Dead wood...No Good!!!!

[upstatenybowyer]

So I've known for a while that anything other than Osage (except maybe yew?) can be trusted if it is harvested dead. However, today I threw caution into the wind because I found and exceptionally straight piece of honeysuckle and when I cut it it looked rot and bug free so I figured, what the heck. I spent the next 3 hours roughing out a bow. Little did I know I was just making kindling. As soon as I floor bent it a little... CRACK. The back must have had a little fungal infection and was weaker than everything else. So if you're out there and you're thinking about making a bow out of something that's no longer growing, think again! 

[Dakota Kid]

Standing dead black locust can be used with caution. It takes forever to decompose so it comes in various conditions. I'd avoid stuff that seems overly dry, light weight or porous, but I've found some excellent quality wood from standing dead trees. If it still has some of it's bark chances are it hasn't been dead too long.

[osage outlaw]

It makes you appreciate how tough osage is.  A tree can be laying on the ground for decades and still have good bow wood inside. 

[Gorzideudeus]

I'll second Dakota Kid on Black Locust. Though I haven't made a bow from it yet (although I'm about to), there are numerous dead ones that have been standing among the living around my pond for as long as I can remember, and they are just as difficult to chop, if not tougher.

[tattoo dave]

Standing dead ironwood is all good, just ask half-eye to show an example.

Tattoo Dave

[Dakota Kid]

HHB must fair better than it's cousin American hornbeam then, because the latter is one of the fastest rotting woods I know of.

[upstatenybowyer]

I hear you guys. Perhaps it is possible, but I learned my lesson. For me, better safe than sorry.

Outlaw, after finding that pristine osage that was on the ground for decades, I hear ya loud and clear. I love all bow woods, but there's nothing like the magic of Maclura pomifera!

[Jim Davis]

Some years ago, I cut a dead ash for firewood. When I had dropped it, I could see that the heartwood looked dark, dry and was hard. I split some staves out of it and the heart wood made good bows. I did have to chase rings to get to it. I think the tree had probably died a slow death and dried out as it died. It had probably been "completely dead" for no more than a few months.

As far as honeysuckle, I'd never think of trying to make a bow out of a vine, even if I cut it while it was living.   

Jim Davis

[upstatenybowyer]

Thanks Jim. The honeysuckle is a bush up here with a really high SG

[Pat B]

Around here black locust gets a fungi that affects the early wood causing it to delaminate.

[PatM]

Some years ago, I cut a dead ash for firewood. When I had dropped it, I could see that the heartwood looked dark, dry and was hard. I split some staves out of it and the heart wood made good bows. I did have to chase rings to get to it. I think the tree had probably died a slow death and dried out as it died. It had probably been "completely dead" for no more than a few months.

As far as honeysuckle, I'd never think of trying to make a bow out of a vine, even if I cut it while it was living.   

Jim Davis

 That would be a bine, not a vine.

[Springbuck]

Here in the desert, WIND- FALLEN BL has given me a bunch of great wood.  Standing dead BL has not.

[Pappy]

Wind fall I have used, standing dead, not for me /like was said except maybe Osage. If it died standing then you know for sure the tree had a problem. 
 Pappy

[Joec123able]

Well when you use standing dead wood, you're gonna want to remove the decaying wood off. If you just used the exposed, decaying wood as your back, that's why it broke.