Marlberry wood for bow?

[Green Wood]

And shooting it just kills my wrists with hand shock. But I think that is a design problem, not a wood species problem. I started with 72" length since that seems to be a "forgiving" length. Having built over 20 bows and broken more than half of them, I am just a little gun-shy. The last break was under full draw with kiln dried red oak. It was more of an explosion than just a break (three pieces hit the floor). One of the pieces gave my hand a nasty cut. That is why I am playing with other woods. Store bought kiln dried oak can be VERY brittle. And the piece I selected was a nice heavy piece with end to end grain. Anyway, I may reduce the length a little if my research indicates that will reduce hand shock. My 62" Black Locust sapling bow doesn't have any hand shock at all, and I think it pulls close to 30 lbs.

[Digital Caveman]

No wonder it had shock and wasn't zingy.  It is probably still quite wet.

[Green Wood]

The marlberry bows are drying out nicely with the bark removed.  I should wait to use it, but temptations overcome me and I shoot it for a few minutes each day.  I am slowly perfecting the tiller and taking a few pounds off the pull. It was over 40 lbs draw when last I measured it.  I am watching the back closely for any raised splinters, and will back the bow if needed.  It's fun to shoot. The marlberry wood is tough stuff and I think it's going to be a good bow.

[Hamish]

A stave/bow that's still a bit green, should have the back, and end grain of the handle area sealed with something thin like shellac to prevent drying cracks. It will still continue to season via the unsealed areas, but shouldn't continue to check.

If you are getting hand shock, try heavier arrows.

[willie]

RE: shooting in while drying.

I should wait to use it, but temptations overcome me and I shoot it for a few minutes each day.  I am slowly perfecting the tiller and taking a few pounds off the pull. It was over 40 lbs draw when last I measured it.

 The wood should gain poundage as it dries, and if it is not continually reduced you might have another catastrophic break. I would consider perfecting the tiller and reducing weight to meet your poundage goal before shooting each day, if this is not already your present order of operations. Better to break it on the tree than in the hand.

thanks for the updates, this wood seems interesting.

[Green Wood]

Using heavier arrows solved the problem of hand shock.  The wood has been debarked for 2 weeks now, and is drying nicely. It shoots a little better now and a scraper tool shaves the wood nicely without pulling out chunks (like it did when wet).  I will give it another week or two to dry, then do final sanding and brush on 2 to 3 coats of spar urethane. I just measured it to be pulling 29 lbs at 26".  Since 26" to 27" is my normal draw length, I think I have reached a good stopping point.

[Green Wood]

There is another thing I ought to mention. While working with the green marlberry wood, my hands developed small red blisters all over the face of both hands. It wasn't real bad, but bad enough that I quit working on bows for 4 or 5 days. I am now wearing gloves when handling the marlberry.  Research indicated that there are quite a few woods that can cause skin irritations. Marlberry probably belongs in that group. Meanwhile, I plan to hunt down a really nice marlberry tree about 3" or 4" thick, straight, and minimum knots. I'll seal the ends with wood glue and set it in my shed to dry until next October.

[scp]

It's a lot easier if you work on several bows of same design at the same time. You only bend one bow or two, but tiller all of them in turn following the dimensions of the bow you bend. That way you will be doing no set tillering on some of them and be patient enough to do proper work on some of them. Good luck.

[Green Wood]

First bow is ready for final sanding and urethane coating (unless I decide to back it first). I am reading about backing. The 2nd bow, which is about 3 weeks greener than the first bow, developed some cracks in the handle section within hours after I stripped off the bark. (See pics below). I am hoping I can just fill the cracks with epoxy and keep working on this stave. Is that a possible solution to drying cracks? Or should I just toss the 2nd stave and chock it up as another lesson learned?

[willie]

developed some cracks in the handle section within hours

still somewhat green in the thicker sections.   Pick up a small can of shellac. it dries fast, comes off easy,    you can reapply as needed.   

I have never tried the tiller-as-you-dry method like you are doing, but watching with interest.

[Green Wood]

"Tiller as you dry" was a bad idea. But actually, I am not making this bow because I want or need another bow. I have 10 that shoot, and two that make nice wall decorations because they are developing fatal cracks in grain run-off sections (oak).  My primary goal here was to see if the marlberry wood is good for bow making since there is a large supply of it in the woods near my Florida home. My conclusion so far is "yes" you can make a bow from it. But "no" it is not a "good" bow wood.  Bare-hand contact with the unseasoned wood is just killing my hands. Painful blisters all over both palms begin within hours of contact.  For me, that is a show stopper.  Maybe with a well seasoned stave it would be a different story. I plan to go cut one more very nice sapling and let it dry all summer. Since I will head for North Carolina soon, I plan to hunt down some black locust and hickory wood to keep me occupied during the summer. I quartered some logs up there last October, and they are either yellow poplar or hickory (the leaves were already all gone). If those staves have dried, I will have plenty of wood.

[Green Wood]

I sealed up the new bow with spar urethane. It really brings out the color and beauty of the natural wood.

[Green Wood]

All done with Marlberry bow #1.  It shoots just as well as any of my other bows. Next question.... will it hold up?  I shoot for 30 mins just about every day, so within a week I should be pushing the 100 arrow count. I didn't back it (yet). But any signs of splinters or cracks on the back will send it back to the work table for backing. I added the jute twine handle this morning.

[Green Wood]

After shooting perhaps 70 arrows, I really like the way the bow shoots. BUT... very close examination revealed a small crack was developing on the belly near a knot.  I had left the knot area extra thick, but apparently it wasn't enough, and a hinge was developing. I removed a little more wood on both sides of the knot, which reduced the severity of the hinge, and I also reinforced the weak area with several layers of glass cloth and epoxy resin. Past experiences doing this have had mixed results. If it doesn't work, the bow still has plenty of poundage that I can take off more belly wood and re-tiller.  Since I had some left over resin, I also filled the drying cracks on stave #2, which is the better of the two staves (but is at least 3 weeks "greener" than stave #1).  The resin turns the wood pink on stave #2, which indicates to me that there is still a lot of sap in that wood. Now that stave #1 is pretty much dried out, the bow is quite snappy and packs plenty of punch. Unless it fails, it is destined to become my favorite bow. I will sand down my ugly fiberglass patch and re-varnish the limb to make it look nice again.