Harvesting ERC?

[Aaron H]

When is the best time to harvest an ERC log?  I have never made an ERC bow, but I plan to gather some up next weekend to dry.  I plan to back it with sinew when it is ready.  What should I look for?  Trunk, fat limbs, tension side, compression side?  Leave the bark on?  Obviously I will need to seal the ends up, but should I halve the log and let it dry for a couple months then split it into staves?

[Pat B]

This is as good of time as any. Finding a straight trunk with few, if any branches would be your best bet but they are few and far between. Look for areas with lots of trees so that the ERC grows straight up with few branches. After you cut it treat it like any other wood.

[autologus]

It will be difficult to find ERC without branches, what looks to be clean will probably have branches that have grown over and there will be small ones inside the wood that did not show from the outside.  The best way to find clean ERC is to find a double trunk tree that have the trunks growing close together, this causes the sides that are growing close together to not have limbs and they should be clean.  ERC dries pretty quickly too especially if you store it with the bark on, however if you do you should spray it with some insecticide to prevent borers.

Grady

[Prarie Bowyer]

What kind of insecticide is good to use.

[autologus]

I would probably use Malathion, it stinks but is cheap and will work very well.

Grady

[Aaron H]

I have heard that you are supposed to "treat ERC like yew", is this correct?

[autologus]

It is not nearly as elastic as Yew but from what I can gather about Yew (since I have never worked it) it works very similar but it is not is not nearly as good in tension.

Grady

[Aaron H]

How does one identify the difference species of juniper apart from one another?

[autologus]

ERC is the only juniper we have in Arkansas so I can't help you there.  One thing I forgot to mention is you cannot treat ERC sapwood like Yew sapwood if you violate it you have to back it or be prepared for the impending explosion.

Grady

[Aaron H]

I live in the Kansas City area (NE Kansas), if that helps

[okie64]

I always split it in half and then peel the bark while its still green. No need to seal the backs on erc either, havent had one check yet and Ive cut and split quite a bit of it.

[autologus]

Yeah you can debark it with a card scraper it's so easy to clean.

Grady

[Stickhead]

The reason say to treat it like Yew is because, like Yew, ERC has fairly good tension in the sapwood and fairly good compression in heartwood.  So, if you have a straight enough sapwood/heartwood transition (this doesn't always follow the growth rings too well), you can make a nice selfbow by leaving 1/8" to 1/4" sapwood for the back and heartwood for the belly.  It's difficult to chase a ring, but it can be done with a gentle hand, patience, and lots of light to work by.

Keep in mind that you'll need more bow thickness and length than you would for most hardwoods, as ERC is very low in density.

I've never had much luck heat-bending ERC, but others have managed to flip the tips with steam or boiling.

It's safest to back it with sinew or something if you're going for a hunting-weight bow, but I've managed to get a few nice selfbows from ERC.  Then again, I've had a few explode on me, too.

Good luck!

[Aaron H]

That's a great looking bow you got there stickhead.  I do plan on backing it with sinew because I want a short flatbow for hunting.