Hawthorn and Choke Cherry Stave Questions

[lotojarich]

Howdy, I have been reading your posts for quite a while and have learned tons. This is a great site, but it makes me wish I lived in the south. I have made several board bows and want to move onto stave's. I have some questions regarding wood stave's. Has anyone made any bows out of hawthorn? I'm not even sure that is what it is called. I live in Utah and we have tons of it around here, and that is what I grew up calling it. The stave's are very dense and straight 4-5" diameter with few to no knots. Also I have cut several nice choke cherry stave's and was wondering if you chase down a few rings with it or remove the bark and use that for the back of the bow?? I wish I had Osage here to play with, but I will have to make do with what is around. I would appreciate any help anyone can give. Thanks, Rich

[Hillbilly]

I've seen bows made from both. Either of these are sapwoods-just peel the bark and you've got the back of the bow. The hawthorn around here is usually crooked and twisted with lots of long thorns.

[david w.]

Marc St. Louis posted a beautiful hawthorn bow and i think others have posted some too it makes a good bow

[brian melton]

     Have 2 billets drying in front of the fire place right now....Black hawthrorn

[OldBow]

I started using local wood (Western Montana) years ago after paying way too much for osage. I have had good luck with both hawthorn and chokecherry (and serviceberry) all of are in the rose family.  None are as good as osage.  I have a good hawthorne log curing right now. I might back it with hickory.
(See pics) The first is hawthorn, second is chokecherry and the 3rd are cross sections of serviceberry (top is West MT and the bottom is NorthCarolina that PatB sent me. I made a hybrid bow from the two serviceberries.

In your area you might find mountain mahogany which can make superior bow if you can find a straight one.

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[lotojarich]

Thanks all for the help! I thought that I had searched out hawthorn bows before with no luck but I found the pics of Marc St. Louis' hawthorn bows now. I hope mine turns out that nice.

Thanks OldBow for the Mt Mahogany suggestion. I'm going to research to see what it looks like so I can be on the watch for some more stave's (patience in letting them dry will be the tough part).

[adb]

We have Hawthorn & Chokecherry growing wild here in Western Canada, but the trick is finding wood big enough. Chokecherry is a bush, not a tree, and doesn't grow very big around here. Also, finding a stave with minimal knots is a trick.

[Qwill]

I have had great luck with serviceberry and hawthorn both. Chokecherry was marginal.