Black Locust Bow

[Doc]

Looking for recommendation on Black Locust bow making. I've not used this wood before. I have two staves that are seasoned and ready to start reducing. The bark is off the back and I think some folks leave "it as" is for the back of the bow, I.E. not taking it in to a growth ring further in where the color changes. What is the best way to do it? BTW, the color change is about 3/8" to 1/2" in.

[George Tsoukalas]

The best way is to remove the sapwood and go to the heartwood.
Sometimes, there is not enough heartwood so I leave some sapwood.

I learned on BL.
Tiller well as sometimes the BL can be weak in compression.

I am currently working on a BL stave with not enough heartwood so I chased down to a sapwood ring just above the heartwood.

Sapwood in a living BL tree (and some other trees like osage and mulberry) is converted to heartwood.
The sapwood right above the  heartwood is about to change.

On the stave I am working on now 1/3 of the ring above the heartwood that I chased to is brown in color and the rest is white. That shows me that I am in a transition ring.

Jawge

[riverrat]

make sure its dry after you get it ruffed out before you tiller. tillering is upmost important on black locust. either its right or it can and most times will check or chrystal.the heartwood is beautiful. ive made them both ways sapwood and heartwood. and just heartwood. never had a problem either way. personally i like b. locust better than osage. why ? its easier to work and almost as strong and springy. anyways. give it your best. pay close attention once you get to tillering. perfection is what you are after. Tony

[Aries]

I'm also working on my first black locust staves how does it take heat bending? Dies it prefer steam or will it do ok with dry heat? Thanks for letting me but in

[Pat B]

For bending and straightening I treat BL like osage. It takes heat well(I use dry heat) and it handles belly tempering well and it's compression is improved with tempering.
 I cut my bow building teeth on BL also. It will let you know if your tillering is off by fretting so take it slow and easy and don't over stress the wood.

[Springbuck]

Tiller well as sometimes the BL can be weak in compression.

Jawge

 To clarify what this means to you Doc, even thought George is totally right, BL is pretty heavy and is really quite stiff for it's mass.  So getting a little bend takes a lot of pressure.  But, in spite of it's weight and stiffness, it doesn't seem to return well, if over-compressed.  iit is weak in compression elasticity, or just likes to fret instead of merely taking set.  If you hinge it much at all during tiller, it'll take a bunch of little compression lines or a few bigger frets right in that area and it's not gonna come back for you.

  So, just tiller slowly, and really check and exercise your limbs SLIGHTLY, but often, and don't draw it past finished draw weight during tiller.

Despite that, I LOVE BL and have a very high success rate as far as making finished bows in the draw weight I intended with it, and this in spite of the fact that the available wood around here is usually riddle with borer holes and usually requires a lot of heat and messing around to get it untwisted and uncrooked.  Good stuff, one of the better quality American bow woods, if you ask me.

[Doc]

Thanks for the advice guys. I can easily see the color change in the wood where I need to go with the back. Also I'm struggling with preventing getting into a hinge situation when I tiller. I'm new to this and have found I'm too aggressive when removing wood. The last two bows I made I used calipers and laid the limbs out measuring EVERY inch and worked my way down. I spent more time measuring and recording than I did thinning. LOL! That's the cost of an education I guess. I've also started using a 4 inch long straight edge to measure the curve as I go. I'm a newby so all tips are appreciated.

[wizardgoat]

Trust in your thickness taper. Sometimes self bows can trick you, but if you  ensure there's no thick or thin spots anywhere in the limb you'll never get a hinge.

[bradsmith2010]

great advice about the thickness taper,, I go with that more than the way the bend "looks" it has served me well,, making the reflex and deflex in a tricky stave work evenly,, has given me some good bows, that shoot well,, by the way that was a hard one for me,, taking wood off a deflexed area that looked like it was bending already was a difficult concept,, ( and leaving a reflexed area looking a little stiff))