"you can't make a bow from that"

[Kegan]

In Pope's book, after the bow is roughed out, he immediately strings it up and begins tillerign it. It pulls over 80# and he brings it striaght to full brace. We've learend from "Jim Hamm tillering" to never stress the wood beyond desired weight, and tiller it slowly from not bending at all, to brace, and then slowly to full draw. I've made several white wood ELBs and other narrow designs, and unless the wood is too wet, I haven't had any trouble with them following th stirng too much or being bad bows. Heat treating also helps in extreme cases, like elm bows that sare 1 1/4" wide and pulling over 80#.

[Papa Matt]

Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation. 

~~Matt

[Shaun]

I made an osage flat bow with help on the net by posting pictures as I went. When all tillered I stated that I planned to recurve the tips and was told by most of these helpful folks that could not be done after the bow was tillered. Did it anyway and it turned out fine - named the bow No No Nannette.

[ThimoS]

Bootboy have you tried the closet-dowel bow yet???

You just decrown the back and narrow and thin the outer 1/3 of each limb, back it with linen and bingo a elb in a day.

[Arthur Herrmann]

I hear a lot of "hickory is slow, and its tough to dry completely." Around here, it dries as fast as my other white wood staves, including red and white oak, and elm. The woods not slow, maybe you are just fast. The fastest bow that I have ever seen in my life is Hickory.

Also, I hear too much praise for osage. I would... if I lived near them! If you lived where i do, osage is not the best. Wait... there is no osage. So hickory is the best.

[Papa Matt]

Arthur,

Good to hear your comment on osage getting too much praise. I somewhat agree but I'm not sure that I understand all of what you mean. Also, I agree wholeheartedly that hickory is not slow. In fact, if I'm not mistaken a hickory self bow holds some kind of world record. I think the problem most people have with it, is the same one I have. It's not hard to dry it, but it's hard to keep it dry. It seems like compared to other woods hickory draws more moisture.

For sure, there ain't a thing wrong with a good ol tough hickory. Some of my fastest bows have been hickory. I got a heart for the ol boy over here in Indiana too.

~~Papa Matt

[Adam Keiper]

I tend to play sure bets instead of long shots.  I'm glad to let the retired and single guys with lots of free time on their hands help me figure out who to bet on. 

Perhaps the most risky thing I've made is a couple of osage bows with sapwood backs.  Nothing particularly shocking.  One a flatbow in '02 and an ELB in '03.  Both in fine shape today.  I only have a couple thousand arrows through the flatbow, but many, many thousands through the ELB, plus alot of time at brace getting dragged through the woods during the hunting seasons.  I've used that one hard. 

IMO, in order to dub bow making "stunts" as being successful, they need to be validated with a statement on their current status and a description of heavy useage and longevity.  For that matter, it would be equally interesting to see the list of stunts that were initially thought to be successful, but which softened or died with continued use over a solid season or two of hunting, or less.  Firecrackers and one hit wonders to be revealed.   

[Kegan]

Adam- I think you're right, about not being able to fully judge a bow without years of hard use. But that might be an appealing side effect to white woods. Where a poorly built osage bow might last much long, a poorly built whitewood bow might only last a year or two. However, these bows can much more easily be built, and so replaced. If both were built well, then they would last a long time, provided the wood is uip to it. Even Pope wrote that his yew bows only lasted a thousand or so shots before slowly breaking down. In an old article of PA there was the story of "Old Hic", a 50 year old hickory bow that surived the abuse opf a child hood, and lived to shoot again. Most Native Americans used what they had on hand, and having fed and clothes themselves, there's clearly somethng to it.

[Ryano]

OK, Ive been building some pretty decent white wood bows lately but you won't see me changing my signature line anytime soon....
As far as bow woods go theres not enough praise in the world for Osage. Its still the king of bow woods, hands down whether you like it or not    

[Dano]

Just like high school, those that can't get her will always bad mouth her. Osage you perverts.

[sailordad]

i like hedge but i dont think its king, i like ipe also

i have finished bows aout of both,the ipe both times have been backed with boo,however i think it makes a smaller ,as in thickness and width,
and equally fast and effective bow as hedge even with out the boo. both are truly exceptional bow woods
 i use boo backing on bows that i make for others only cause it gives me a little more feeling of safety in the hands of others.

i want to try other woods that i dont have access to i also want to try woods that arent supposed to be so good just to see for my self

                                                                              tim

[Dano]

Tim your funny!!

[sailordad]

ya but looks dont count

[Badger]

  I held the 50# broadhead flight record for a couple of years with osage bows but got beat by a few ft last year by a desert dry hickory bow. I actually think we shot about the same distance but I was off line a bit. But the point is any wood can do it. This has been a good thread, goes right along with how I have spent the bulk of my bow maling time.  A predermined width for a bow is no more than an educated guess. The tiller a guy uses, the length of the bow, draw length and design have huge impacts on a bow. You could have 2 bows made from the same tree of say hickory or maple or whatever that were the same draw weight say 60# and the same length say 66" and the same draw length say 28". One might be properly designed at 1 1/8" wide and the other at 2" wide. A bend through the handle arc of the circle tillered bow can be much narrower than a stiff handled stiff tipped bow and not have any more strain on it. I have seen red oak bows 1 3/8 wide and 72" long drawing 100#. If you know the wood is dry I think monitoring the set a bow is taking and using side tillering will give you proper width. Steve

[Far East Archer]

So....with all that said, who made the BALSA BOW?!!!

Maybe nobody....yet 

As for me, I plan on playing around with pine for bows.

Badger, do you know a good width for pine?
I can get some really nice clean boards with maybe 40 rings per inch if I look hard enough.
Plan on making a flatbow 72" long, just need a rough width estimate for 30-40#@26"

Alex