Red Osier for staves

[aaron]

as a fellow Washingtonian, I'm curious to know more about your organization if you'd like to share.
Here's my unsolicited opinion on your classes.
I agree with PatM.
If you get kids to make primitive arrows, you'll end up with some arrows that not even the best archer could shoot well. If you get kids to make primitive bows, even the worst bow would shoot a good arrow to the same spot every time if aimed well. That is, any old stick will make an accurate bow, but only the finest twig in the most expert hands will make a good arrow.

[Accipiter]

Ocean spray is easy to dry without checks if you split it first and seal the ends. If you cut a slit on the belly down to the pith you can dry it full thickness, for the handle at least. It will always check if you leave it unsplit, but it also splits cleanly and evenly.

[Blayne]

I am on Vancouver Island. I work for a non-profit that operates a campground and offers outdoor education programing to youth and adult. I already have some archery programs where I supervise the youth shooting recurves. I want to take it up a notch and offer something different. I want the staves to be about 1-1 1/2" in diameter and let them do the whole thing. Thats why I am worried about OS. I don't want to rough them out to save them from the pith deep crack. Here kid, here is a stick and some tools, let me help you turn it into something cool! We shall see. Lots of good feedback guys, anything else you may have to add, please do so!

[MulchMaker]

I'm probably the greenest of you all here, I've managed to get book smart on this fine art and am working on a bow for my wife, and then myself. I am Forty Years old and the love of archery has been with me since I was old enough to remember all because my father gave me a huge role of blue string a maple sapling and some cat tails along with a pocket knife. The bow was a strung sapling the arrows were unfletched but a 10-20 yards I could hit almost every apple in our tree. My dad bought me a yard sale glass recurve that I still hunt with for five bucks and I found an arrow as my dad didn't know how to take the sapling to the next level. I think if you could teach a kid and you have the resources to do so you could turn just a camp into something magical. Well I think it's magic...always have
-Zach

[stuckinthemud]

I'd go with hazel, my dad made us hedgerow bows every summer when I was growing up, and I did the same with my kids.  Hazel sticks dry in no time, don't check and put up with enormous abuse and, as a bonus, they shoot well too - green hazel works really easily with hand tools and by the time you finished working it it'll be seasoned enough to shoot with if you start off with sticks about an inch wide at the grip.

[Springbuck]

No good. Hazel, vine maple, ocean spray, Oregon ash, yew, osoberry (indian plum), Cascara, Douglas maple, Hawthorn (if you can find a nice piece) Black locust grows here (a transplant) Big leaf maple (marginal wood, 2 inch wide plus limbs) Apple...or most any fruit tree....there are lots around. Good luck!

 Yeah, gotta agree.  In Utah, I had found a big riverbottom full of red osier shoots for arrows and was having fun with that for a while.  Having heard that other dogwoods made great bow wood, I assumed red oiser would be good, too, so I got excited when I located an area where larger shrubs grew.  I took a couple long shoots, 1.5" dia or smaller, but nice, clean, long staves growing in the middles of clumps.  After drying, the minute I started messing with it, I could tell it was terrible.  It was weak, soft, and brittle, and I broke both of them floor tillering!