ash boards and wheelbarrow handles

[21st century archer]

Has anybody had luck making self bows using white ash boards or wheelbarrow handles? Also does anybody know if wheelbarrow handles are air dried or kiln dried?

[lebhuntfish]

I've personally never made one out of a wheelbarrow handle. But ash is supposed to be a decent bow wood. I know of some people that have made a bow out of sledge hammer handles both in hickory and ash. They made take down bows. As long as the grains are strait it should work. As far as how they were dried, I would venture a guess it's kiln dried. Give it a shot,  what could it hurt! Patrick

[Knoll]

Store-bought wheelbarrow handles are manufactured from kiln dried lumber.

[autologus]

here is one I made, it is bending a little too much in the handle but it shoots very smoothly.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,37653.0.html

Grady

[Jim Davis]

Really, kiln dried is not an issue.  We  get wood hotter than a kiln when we use dry heat  to  bend wood or toast it--with absolutely no ill effects.

The kiln vs air debate started a century ago, but was always more of an emotional argument than science. The wooden airplane builders argued over the same issue.

[koan]

The fastest shootin bow ive made to date was a biased ringed ash board. I used the good ol Ferret board bow layout with a couple exception.. I narrowed the tips to about 3/8" and left them stiff for 10". Ash is abit soft so i would recomend tip overlays... Brian

[ajbruggink]

I agree that kiln dried is not an issue. In the Design and Performance chapter in TBB vol I, author Tim Baker says if you don't have a lumberyard in town, you can use pickaxe handles and like and splice them together to make a bow. I've thought about doing it myself.

[21st century archer]

Thanks for the replies guys. I just bought a wheelbarrow handle and started chasing a ring. Based off personal experience I think that kiln dried woods are quite a bit different especially in ring porous lumber because the pores in the early wood seem to expand when dried in the kiln making it less forgiving of grain runoffs that I have gotten away with on air dried wood. That is why I usually prefer diffuse porous woods or woods with small early wood pores when using kiln dried wood. One of my favorite woods I have tried is kiln dried hard maple because it doesn't have visible pores and still feels hard and strong. When I first started making board bows I salvaged maple scraps from a local woodworking shop and made bows with some that had horrible runoffs but some are still shooting to this day.  Autologus that is a really nice bow. Glad to hear it can be done.