First bow and an elm

[vtbow]

I'm looking forward to making my first bow with help here. I also just cut an elm section, but I know it will take a while to season, so I probably will make my beginner bow from dry boards. I have lots of dry cherry, and probably some ash as well.

This is the elm -- I left it 6 feet long, and didn't know whether I should split it or saw it, and into how many sections. In the end I just sawed it into 4 pieces. The small end was 6" diameter.



It was leaning in a hedgerow, so when I sawed it there was a fair amount of spring in the sections. Not sure if that is visible here. Some sections bowed more than others.



I would appreciate any suggestions you all have. I don't know if this is good wood for the purpose or not, with the bow.

The ring spacing was extremely tight in the dark wood, but opened up in the white area. Probably because 12 years ago i moved here and cleared the land behind it, and it got much more light then.

[bushboy]

Looks like nice stuff!not sure I would have quartered it so quickly,chances are it gonna warp and twist as it dries.i would peel the bark,seal the ends with wood glue and rachet strap them to something soild like a 2x4 on edge.cherry boards are not the best for self bows,i'd try the ash but hickory would be a better choice for a beginner.good luck!

[vtbow]

Thanks Bushboy! I did hit the ends with melted paraffin wax, and I'll peel them shortly. I don't have any hickory on my land -- or at least I've never seen any. Seen it 10 miles away (one pignut hickory tree in a park!) so maybe I should try exploring more, but I kinda doubt it. Tons of sweet and yellow birch, and ash, fair amount of cherry and some sugar maple -- most maple is red maple. A few hop hornbeam I've seen scattered in odd places on my land, .

But for wood I've already cut and dried so far, ash and cherry are it. Well might have some birch, too. I'll check

[vtbow]

Well I actually found a hickory tree today in a hedgerow, the first I've noticed here in 12 years. It's only 4" diameter, and I'm kinda reluctant to cut the only one this young, unless I find more. I walked around an hour today looking carefully, but didn't see another.

A couple days ago I found an old board wood stack I had cut - toppled in the woods behind the shed. It was drizzling out, andIt looked like just a mess of black slimy boards, but curious if anything was salvageable, I started pulling it apart an leaning the boards up against trees. There was some 1" thick black birch boards that looked and felt solid, so I ripped one into 2-1/4" strips, and the grain looked pretty straight, and most of the decay was only surface stain. So I cut off the ends and took the best strip inside, sharpened the plane up and cleaned off the faces.

The color almost made me think it was cherry sapwood -- kind of a very light creamy tan pink. But it's definitely black birch (sweet birch). No cherry smell, and I remember cutting it about 7 years ago.

I'm hoping it might be good for my first bow attempt. It's not fully dry yet, since the pile fell over -- I have an old Harbor Freight moisture meter which put it at 18% moisture content.

I've got it planed down to 3/4" thick, 79" long with near-to-knot grain on the belly side just off one edge corner at the end -- 74" would lose it. Another spot of curved grain on the belly side corner at 57". The back side looks perfect and otherwise very straight grain all 4 sides, and the stain is all planed off.

There's about 1/4" reflex to the board right now, evenly spaced.

[bushboy]

I think fungus runs deep in whitewood even if it looks sound.i would cut a small slat,quick dry and do a bend test before investing to much time or effort.ive never worked with black birch before though,don't know?

[bushboy]

After a quick search sweet birch is quite light for bow wood.google potential bow wood species,spells it out quite clearly.i'd be after that hop horn beam if. I were you.

[George Tsoukalas]

Nice find. Not much elm here. My site amy help you. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html

[vtbow]

Thanks Bushboy for all your help, I'll do as you say and I've got a ripped out strip of the birch from right next to the blank I have. The wood looks really good. I'll dry it and try it.

My interest in black birch comes from the fact that practically every other tree on my land is a black birch -- most all with no branches for 20 or more feet and straight trunked with clean bark. I cut and split maybe 7 cords of wood a year, and it is a clean tough hard and heavy wood, very nice in general.

When I split the occasional yellow birch it's always knotty and twisty grain (propellor like), lots of defects and shreds.

Ash splits super easy and clean, but I just don't like it, except for maybe making handles. It rots very easy. Not the black birch, though.

I'd love it if the black birch worked out -- I've always wanted to find a use for it besides burning it. It just looks so good as wood.

The hop hornbeam -- I've only found two trees so far, and like the elm, if I cut them down, I'd probably have to wait a year for it to dry.  As you can imagine just starting out like i am, waiting a whole year to begin making a bow seems like an eternity! A board bow from wood I have will help me not to go nutz after reading this forum every night! I don't expect it will turn out great.... it probably won't be too good by comparison with what I see here, I know.

I have done a little internet searching on woods, and I don't quite understand how published wood specs relate to bow making, but every time I look up black birch (sweet birch) it looks really high in strength specs. It's totally different than white (paper birch). I have some trees of that, and they are weak, soft, diseaase prone -- it's like night and day the difference between the two.

In the specs it seems a lot stronger than red oak or even elm:

Black (Sweet) Birch:
Betula lenta
Average Dried Weight: 46 lbs/ft3
Janka Hardness: 1,470 lbf
Modulus of Rupture: 16,900 lbf/in2
Elastic Modulus: 2,170,000 lbf/in2
Crushing Strength: 8,540 lbf/in2

American Elm:
Ulmus americana
Average Dried Weight: 35 lbs/ft3
Janka Hardness: 830 lbf (3,690 N)
Modulus of Rupture: 11,800 lbf/in2
Elastic Modulus: 1,340,000 lbf/in2
Crushing Strength: 5,520 lbf/in2

Red Oak
Quercus rubra
Average Dried Weight: 44 lbs/ft3
Janka Hardness: 1,220 lbf (5,430 N)
Modulus of Rupture: 14,380
Elastic Modulus: 1,761,000 lbf/in2
Crushing Strength: 6,780 lbf/in2

So I guess I'm just hopeful that it will make a better bow than is usually thought because maybe it has been confused with white, grey and river birch. It's not common everywhere (though it is right here). With specs like that above, I just wonder, how bad can it be?

[vtbow]

Nice find. Not much elm here. My site amy help you. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html

Thank you kindly Jawge, that's a great site , and really helpful!!! 

[alwayslookin]

Those stats on black birch look nice. Also if u cut down some staves split them and seal the ends and back then rough out to bow dimesions they will not take a year. Some where around a month or two I've even seen less.

[George Tsoukalas]

Nice find. Not much elm here in NH that I've seen. My sit emay help you.
Jawge

[vtbow]

Thanks alwayslookin, that makes a big difference. I can wait a month a lot easier than a year!

 I have noticed that the birch plank is rapidly loosing moisture now that it is 3/4" x 1-3/4". It went from 18% moisture two days ago to 12% this afternoon.

I went back to the place where I cut the elm and peeled a more crooked section of the trunk this afternoon using the hatchet. I guess I'll save the bark.

[vtbow]

Those stats on black birch look nice. Also if u cut down some staves split them and seal the ends and back then rough out to bow dimesions they will not take a year. Some where around a month or two I've even seen less.

So taking your advice alwayslookin, I found a black birch sapling a little over 2" diameter and pretty straight, cut it down to a little over 60" and slid the hatchet up both sides to star peeling it:

[vtbow]

Then I got it peeled:

[vtbow]

Then I even up the sides a little with the hatchet: