Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: John K on September 15, 2009, 10:35:31 am

Title: Black Walnut
Post by: John K on September 15, 2009, 10:35:31 am

Just wondering who has worked with it, and if they have any advice  ???

Thanks John !

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: adb on September 15, 2009, 11:45:02 am

I've made 2 walnut bellied bows... both chrysalled badly. I'm not a huge fan.

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: John K on September 15, 2009, 12:50:34 pm

Thanks Adam, Guess i'll go long and wide. I just got a boat load of the stuff !

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: radius on September 15, 2009, 03:12:00 pm

i made a beautiful elb style walnut bow once, but it broke (no backing)...

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Hillbilly on September 15, 2009, 07:07:31 pm

I've seen some nice walnut bows over the years. Treat it like it was hickory. Straight walnut is sure a pleasure to split after fooling with osage, elm, and stuff like that.

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: John K on September 17, 2009, 10:34:04 am

Thanks Hillbilly, Once i got the sucker in half it split great !
(http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll62/johnkeehn/DSCF2023.jpg)

(http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll62/johnkeehn/DSCF2024.jpg)

Sure is some pretty wood  :)

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Pat B on September 17, 2009, 10:39:20 am

gun stocks!  ;D
  I have had limited success with BW. I've made flat bows; self and backed and a few ELB type backed(with hickory) bows but most fretted.

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: John K on September 17, 2009, 10:43:20 am

Good idea Pat, let me know if you need any  :)

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive on September 17, 2009, 11:05:04 am

i made a really nice little , all heartwood, walnut recurve. unbacked.  its a great little bow i absolutely love it...but since i moved to montana i dont have the pic on my computer right now....but its on this site here somewhere.   lol  its only 56" long i think.  give a search for it if your interested in seeing it  or maybe someone else could find it and post it on here.     have fun with it.  if you decide you would like to part with one of those staves give me a shout. but i would only be interested in heartwood, i dont much care for the sapwood!  but go slow working it b\c it will fret if your tiller in uneven.  mine crystalled a little bit b\c it is so short, but it hasnt hurt anything i still shoot it and it shoots great! - Ryan

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive on September 17, 2009, 11:14:28 am

ahhh.. here is the link to my walnut recurve   http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,9730.0.html

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: John K on September 17, 2009, 11:16:28 am

Good to hear Ryan.I'll be in touch when the wood is a little drier, it was only cut a couple of weeks ago.
I have some nice belly splits ! 

I'll check out the link  :)

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Pappy on September 17, 2009, 12:45:07 pm

Nice looking bunch of stave's,I made one years ago and it turned out OK,may try another
since I have learned a little more about bow building.I look at that old bow in the rafters and can see a whole lot of things I did wrong.  :) If I remember right it was pretty springy and quick. :)
   Pappy

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: comix on September 17, 2009, 07:18:59 pm

I backed one with bamboo once... but she's a wall-hanger since draw weight wasn't what I#d expected (btw. this was no problem with the wood, but with the bowyer) ... sometimes my wife shoots her.

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: John K on September 17, 2009, 07:26:44 pm

Good to hear Pappy.

comix, at least it get the wife shooting !

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: acker on September 17, 2009, 07:34:11 pm

well I hope not ad him ;D

I like black walnut, I´ve build severel Bamboo backed bows where I used it as the centerlam and a selfbow - pyramid style.

acker

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Bullitt on September 18, 2009, 10:51:46 am

John K nice looking walnut! I also have alot of it on my property. I have a bamboo backed, belly of osage, with a core strip of walnut and some in the handle, beautiful and great shooter. It was built by John McCullough of Michigan. John had told me that a simple, good shooter can be made of walnut with a hickory backing.

  I wood say give it a try, you got plenty to work with. Walnut makes a great footing for arrows! Handle material. Gary Davis made a sinew backed walnut several years ago that was a shooter. I think he said it had been stolen.Have at it, and keep us informed, Good shootin, Steve.

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: John K on September 18, 2009, 01:53:45 pm

Thanks Steve, I most definitely will be giving it a try !

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Jmilbrandt on September 20, 2009, 08:23:05 pm

I really like black walnut I made a 67" selfbow from it a while ago all heartwood. It looks really nice and shoots great. Beautiful wood too.

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: Kviljo on September 21, 2009, 01:13:59 pm

I've made a couple Ash backed black walnut longbows of 70, 95, 100, and 122 pounds, including quite a few lighter bows. Just make sure the belly is flat, and tiller them well, or else they will fret easily. Brilliant stuff to work with!

Title: Re: Black Walnut
Post by: PeteC on September 21, 2009, 02:36:21 pm

I'm about to get some BW from a friend that took down a big one last year.I just ran into him this morning,and he told me is going to cut it up next week.I'm going to build him a bow for some wood.I'm really looking forward to trying it. Great success with yours!  God Bless