Cherry Boards for Compression Wood?

[mmattockx]

I've never worked with cherry, so I figured I will ask. A local seller has some cherry boards for sale at a pretty reasonable price, no info on the particular species. Are they likely to be useful for compression wood in a multi-lam bow or is there a high probability they will be worthless as bow wood?


Thanks,
Mark

[Jim Davis]

Better than nothing. Make the bow wide enough and thin enough and long enough and cherry will work.

[bassman211]

For lam bows you should be alright. Many have made self bows with cherry wood with success. I took a crack at 6 of them. Wide, and long for 25 inch draw. All went well for a couple hundred arrows. One by one they exploded. I have one left. Some day I will sinew back it. If I would have did that from the beginning their is a good chance I would have all 6 of those  bows yet.

[Dances with squirrels]

I eventually got black cherry, that I cut and seasoned myself, to work well by backing it with 1/16" thick quartersawn hickory. I glued them up in a gentle overall reflex. 1 5/8" wide, 68" long for 28" draw. Radiused bellies too, just my preference. Cherry is feather light and lively wood and doesn't take much set if designed and tillered well. But cherry will test you. It's demanding enough of us as it is, so I think using a board from wood that we don't know how it was cared for from the time the tree was cut, potentially raises the risk of failure a bit more... as it does with most woods I guess. That's why I like to cut my own.

I tried to post pics of cherry bows but had to resize them so small for this site that they looked like crap. I'm not posting them like that. Sorry. How do you guys post decent pictures on here?

[mmattockx]

Better than nothing.

For lam bows you should be alright.

You guys figure it should be OK without knowing the specific species of cherry? What I really was wondering if there are some varieties of cherry that are not suitable for bow wood. If they are all reasonably OK then I will go look at the boards to see if the grain is straight enough to bother with.

I eventually got black cherry, that I cut and seasoned myself, to work well by backing it with 1/16" thick quartersawn hickory.

<snip>

I tried to post pics of cherry bows but had to resize them so small for this site that they looked like crap. I'm not posting them like that. Sorry. How do you guys post decent pictures on here?

That's a thin backing. I have maple and hickory available for backing woods, so that part should be OK.

I host my pictures on Imgur and link to them, the PA site hosting is pretty poor at best.


Mark

[Selfbowman]

Mark float test some scraps and build accordingly. Just like the Bible says. It will be fine I suspect. Arvin

[RyanY]

I’m not sure enough people use Cherry to know for certain. You could quickly become an expert.

[Jim Davis]

With any wood, the grain doesn't have to be perfectly straight for compression wood.

[bassman211]

My  bows were made from wild choke cherry which is considered a bow wood. It is brittle , and when it breaks it shatters. No longer interested in making more bows from it. Our natives used it  successfully with sinew. Chuck Loefler has an example of one on his web sight.

[Badger]

 I have made tons of cherry bows, all backed with either red oak, white oak or maple or hickory. Good shooting bows. They do tend to blow up after a few hundred shots. I have made a lot of english long bows from backed cherry also. Very good shooters.

[Nasr]

I have made tons of cherry bows, all backed with either red oak, white oak or maple or hickory. Good shooting bows. They do tend to blow up after a few hundred shots. I have made a lot of english long bows from backed cherry also. Very good shooters.

They blow up even when backed with wood backing?

[mmattockx]

They do tend to blow up after a few hundred shots.

I find this comment rather concerning. Seems pointless to make a bow that won't even survive being shot in and fine tuned?


Mark