Wood ID help

[Christian Soldier]

Allright, I cut this tree early last fall and I thought it was Black Walnut, but then I was thinking it was Black loucust, and now I'm not really sure.

I cut it in south central PA, near a creek. Grows in the same area as BW, BL, Osage, and the usual white woods of the NE.

I figure, depending on what wood it is, might determine my design so I figured I'd ask yall.

Here are some pics. 
Taken in the Attic, I apologize for the poor lighting.  :embarassed:










Thanks!


Dan

[ionicmuffin]

from google images it looks like the bark is Black walnut, it doesnt look like ANY black locust ive ever seen.

[turtle]

Looks like black walnut.

[DavidV]

It's black walnut without a doubt., the color of the wood, the chambered pith, the bark. I recently made a bow out of walnut the same size.

[blackhawk]

Yup...black walnut......n what ya doing cutting my trees in my state?       

[MWirwicki]

Black Walnut.  Looks just like mine at home.  Definitely not black locust.

[hunterbob]

Yup...black walnut......n what ya doing cutting my trees in my state?       

   You can't make a black walnut bow anyways.LOL

[Christian Soldier]

Awesome! Black walnut it is then.

Any advice for making a bow from it?

And how do I keep the awesome heartwood for a heartwood/sapwood transition?

Blackhawk, what part of PA are you in man?

[osage outlaw]

The bark looks twisted.  Did it have a twist when you split it or did you saw it?

[Jmilbrandt]

I agree black walnut. I've made one bow from black walnut it was 67" long 1 5/8" at the fades and pulled about 40#. If you want a sapwood back and heartwood belly, beautiful in my opinion, just rough out your stave, bandsaw off most the sapwood and then chase a ring near the heartwood.

[blackhawk]

I'm on the good side of pa....western pa  ....you'll have to chase a ring to where you have approx 1/4" or so of sapwood if you want a nice looking sapwood heartwood limbs.....you'll end up having a high crown and maybe not enough width..so if you do that I would go a few to several inches longer than normal pending on how much width you can get and what you intended stats are...you might even be better off making it bend in the handle if that's the case too


Yeah bob...my skills aren't good enough to make a walnut bow 

[Christian Soldier]

It'll be my first time doing some serious ring chasing so that should be fun. 

I've been 'out west' a few times. Its some good country.

Outlaw, I see what you mean but this is probably the straightest stave I've ever split.   

Its around 68" long so I'll keep it full length. I'll probably go with the 'perfect bow' design from TBB 1 for the 50lb bow, slight bend in the handle.

I'll probably ask some more questions as the bow progress. There's a sister stave to this bow where I already started cutting down rings. So I guess I'll start on that one and I'll keep yall updated.

Thanks!