Ash bow

[Butch Speer]

Any body ever use ash for bows? I have a couple smaller trees in my back yard that I'm going to cut any way. Never messed with it before.

[Jim Davis]

Used to be the best wood I could get. Make the bow 2-1/2" wide at the fade and 66" ntn for a 28" draw. I used a straight side taper from the fades to a 1/2" wide nock and 1/2-9/16 thick everywhere on the limb.

[Butch Speer]

Thanks Jim.

[Jjpso]

Just finished one, going to put some finishing today!
It was all I could get before I discovered a elm forest 40 km from my house!
It’s a nice wood to work with, it can have some character and it’s hard wood.
This one was cut in 2018, it’s 64 or 65 inches ntn, 3 inches fades and 4 inches handle. Almost straight taper from 2 and something inches fade to 7 mm nocks. It pulls 64 pounds at my 25,5 inches draw
It’s a nice shooter.
I am talking about a kind of European ash (fraxinus angustifolia) don’t know about American ash

[Butch Speer]

Thanks Jipso

[Victor]

This is good wood. Reacts well to heat treatment.

[diliviu]

I have used a few ash saplings. Good wood
What I had was really elastic in tension and moderately elastic in compression. This is why, and not having a wide experience in bow making, I tended to underbuild a little the ash bows that I made (except for the last one - lesson learned maybe).
Also, compared to other woods I used, the ash I used seemed quite light (in terms of physical weight) for the stiffness.

From the 5 ash selfbows I made, 4 took set visibly and 2 developed a few thinny frets. All 4 were a little underbuilt in my opinion.
One (the last I made) took no visible set (and no frets, of course).
The only ash backed bow I made, 34 lb only, had no set and no chrysals (despite having draw length to ntn length ratio a little over 1/2; bendy handle).
No ash bow broke.

[Butch Speer]

Appreciate all the reply's.