Is this stave firewood

[Walski]

I was given what I believe is a Hickory stave, and tried to get two bows from it, which meant I had to cut the stave with a knot on the edge.   Is this stave firewood, or do you think I could flush the knot flat to the back, and back it with rawhide?

[bjrogg]

I really don’t have experience with hickory, but I would have liked to see you follow the grain around the knot.

How wide is it now. Maybe you could narrow up the rest of it and still follow grain around knot?

Bjrogg

[Pat B]

That looks like osage to me.

[Hamish]

Do not level the knot(or any knot, unless you plan to back it with something substantial).


You need to flip the bow over to the belly and measure the actual diameter of the knot/s.

You then need to know how wide the bow would be at that point. Make a drawing if needed.

Subtract the diameter of the knot from the width of the stave. If there is enough width at the corresponding spot on your drawing, then you can safely make a bow.

[bradsmith2010]

looks like locust to me

[TimBo]

Dang, Brad beat me to it!  I would say that is black locust.

[Jim Davis]

Dang, Brad beat me to it!  I would say that is black locust.

Me 2

[bownarra]

Certainly not hickory

[Pappy]

Looks like BL to me also, where is the knot in the stave ?
 Pappy

[M2A]

Looks like a ring has been chased on that stave, however looks like there is extra material still over top the knot. If thats the case, I'd try and remove the extra to get it to the same ring as rest of the back. By doing so it may decrease the size of the knot enough that you could eliminate it. Sometimes a couple growth rings can add alot of mass around a knot like that.   Looks like the knot in question runs closer to the side the farther it gets to the belly of the stave.  Just a thought. Mike   

[TimBo]

Knowing the placement of the knot in the stave is important.  If it's not at the widest point of the limb, it is probably going to disappear.  Even if you decide you can't use it for a bow, you can still make really nice arrows out of it.  The BL arrows I have made are very dense (so you can use a small diameter) and stay straight well.  Unfortunately they are still spined a bit high for me, so I haven't shot them much...but they sure seem like good shafts!

[Dances with squirrels]

Looks like black locust to me as well. An easy way to tell for sure... hold a black/uv light near it in the dark. If it's black locust it will glow like you wouldn't believe. Osage, mulberry, hickory etc will not... at all.

[Walski]

Thank you all for your comments, it does look more like BL since it was a gift to me by someone that doesn't know anything about archery.
I went back and looked the stave over, and it's long enough for this knot to be located in the handle, problem solved.

[bradsmith2010]

great solution,,

[Fox]

looks like locust to me

BL was my first thought, don’t look like no hickory I’ve ever seen