"Second String" woods?

[BigWapiti]

Reading the TBB1, they keep mentioning Second-String woods...  sometimes while also talking about white woods.  What is a second string wood?  Again, I tried to read backwards in the 'bible' and couldn't find where they actually define the term second-string woods.  I also looked up the Glossary posted on this site, wasn't there either (that I found anyway).

Thanks!
Mike

[DanaM]

Good question Mike, i would be interested in the answer myself

[koan]

Second string woods are anything but osage and yew or woods that traditionally werent used for bows....I think we have all kinda gone past that mentality now.... Brian

[BigWapiti]

Ah hah - Second string as in football (read as my football career -pout), being not quite the regulars in the game --- as opposed to having a second string, or something to the matter.

Thanks Brian - that makes sense.

[DanaM]

koan Iim going to be the devils advocate Who says osage and yew are traditional while ash, hickory, black locost, maple, elm,
beech, birch, hornbeam, hophornbeam, fruit trees etc, etc, you get the drift, aren't traditional. seems to me in reading various books
that the Native Americans used what was available. Also remember reading that many of the second string woods out perform osage and yew
pound for pound. Granted osage is very tough and durable so is a good choice for a hunting bow, but we can't discount the other woods as
with proper design they will perform as good or better than the first string woods. 

[Hillbilly]

Dana, the Native Americans weren't infected with the snobbishness and narrow-mindedness that was central to the European longbow mindset. They used osage and yew, sure-but also everything else that they could get their hands on. The NA's were more apt to change their style of weapon to fit their lifestyle and the wood they had available. The European archery tradition believed (some still do, apparantly) that the ELB was the only feasible bow design, so if a wood didn't perform well as a ELB, well then it just wasn't fit for bow wood (Even though the American tribes had kept themselves fed and unconquered for a couple thousand years with bows made of other woods than osage and yew.) Pretty much all archery literature in the early-mid 20th century reflected the ELB style of archery, and dismissed the NA and other styles as inferior. Even Pope, who befriended and wrote about Ishi, wouldn't have dared hunt with an Indian bow-he had ELBitis, too.

[BigWapiti]

I have to say that after re-reading the passages in TBBI, koan's definition fits.  I read it now as if the second-string woods are not the 'typical' bow woods.  You can define typical as you please - they seem to side step that definition (probably for good reason  ).

[Hillbilly]

Yep, BigWapiti, at the time that the TBB's came out, most people fervently believed that yew and osage (along with a couple exotics like lemonwood and snakewood) were the only woods that worked for bows. The fact that you are having to ask about "second-string woods" shows how much the TBB's have changed the perceptions of the archery world in the short time since they were published.

[Badger]

I am a big advocate of white woods, and believe they can perform as well as osage but I still rank osage as 1st string bow wood and most other woods 2nd or 3rd string. I love yew wood but have never had what I would call great performers from yew, consistently good yes. Super dry hickory is probably about the best performing wood but I would still rank it 2nd string because it changes so much with moisture. I can't help it but I just keep going back to osage, it is just so versatile, forgiving, and beautiful. Steve

[DanaM]

Interesting stuff guys, but living in an osage desert if ya will it will continue to be more of a novelty for me
as I can't go cut it and won't pay the big price it seems to bring even though it is a fairly common wood.
Don't get me wrong I wish I had ready access to it but that is not a reality so I will use what is close to hand
much as the NA did.

[Hillbilly]

Steve, osage and locust are probably the best all-around performers here in the Land of Complete Humidity Saturation.

[koan]

Didnt mean to start this debate again....thats why I said we have grown past it ....the same guys that wrote the TBB use to say you couldnt use kiln dried wood also....I was just repeating what I read somewhere...not what I believe ....Brian

[DanaM]

Didnt mean to start this debate again....thats why I said we have grown past it ....the same guys that wrote the TBB use to say you couldnt use kiln dried wood also....I was just repeating what I read somewhere...not what I believe ....Brian

but its a good debate brian, keeps the ideas moving forward. who would have thought we would have personal computers and the internet back in the 70's heck even the 80's

[koan]

Heck Dana...I just got one!lol......Brian

[BigWapiti]

wait up, let me scribble all this down on my handheld pda computer....