Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: boughnut on August 19, 2012, 07:55:01 pm
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Hey everyone this is my first post I have some bows to post soon but first thing first I need to get these staves sealed. I am not sure what this is but looked like good wood so I cut it. It is leaking some king of reddish sap. I did not have any nuts, fruits or berries. The short stave is about 60 inches by 4 inches thick and the long is plenty long and 3 inches thick. the rings are nice and thick as you can see. I need to know if I cut something good or not. any suggestions would help. also I do not want to split these because I would like to avoid twists and curves. I would like to let them cure first then split. should I peel the bark and seal the whole staves or leave bark and seal the ends I cut them about and hour ago.
thanks
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By the way sorry for the typos
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No clue, it sure grows fast.
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looks like ash. i would definatley seal the ends ,i split mine remove the bark then seal it to. i guess you could leave the bark on if you don't split it , it would just be harder to remove when its dry.
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Is it kinda stinky? It sorta looks like tree of heavan. If so, there have been a few bows made from it. Its a whitewood so I would definitely split it, peel it and seal it. With a few exceptions, most whitewoods rot rather quickly if too slowly dried. If it is tree of heavan, it rots faster than most. Josh
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Ash.
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no bad smell it smells alot like hickory I guess when hickory is green. I split the long one and it split real easy peeled and sealed the other one I am debating on it is so straight i dont want to ruin that in the drying process but if better off split I will if need to?
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My vote is for Ash as well. I believe it is Green Ash.
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Not tree of heaven . That has extra little points on the leaves.Looks like ash to me . If you can cut a piece off easily with a pocket knife , it's not Hickory. Large open pores on Ash just like Oak.White Ash is what most Northern Eastern tribes used for bows.Very similar working characteristics to Red Oak.
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Ok so here is the deal with this wood. My wife asked me this morning if I could teach her how to make a bow the way she would have to if she was living in the woods or of the land. found this tree Lots of hickorys and everything else but I wanted to try somthing new. Ash will be a first. So now the waiting starts. I will let these cure and the short one will make her and my son each a bow and the long curvy one is for me. I told her how to seal them all kinds of ways but we used TBII I have made many self bows from osage and hickory. Any thing I need to watch out for with ash. we are going to keep it super simple for the reason of only having primitive tools to work with for this experiment for her. Wide as we can get out of the stave flat with small grip no shelf. I might add in a raw hide backing to show her a way to make it extra tuff. Just finished procuring a hide from a nice buck I got last season. Showed here how to do that. Have not shown her how to tan a hide yet though. Some small knots that have healed over into lumps on the back of staves. Not going to use heat to straighten if at all possible. Is it ok to lay the bow out on ash not following the grain?
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Always follow the grain. It's the same as any other wood.
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That certainly looks like green ash to me. It's one of the common woods here in the Dakotas because of it's drouth tolerance and it's good quality shade tree characteristics.
My first bow was green ash and it was a fair shooter. Every single attempt since then as been a slug, slow and heavy. I would go as wide as 1 3/3 inches at the fades and narrow down to 1/2 tips in a pyramid stle bow. If it has a very high crown, I would even consider decrowning the stave and backing with linen/rawhide/or even sinew. Many of the sinew backed Sioux bows I have seen were green ash, but I've not tried that design with ash.
It's one of my favorite firewoods, it burns very clean and hot.
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ok so here is where she is at with her stave. I told her if she rough shaped it out now it would dry faster so she did. I helped her establish a profile she drew it out and went to work. she worked hard and after a few hours with some hand tools this is where we left off. 2 1/4 wide at fades 1 inch at tips all is still bulky leaving plenty of room for wood removal once dry to establish the final profile. The stave was only 60 inches and has a fairly high crown. So I think flat belly trap the back a smidge but dont think it needs much due to high crown 2 inches at fades 1/2 inch at tips she is going for 40 pounds.
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Looks like she is off to a good start.
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thanks she is real excited while we let it dry I am teaching her some knaping and other stuff to keep the intrest going. I am teaching her all the diffent points and materials for them and we are both learning how to make arrows from some shoots we gathered.
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My first guess was an Ash too.
On post like this, I like to play a game with myself and not look at the other posts until I formulate my own opinion.
Looks like some of us agree.
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I would guess Ash also,good looking start,you might want to clamp it to something while it dries so it don't propeller or toque side to side. That should make her a fine bow. :)
Pappy