Wild cherry wood

[Jax666]

I have a wild cherry that needs cut. I thought it was a chock cherry, but may be wild black cherry.Is it worth splitting for a couple of starves?
Jerry

[PEARL DRUMS]

My opinion is a strong no. 

[Eric Krewson]

The late Jimmy Taylor made thousands of hickory backed cherry bows. If you want to go this route you could use the cherry.

[Dances with squirrels]

I've used wild/black cherry plenty... never successfully for long in a selfbow, but made some lively bows backed with very thin quartersawn hickory. Now I mostly just save it for under clear glass... an underrated wood in glass bows, imo.

[Buckeye Guy]

Chery is very unpredictable
It loves to break your heart
but if you are going to burn it any way give it a try some times it works
or you can back it with something else and do well enough
Have fun

Pearly is just gun shy  or he would not be so quick to say no 

[missilemaster]

The only thing I would do bow-wise with it is saw it into laminations as the core of tri-lams, sandwiched in between good stuff! Glass guys use it for core wood.

[Roy]

I've used it as core lams between osage and boo. Pearly can't even make an ERC bow:)

[SLIMBOB]

Heart breaker wood. Every bow I tried with it failed in some manner, usually late in the game. Seen some dandys so it can be done, but not a beginner wood at all. Unpredictable....well, in many ways that's true, but you can make book on it exploding at some point. Fickle. Pretty. Lots of far better choices. I will try another at some point I'm sure, but that's just out of spite for the stuff.

[Stoker]

It is a heart breaker.. Chokecherry is all I got in my bow wood desert.. Save all your shavings.. Good smokewood for wild game sausage.. Nothing lost ifin you give it a try..
Thanks Leroy

[Dances with squirrels]

It IS goog for honing of our skills.

[SLIMBOB]

Yes, but the key there is the word "honing" which indicates an existing skill that can be sharpened. For the less experienced I think getting a handful of bows finished and shooting is more valuable than a bunch of broken attempts from a wood that was destined for the bone pile.

[crooketarrow]

  You can make a bow as long as it's little wide and little long. Good practice but why practice on a inferer wood. 

If your cutting it any ways it's up to you if you'd like to try it. Take the bark off and seal the whole stave. Cherrys really excepable to wood borers. Or really sray it down with a pestaside. Personally I'd take them down to the back seal the whole stave. When your ready to start no matter how many years the staves slowly drying. Most woods won't rot it it's sealed air tight.

 I'd go back every year and reseal it to keep it air tight if needed.

[PaulN/KS]

With or without sapwood for the back of the bow?

[Markus]

Prunus avium- Wild Cherry makes good bows, that is the one growing here in Scandinavia. Don't know if it is the same you got over there across the pond.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Ours here is very brittle and doesn't care to bend or compress on its own, generally the first tree strong winds take out. It makes great laminations in glass bows or tri-lam wood bows. Its very light weight, and fast as a result.