Bird cherry stick bow

[Aksel]

Hi all I made this bow yesterday. It is Bird cherry, Prunus Padus a shrub which grows all over northern Europe. It is light and springy but I am not sure of its qualities. I don´t think it is anything like Sweet. cherry. I have heard some contradicting reports on this wood and I am hoping some people with more experience will chime in. It seems decent bow wood at least.

This sapling was only about 1 inch in diameter so I left it long and light as a first test. 68,5" 42 @ 27"
It dried into 1" deflex then took 1-1,5" more.

[Hamish]

Looks pretty good to me. Bark left on looks cool.
 I can't remember any posts from other guys in the past that have used it, though someone probably has. The only info I could find is that the timber is a little lighter than regular cherry.
Good experiment, nice to know you can make a bow out of it.

[Aksel]

Bark is reported "impossible to get off after drying" so I thought I just leave it on and see how it goes.

Back in the days when Paleoplanet was still alive I saw a few Prunus padus bows, especially from Finnish bowyers, but I could never really figure out what it´s like since people seemed to disagree about it.  There´s so much of this wood everywhere but I´ll make a couple more bows before I start to stockpile it.

[Pat B]

I love your stoneagebows, Aksel. Looks like a flash from the past. You got good weight from a 1" pole and the tiller looks good. Well done! 

[Little John]

Cool bow a d well done, was it made from stone tools? Was the wood green, how long did it take?

[superdav95]

Agreed with pat.  Impressive draw weight with that diameter size stick.  Seems to indicate that it’s better then average bow wood!  Nicely done

[Aksel]

Thanks Pat, Little John, superdav95!

1 inch diameter is average, bit thinner on one end and bit thicker on other end. Limbs almost as thick as wide. I wonder if I was lucky with this one. But I have a couple larger dry staves to try.

Bird cherry is a relative of chokecherry if anyone tried making a bow from that. I have read some indian tribes used it but have seen it rated as pretty bad bow wood. I suppose it comes down to finding a suitable design for a specific wood.

[Aaron1726]

Cool bow.  I love that it still has the bark, got its natural camo.

[bassman211]

I made a half dozen bows  from wild choke cherry. I have told this story before ,but it is worth mentioning. For me it was a  dangerous explosive wood.  I made the bows 62 long 1 3/4 wide at the fades to 5/8 at the tips at my 25 inch draw, and in the low 40lb. draw weight.. All six came out ok, but after shooting 200 to 300 shots one by one they exploded, and I mean exploded. On one bow a piece of the top limb broke my glasses in two, and bruised my eye. I was lucky. I have 2 left. One with bark on it which I never shoot now, and one waiting to be backed with sinew. Our natives used it, but they backed it with sinew. Some on here have backed it with wood with success. For me birch, and walnut are more trust worthy woods to make a bow from, but wild choke cherry does make good arrow shafts.

[Muskyman]

That’s pretty neat Aksel. Reminds me of bows we used to make as kids. Of course ours were just stick’s but, I guess really all self bows are sticks. Cool bow, love the bark on it.

[Aksel]

Little John: I made the bow with a sharp axe and rasp. First I dried it for 2 month with bark on, then roughed it out, waited another couple weeks before fine tuning it. This kind of narrow/thin bow takes only an hour or so (including coffe breaks) to make since you don´t need to bother keeping a wide belly evenly flat. Minimal tillering really.

Thanks Aaron

Bassman, I probably did read about your adventures with chokecherry here whilst researching the wood 
Did any of the bows with bark on also blow? I wonder if it works as a backing? I have read that choke cherry is very good backed. From Chuck Loeffler for example, but many images are unfortunately erased on older threads.

Bird cherry has been used historically in northern Europe in composite bows and I know of one self bow from Norway.

Muskyman, thank you and yes it´s really a refined version of the stuff we made as kids.

[Pappy]

Very nice work on a simple stick, I once made one from a small Hickory like that and left the bark on, it was very cool looking also but after several months the bark dried and cracked, maybe cherry won't do that, anyway cool looking while it dose last. nice tiller also. 
 Pappy

[M2A]

Good looking tiller. Nice poundage from such a narrow piece. Sure got that primitive look going for it.
Mike