Sassafras???

[crwjr]

Question for you! I was at the sawmill/lumber yard today and the most beautiful board with strait uniform rings ran strait up and Down with no run off. I would have picked it up but though I would ask you all first! It was a sassafras board about rough cut 1x6x7'! Just wandering has anyone made sassafras bows before and how do they hold up and shoot?!?! Thanks Carter

[lostarrow]

There have been a few . type it in the search bar.

[jeffhalfrack]

  For  a  board  I'll  back it w\ ash  or white oak (cause I have that on hand) it acts like red oak but I couldn't get shorter than 66" t2t smells  good while cutting JeffW

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Sassafrass is a relative of osage and mulberry. It is good wood.
Christian Soldier(Dan) has made a nice bow from sasafrass.
Here is the link- http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,38158.0.html
I advise you to back it- try Sinew...
My fave for board staves is jute- it is dirt cheap. Burlap is made of jute, and provides a quick way to glue it on. Use Hide glue or wood glue- epoxies+jute=failure. Learned that the hard way.
-Squirrel
By the way, Linen is better, but much more expensive, and it is not That much better....

[Christian Soldier]

Its a beautiful wood. You can check the link that SS posted for the Sass bow I made.

'Normal' Sass bows would be of the medium weight english long bow design, like the Thompson brothers would have made. Sass tends to be weak in tension so one solution is to give it a round belly to transfer the stress over to the belly so it just take some set instead of breaking

I went with more of a "meare heath" design. If you do that, I'd advise you keep it long (say 68") and wide (2 1/4") most of its length.

If made/tillered well, Sass bows will take almost no set and are very light in the hand.

If you back it with hickory- as I would suggest with a board bow- you can be a little more daring with design.

I'd say go for it and take pictures of your results. 

[Josh B]

Sassafrass is a relative of osage and mulberry. It is good wood.

Sorry slinger,  sassafras is no closer in relation to Osage and mulberry than Palm trees are.  willow and cottonwood are closer related. They are all in the division of angiosperm, but that's as close as it gets.  It may seem a trivial distinction, but these little falsehoods have a way of propagating themselves for perpetuity.  Some folks read a statement on the internet and just take it for gospel.  So its generally a good idea to fact check yourself before throwing out stuff like that.  Josh