Most folks look for a particular species when harvesting a stave. An osage or yew stave is often considered to have good potential to yield a quality stave, along with hickory, elm & etc, and other common and (not so common) white woods. Obviously, avoiding rot and disease is prudent, and choosing a healthy stave of higher density has benefits if you want to make your bow a bit shorter or stronger than the usual. It might even be said that a well chosen stave from a lesser species might trump a the average stave of a primo species. Is there more to be said about what stave qualities make for a good bow?
In Gwich'in Athabascan Implements, By Thomas 0'Brien, the author cites his informant, Rev Salmon as advising...
"the chosen tree needs to be straight, free from knots............" Ok, nothing new here
"trees that were close to any water source were not considered as they were weak from excessive moisture....Trees on well drained hillsides were preferred." Hmm, not something commonly reported.
Reading on further, Rev Salmon states that a tree under consideration would have some bark removed from a small portion of the trunk and a sliver of green wood would be lifted and tested for length. "a good long sliver indicated a tree with long straight grain". How long the sliver needed to be was not reported, but I am guessing that this might vary if the technique is used on trees of different species
Additionally, the wood had a more reddish tint on he sunny side of the tree, while the shady side was more whitish and was preferred. Also it was preferred to harvest the tree when the sap was up, as the wood was said to be stronger and more resilient than wood harvested at other times.
I have found from my own experience that that my best staves come from a certain hill side, but never knew why that was so. I also harvest when the sap was up, but only because it makes bark removal the easiest. It has occurred to me that the thickest summer wood that a ring could have would be just before the spring wood starts growing. Guess I will have to try the sliver test this spring and mark my staves as to the sunny and shady side.
Perhaps others have developed uncommon criteria for quality stave selection they would share?
Of special interest would be any advice from the past not often heard in this forum.
