Guava failure

[Ben.A.M]

Hi all, after seeing a few Guava bows here I thought I’d give it a shot and thankfully I only tried the less than perfect staves to begin with as my first 2 attempts have blown out at the floor tillering stage, and not in any of the places I expected, in fact the cleanest sections are the places where they broke and in a way I’ve never experienced before with any other timber, has anyone tried Guava or seen blow outs like this? It almost seems like the outer rings were the weakness and popped clean off, no splinters, more like a delamination but one stave had about 7-10 growth rings and the other over 30 yet  they seemed to pop at the same depth, It’s got me stumped!

[HH~]

What kine Gauva?

What we use in Hawaii is called Cherry Guava but its really an invasive species from else where. Never made a small dia bow from it but plenty from  8” dia trees. Called Waiwi in Hawaiian
 I have to get the real name of wood. They trying to eradicate that stuff but there is no way. Its in jungle everywhere and has been for 200yrs.

Show me a picture of yhis tree alive! Does it have edible red fruit and grow in thickets really close, likes plenty water?

HH~

[Ben.A.M]

Hey there HH! It’s invasive over here in Aus also, well, where I am anyway and these staves are from yellow guava and a couple I’ve yet to see fruit but there’s a place down the road that grows a few different varieties, cherry among them and they all look identical to me, apart from size which is down to age really and some have a whiter bark while others more of a copper coloration, they seem to fruit at different times also, I’ve got some larger staves but I’ll admit I attempted the smaller ones first and perhaps having such a distinct crown did me in? And yeah, this stuff grows in dense thickets everywhere, mainly along fence lines of paddocks and the edges of creeks, wherever the birds poop the seeds I guess, have yet to see any in the rainforest though, I’m pretty sure it was one of your bows that gave me the inspiration in the first place

[HH~]

Yellow Guava , pink inside they use for juice is not what your looking for . Its the type with blotchy copper bark, red berry has fruit in winter. In thickets, has a small oval waxy deep green leaf 2” long. Likes water in gulches, will grow big 6-8” dia and where it reaches for sun itll be straight and good growth rings . Peel bark after seasoning use first oouter ring for bow back. Turns silvery when good and seasoned. I love it.

Hedge~

[dylanholderman]

i cant comment to the wood quality but iv'e had that break pattern on other highly crowned woods.
honeysuckle here, i think in my case the wood was sound it broke because i rushed getting a string on it iv'e made plenty of other honeysuckle bows with no issue.

[YoungBull]

That's not common with guava, i have like 7 or 8 bows made from guava, 3 of them were my best and strongest of all 50-60# selfbows. I even made a super shorty 45 inches pulling 50#@22", this shorty took a lot of set but it was a short and really narrow stave, the wood is extremely tension strong, you can pull it really far and it wont break on you or blow up, a guy here on PA (Manny) made a test years ago, he managed to pull a guava bow to 42 inches if i remember correctly, obviously it took a terrible amount of set. Your guava was probably really weak for some reason or it was not seasoned properly.

[Ben.A.M]

Starting to think it was the higher crown as I roughed out one of the larger diameter staves and it’s flexing fine, none of them are completely seasoned (around 3 months) as I’m just in the process of floor tillering and getting a slight bend, which is why I was so surprised by the first couple of blow outs as they were barely flexing before they popped, thanks for your input guys, I’ll let you know how they turn out once they’re completely seasoned, cheers!

[HH~]

Manny use Waiwi not yellow fruit Guava!

The reAl name is  (Psidium cattleianum) from Brazill brought to Hawaii in 1825. Good selfbow wood!



HH~

[Ryan Jacob]

Happens a lot with the guava I have over here too. It’s a bit less elastic than the pink variety so you need to compensate for that, although, I wouldn’t count it out as a bow wood entirely.

[HH~]

Heres a strawberry or cherry guava thicket.

HH~

[simson]

Check it out if it was too dry.
Maybe this wood is not the best for tension strength.
I would try a HLD on a high crowned stave like this.

[Ben.A.M]

That cherry guava grows a lot different from what I’ve seen labelled at the local farm, next time I’m there I’ll suss out the situation but I reckon I can get something out of the timber I’ve got so far, still I’m surprised at the differences in guava, thanks for the help folks!