Anyone ever try persimmon

[Mo_coon-catcher]

In wondering if anyone has ever tried persimmon for a heavy round bellied bow. I'm just finishing up one that's 75" between the nocks 1 1/4" wide at the handle, parallel for 5-6" each way of center, and tapering to 3/8" nocks. It tillered more elliptically than circular and pulls 60# at 27" taking 1.5" of set. IT performs very well to me in both cast and feel. I've got several longer staves over 80" long and I'm wanting to try a heavier weight out of it. If anyone has any experience with it, how does this wood handle the heavier weight in this style bow? My plan is to start with the handle 1 5/8" at the handle, do a slight taper until 12" from each end then taper to the nocks. And see what sort of weight that gets me. Leaving the stave full length. I'll probably let this one be what it will in weight as long as the set stays reasonable. and use this as a baseline for making bows the weight I want out of this wood.

Anyone have any experience or tips?
I plan to rough it out tonight and keep updates as I go.

Thanks,
Kyle

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I got the stave roughed out this morning except for rounding. Starting with tapers at 1 5/8" wide by 1 1/8" deep and 85" long this thing is stiff. Judging off a heavy osage stave o was playing with before dropping the weight. Is probably in the 180-200# realm of not more. I can pick myself up placing my weight on the handle and leveraging with the  tip and barely flex it. I'll probably have to do some thinning if it doesn't get a little softer with rounding. If it's not raining too much tomorrow I'll get some more done on it and another light BC I've got roughed out and ready to long string.

Kyle

[sleek]

Persimmon is an aweaome bow wood. I have made a few short plaims style bows of it. They had a high crown and flat belly, with a good toasting. I recall the back breaking on one, but I overdrew it. But be mindful of that. With a rounded toasted belly, a higj draw weight bow may perform wonderfully.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

These staves were from a decent sized tree about 12" diameter. So they have a pretty low crown. I cut off some big thick shaving that I did some bend testing on. And like that one of yours it broke on the back before it took any damage to the belly side. Though they were just splinters I was playing with: After the first one I make, I'm liking this wood for a round belly design. The average size of the working portion of the limbs are about the size of my thumb and it still didn't take too muc set. And having what I would consider a reasonable cast. I'm hoping to found out what this wood can handle with this one. I don't care if it's too heavy for me to shoot. I'll find what weight these dimensuons will make. Then scale up or down depending on what it does. I'm curious how Itll perform at higher weights.

Kyle

[sleek]

Have fun man, i know you will. And i dont know how you got such a large piece of it, but thats impressive. Sounds like a solid plan.

[Red Arrow]

I started a thread asking about persimmon a couple months ago because I was asked to cut down a tree about 20' tall & at least 12" dia with with 3 good, straight trunk sections I should be able to get 12-15 staves from. I'm going to get it as soon as I have time to cut it down, section it, and haul it off. I can split it at home as I get time.

I'll be watching this thread to see how your bows turn out. 👍😀

[Badger]

  Kyle, weight shouldn't matter. A 20# bow should be under the same strain as a 200# bow. You just have to use enough wood whether it be length, width or thickness.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I guess really it'll be what weight can this wood hit and still be of a manageable size in both girth to be able to hold onto and length to be able to hold it straight to aim.

Kyle

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I got it fully roughed out now and put a long string on to see where it stands. I'm going to aim for a draw weight of 150# and let it go from there. But it got to 16" when pulled to 150#. It's on the long string so o want it to bend a bit more towards the center at the moment. But I think I can get the outer halves of each limb bending more before I drop the weight. I'm guessing right now it would hit between 250-300# at 32". As long as the rain stays away I'll drop the weight and pull it a bit further this evening.

Kyle

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I got the bend cleaned up and pulling 150# at 26" on the long string. Which also got te tips bending enough to comfortably brace. I braces it once at 5" and got a good idea of how it was bending and balancing. The outer halves still needed to move more. I know persimmon is bad about taking set even when build to what should be proper dimensions, but its already taken about 3/4". Then I remembered the wood probably has a high moisture content. Since its been in a barn loft for 1.5 years and just spent a day sitting a couple feet from a shed opening whole it rained for 20 hours. So I'm going to leave it in the house for a week or two, then heat treat before pushing any further. And those tapered nocks held fine at low brace. Though I found I had to make them about 1.5" long to hold and gave them a bit of a shoulder to assist. But in liking that nock style for tillering.

Kyle