood.
It is extremely elastic, but it is so light, and easy to work...
it shoots so well, and looks even better.
Makes a really pretty ELB.
The sapwood takes exponentially more set than the heartwood though, and it is rather weak in tension.
It also smells amazing.

[TheCelticArcher]

so I got some good stuff it smells really good although the core looks more purple than red to me. I was given a 85" section of it I just decided to split it tonight in my gym. it has a slight twist but not to bad. I should probably get the bowers bible before I attempt to work it.

[TheCelticArcher]

I forgot to mention that I've had it sitting in my garage for about a year now and the weather has been really humid with a lot of rain last year

[mullet]

It makes an excellent bow. The sapwood is better for a back then the heartwood.

[TheCelticArcher]

It makes an excellent bow. The sapwood is better for a back then the heartwood.

I was thinking I would like to make an ELB out of it using both the sapwood and heartwood, but the thing that concerns me is that it short of twists from where i split it.

[Mohawk13]

Nice looking piece of wood. Love the smell. I see an interesting build thread coming out of this

[TheCelticArcher]

Well I tried to split that log into a quarter and it and it split very good i think it is because of all the big knots that were in it. So I went out and found the straightest ERC I could find where I live and this is what I came home with.

160" total so I cut it in half
the one on the right has very litle pin knots while the one on the left has a few 3/4"-1" knots

this is what the ends look like

i hope the log on the left will still be ok cause it separated while i was cutting it in half

Should I paint the ends and let it season for a few months or what I want to make an English longbow out of one of the staves as for the rest I'm not sure.

[Josh B]

Have you made many bows?  If not I would highly recommend splitting, sealing and putting them up for a year or two.  ERC isn't an ideal beginner wood.  Even with a rawhide back it can be touchy.  One other thing  to keep in mind is it takes a lot more ERC to make a bow than most other woods.  So when your splitting into staves make sure you allow for the larger dimensional size required to make your bow.   If you're tillering skills are already up to speed, I'll be happy to help you along a little further.  If not, practice on more forgiving woods until your skills are up to snuff.  Josh

[mullet]

Real good advice from Josh. I'd split those in half and not quarters. It seems the only thing rawhide does when working on cedar is if it blows it keeps all of the pieces close by.

[TheCelticArcher]

My bow skills are actually still in the beginner stages I've only made one bow and it snapped mid limb during tillering. how should i go about sealing it up after I split it?

[Josh B]

There are a lot of things that work to seal it.  Latex house paint, titebond II or III,  some use shellac, there's a wax dip specifically made for the job.  I use polyurethane.  I have a gallon of it that I just dip the stave into.  It does a good job sealing the wood and you can still see the rings under it later on when your picking a stave to work on.   If you have a lot of ERC in your area, find the bigger trees that have good sized clean limbs.  Use the top half of the limb.  It will be much denser and stronger than the trunk wood.  I've made several unbacked bows from the top of the limbs, but not one trunk wood stave has survived unbacked for me.  Just my .02.     Josh

[Thesquirrelslinger]

debark it, seal back and ends(although I have cut ~50 staves of this stuff now, and none have checked yet without sealer)
and split it in half.
if its over 5" quarters.
give it a long time to season.
Sapwood is stronger in tension, heartwood stronger in compression.

[Josh B]

Unless your ERC has unusually thin sapwood, don't quarter it if it's under 8".  You are going to want the heartwood in the belly of the bow.  To do that, you will usually have to remove some sapwood.  Sometimes the trunk will have two or three inches of sapwood, so you would have to remove a lot of sapwood.  You can easily run yourself out of wood in that case.  That's one more advantage of the tension side of a limb, thinner sapwood.  Josh