Stinky Wood ID Help (Full Draw Added)

[Marc St Louis]

There is a shrub that grows up here called Witherod or Wild Raisin ( it's a Viburnum) that can be described as have a smell like old socks.  The wood has a small amount of sapwood with orange/brown heartwood that produces clumps of berries that turn dark blue in the Fall.  It is an extremely elastic wood but I have never seen any growing larger than 2" in diameter and maybe 10' tall, I made a bow out a piece one time that hardly took any set.  Black Haw is related and grows bigger, doesn't grow up here though, and is supposed to have a strong Goat like odor.

P.S.  Sorry, it's not the Black Haw that has the Goat like smell it's the Nannyberry, it's also a Viburnum.  It can reach heights of 30'.

[bubbles]

Well, I think I got a positive ID on it now.  Got back out and snapped some pics.  I don't know what possessed me not to look at the top of the tree.  Had I done that I would have known right away - but I guess I've never seen the fully mature tree of this species, but I have enjoyed its fruit many a time.   

[bubbles]

Nannyberry!   (Good job Marc!)    You were saying it's good bow wood? Or was that the Black Haw? 

[Pat B]

Those buds are very typical viburnum as are the fruiting stems. Bubbles, I've not made a bow from black haw but I'd say it would be marginal as bow wood. I have made arrows from black haw but there are other woods I'd use before it.

[Marc St Louis]

Both the Black Haw and the Nannyberry don't grow up here but what you have in your hand in the first pic looks a lot like Witherod and it's that species we have up here.  The branches and fruiting ends look exactly the same as well.  Witherod is some of the toughest wood I have ever come across and if the Nannyberry has the same toughness then it should make great bows.  The only problem with Witherod is that it always seems to grow in a spiral and the back starts to fail after awhile, it doesn't pull a splinter but the back ring starts to sort of unwind in a spiral.  A rawhide backing fixes that though.  I would certainly try making a bow out of the wood

[bubbles]

Allright. It definitely looks good with the dark heartwood. 

[Bogaman]

We have our own share of stinky wood down here, but if that stuff turns out good would be willing to trade a piece of hedge for some of that stuff;^)

[bubbles]

Ohhhhh, the illustrious osage.....

We'll see how it goes. 

[bubbles]

Well, I finally got to working on this lady.   After a bunch of heating and steaming to line everything up,  A chased back ring(not a fun thing to do on diffuse porous wood) got to tillering, and here she is at 53#@ 25" - 55" ntn.   I haven't really shot it in yet, but it seems to be holding together.  Took a bit more follow than I had hoped (2"), but it also started with about 1" of deflex, which I tried to heat out with dry heat, but I think it ended up coming back.   I didn't heat treat the entire bow as I wanted to see how the wood would do on it's own. Shoots pretty good right now.  I think it will look pretty sweet when all the finish is on.  It could almost pass for yew with the sap/heartwood combo.   
-- Oh and I definately could not work on this with anybody home.  Got yelled at many a time.  Had to remove the shaving immediately after I was done and make sure all the windows were open.  Anytime you start taking off shaving, that smell comes right back. 

 

[hunterbob]

Bend is looking good on that stinky stick.

[bubbles]

Haha, the wife's not happy, because the whole house stinks, and apparently I stink as well.

[JW_Halverson]

While it may be true that your bow stinks, the tillering sure doesn't!

[mullet]

It's Black Cherry. Stinks like crap and the fruit isn't much better.