Questions on desert iron wood stave..........

[desertarcher]

 Hello all, I'm pretty new here and hope I can lean on your considerable knowledge. I am getting ready to cut some desert iron wood for a bow. I do realize that it checks badly so I will use white glue to seal it. What I do need to know is, Do I use the light sap wood or the dark heart wood, or a combination of the two.
 Also, should I dry the stave whole or should I rough it out to bow form and let it dry that way?
Thanks in advance for all your help.
Derrick.

[GregB]

I'm not sure what the wood is that you're referring to. We call hhb ironwood here in Tn.
I'm guessing you would treat it like any white wood, split the log into quarters or more, peel the bark off, litely scrape off the cambium layer, then seal the back and ends of the staves. We also seal 6-8" down the split surfaces of each end to further protect the ends from checking.

[Marc St Louis]

Damon Kent found a piece of Desert Ironwood several years ago big enough and nice enough to make a bow. I don't remember all the specifics but I do believe he left the sapwood on it. It sure made an attractive bow.

[desertarcher]

 Thanks gentilmen. I am going to post pictures of the Desert Iron wood later this am. for those of you that have never seen it.

[desertarcher]

Here is some information on desert iron wood and pics. has an S.G. of 1.20-1.36 .

Ironwood as a species may have evolved as the Sonoran Desert flora formed in the middle Miocene (ca. 15 to 8 million years ago) (Van Devender 2000), but most paleogeological records of Ironwood date from the mid- to late Holocene. Dating of ironwood trees is difficult through standard tree-ring dating, but annual trunk diameter growth rates (Turner 1963; Suzán 1994) and unpublished radiocarbon dating estimates (Suzán 1994) suggest that some trees have persisted for more than 800 years. The wood of the Ironwood is one of the hardest and heaviest woods in the world (Búrquez 1999). It is remarkably resistant to rotting, perhaps because its heartwood is rich in toxic chemicals that make it essentially non-biodegradable (Dimmitt 2000a). Ironwood trunks can persist for up to 1600 years (Dimmitt 2000a). (See further discussion of ironwood longevity below.)
image
The heartwood of Olneya tesota is almost nonbiodegradable. The minerals deposited in the heartwood that make it too dense to float in water are toxic to most saprophytes and termites. This ironwood tree stump is weathering away by physical processes. It probably died two or more centuries ago. Chuckwalla Mountains, California.

imageimageimageimageimage

[desertarcher]

Ok.....how do I post pictures here?? They are on Paleo planet under primitive bows. But I would like to post them here as well.

[Hillbilly]

If the photos are in an online album: In the reply window, click on the "insert image" icon above the text box (second one from left, bottom row) and paste/type the image URL between the two [img] that will appear in the text box. If they're on you're computer, click the "additional options" link at the bottom left-hand corner of the reply window. Browse for your pic, click "more attachments" to browse for more.

[DanaM]

Pics have to be 200kb or less basically 640x480

[desertarcher]

Thanks, I am very computer illiterate. But I will figure everything out.

[wolfsire]

Thanks, I am very computer illiterate. But I will figure everything out.

I have never had a problem posting pics.  I host them at Photobucket.  When I want them, I double click on the bottom of 3 links under the pick, which copies the link with the img-slash-brackets around it, then I just paste in.  Always works for me.