Harvesting bow woods in spring, bad idea?

[Johnny K]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me regarding the best time of year for harvesting bow woods... and is it possible to do so in spring (now)?
I read somewhere that it's best to harvest in late summer/fall or winter when the sap is down, but it seems like some folks do harvest in spring...

There's some nice saskatoon in my area, also some birch and maybe even hawthorn... also lots of poplar (will it make a bow, or arrows???)

Would appreciate any advice,

Thanks
John

[Jodocus]

Depending on where you live, just right now might still be OK. Later in spring, the topmost layer of wood beneath the bark is soft and crappy and the wood is too wet.
Good thing about wood cut in spring it's mostly easy to get the bark off.

Best time ist late autumn and winter.

Seal the ends.

[wizardgoat]

I cut wood all year around. Go for the S'toon berry and hawthorn, but DO NOT split. Saw or hatchet them. Poplar and birch are used for arrows, though I have seen some birch bows.

[DarkSoul]

Any time of the year is a good time to cut bowwood. It's a myth that you can only cut it in fall/winter. Every season has its pro's and cons. Myself, I generally avoid mid summer as the woods tends to dry too rapidly in the first week after cutting, potentially causing drying checks.

[PatM]

 Which would mean that mid-summer is not a good time to cut... It all comes down to what is optimum.

[Marc St Louis]

The main reason I don't cut in the Summer is that with white-woods you will get a very thin back ring and chasing a ring is not an option with some of them.  I prefer my back ring to be as thick as possible

[crooketarrow]

  I have mainly cut in the winter after out buck season. I've did this for the last 25 years. But because it was the thing to do. It was always my down time so I had the time. I also cut shoots in the winter.

  Don't think I never cut a tree for stave's other times I have lots. Also a lot of times I took the tree when I got the chance. I made bows and sold 100's of stave's from trees I cut in warm weather. Only thing I see is it takes longer to season after the sap comes up.

[Springbuck]

My problems with harvesting wood in the spring is not about the sap being "down"; there are ways around that.  Water rushes into any tree in the spring, so, yes the wood is wet, and that can give you trouble drying without checking, etc, but slow drying, reducing and then drying, etc.. have proven to solve the checking, warping, and getting eaten by bugs/fungus problems.

The trouble I have had in the spring is with white woods, especially if fine grained. Even thin ringed wood will make a bow if it has good density, but if you have a spring growth ring on the back in stand of a nice solid, smooth summer wood ring, that back is just not very strong in tension.  Even worse is when you have a PART of a summer ring, eggshell thin, over a porous winter/spring ring.  I've actually had elm and ash start to crack on 5he back, but not really break, just life up chunks and flakes, because they can't take the tension.

So, if you cut spring wood, dry it carefully and chase/scrape down to a thick, established summer ring for your back.

[Swampman]

I cut white woods in the spring but before leaves are on the tree.  I have found I get the benefit of a thick outer ring (spring growth has no started yet) and the ease of bark coming off easily because the sap has started to flow. Where I live, the time frame I am talking about is late March to early April on warm sunny days. 

I also cut white wood trees in late August and early September.  I try to cut black locust in the winter months.  That's my 2 cents worth.

Mike

[Johnny K]

Thanks for all the great response!

This really helps me a lot... I'll try to get out there today or tomorrow and harvest something, as the overall opinion seems to be that it's very possible to do so this time of year.

Wizardgoat, you said not to split it, so would you recommend I peel the bark, seal the ends and then leave it to dry as whole logs? The saskatoon I know is very prone to both twisting and checking, wouldn't splitting into stave right away make severe checking less likely?
Should I also seal the back if I do peel the bark?

Thanks again everybody,
sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, I'm really new to all this...

John

[wizardgoat]

I just mean don't split S berry or hawthorn. They will twist on you even if they look straight.
Use s saw if you got one, or just hatchet off the bad side.  I don't usually peel my bark off green staves. If I did Id seal the ends AND back with shellac

[George Tsoukalas]

I you harvest during the growing season the bark will pop off a whitewood.

Other than that I have never fine tuned the time.

Great info above.

Jawge

[Jim Davis]

Thanks for all the great response!

This really helps me a lot...

John

Hard to see how the responses can help much since the range manages to  bounce off all the walls with variation.

Only doing your own research will tell you which parts of the advice are correct. I won't offer any because you have no  way of knowing if mine is right either. (Some of the above is dead wrong,  some is right for  the wrong reasons and some is spot on. You'll just have to test it out.)

Jim Davis

[Johnny K]

Even a range of opinions can help someone with no idea...

I will test it out for myself, but it's good to hear that it has worked for others. If it was impossible, I could have saved myself the trouble. 

John

[Pat B]

I prefer to cut whitewood in the spring when the leaves come out. At this time the bark will slip and the ring under has had all winter to mature. For other wood I prefer to cut in winter because there are no snakes, bugs or sweat involved.