Scrap black locust - bow worthy?

[ryddragyn]

I have a thin black locust board left over from a laminate speargun build. The dimensions are 37" by 2" by 0.46". It is plain sawn, as when I acquired the wood I wasn't into bow building. The grain is a bit wavy.

Could I make a small bow out of this if I backed it with sinew (and/or thin hickory or maple strip) and possibly glued on a riser of some kind? Any suggested designs?

I have looked at various Pacific Northwest models, as well as Plains Horse bows, but am open to other ideas. My initial thought is something akin to the attached image. I also attached a photo of the board itself alongside the speargun its sister laminates contributed to. It would be nice to make two very different hunting tools from the same tree.

[randman]

My instincts tell me that that is a bit short for a bow especially with any kind of riser on it (or static recurves for that matter) even with sinew on it. You are going to want every inch of that thing to be working and bending to even get a 16 to 18" draw out of it. I'll let someone with more experience than me to weigh in on whether a locust board will handle that. That bow in the picture doesn't look to be much longer that that though and it looks to have a bendy handle also. Do you know what tribe it's from (looks like maybe Salish or something)?

Now if you had another locust board just like that one, you could splice them together and than add a riser and sinew and probably have great success.

[Hrothgar]

Like randman said, if you could find another locust stave of similiar dimensions and grain orientation you could utilization stave #1, otherwise that design and length is wrong for locust.

[k-hat]

I wonder if you could rip it, splice it, and back it with hickory, add a riser and make a long bow out of it?  It would be narrow, but i would think some perry reflex with the hickory backing and the length would make up for that.  I'd try it just to try it, but that's me.  It's fun to experiment

[JW_Halverson]

even if it was backed with sinew, your max draw would be only 18".  Trust me, a short draw with a floating anchor point is THE most difficult shot to make with a bow!  There is a reason few people shoot that way!

Save it for handle laminations, tip overlays, knife handles, inlays, etc. 

[Prarie Bowyer]

Cool spear gun!  Splice it downt he middle and make a "V-Splice" then sandwich that in something else and make a pole spear.  I've made several but am itching to try one in wood.

[lesken2011]

I think K-hat has the right idea...

[ryddragyn]

Thanks everyone. Yes, the picture from the museum is a Salish bow. I have plenty of wood for risers, handles, etc, so I think I'n going to experiment with this scrap piece and see what I get. Either going to go with a super shorty just for the novelty of it, or try splicing some siyahs onto it. No matter how it turns out, it'll be fun and a learning experience.

[LEGIONNAIRE]

Yea black locust would be the least ideal wood for this bow. Id say try something else like ash or osage. maybe even oak. I would personally avoid hickory just because its a pain to bend and it looks like that bow has some pretty decent recurves.