Rough start.

[Jah-army-glows-bright]

I've been making bows (as I assume most of you have) since I was three playing in the yard with a stick and string. I've made better and better bows with random modern materials since but I don't consider PVC or fiberglass with a duck tape handle and weedeater string to be true bowmaking. So the past six months or so I've been reading as much as possible and experimenting with local woods and I haven't had such good luck, I can't seem to find good staves and the ones I do find split oddly and I'm left with arrow wood, fire wood, or a bunch or wood chips. I haven't been able to properly ID many trees. In louisiana we have more pine than I could every want but that doesn't help me, I know the oaks and tried a few of them but I dislike working with it, I believe I may have some honey and black locust on my land but I haven't seen any thorns on either so I'm not sure. The one I believe would be black locust is gorgeous and a pleasure to work with but I haven't have many successful staves. I have a few short staves drying but I assume short bows would be more difficult. The "honey locust" is nice and fun to work with but splits horribly. I don't think there are any ash elm maple or cedar on my land. On my fathers land I have some mulberry and crape myrtle (I loved my crape myrtle bows as a kid.) so I may try those soon. Any advice to a amateur bowyer with a very low success rate?

[Pat B]

Welcome to PA.
Both mulberry and crepe myrtle make good bows. You should have hickory or pecan down there too

[Jah-army-glows-bright]

We do have it but not on my property, we have a pecan sapling we planted last year but that's it. If I go and look through ma dads 40 acres I'm sure I would find a hickory or two but that's a three hour drive and a few days if searching. Thanks for the welcome

[bubby]

like Pat said, also if you don't mind spending a few bucks hit up a hardwood lumber yard and get a pc of hard maple or hickory , for $20 you will probably get enough for 3-4 bows, it will give you some bows to build while waiting on that mulberry to season, here's a board bow build a long that may help you

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html also check out this one http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[Jah-army-glows-bright]

Lumber yard is out if the question for me. I like my forest and tend to not leave the woods. I have two or three short staves seasoning but I've been drying with fire for experimenting with my first few tries. I know everyone says seasoning for a year or more is best but my intentions aren't to make a bow that will last me thirty years, I have all the time in the world for that. I think the help I need is more in the area of picking my wood selecting and splitting my staves how how not to snap my bows. All my attempts so far have been short ( 50 in or less ) and I guess trying to make sure it's draw weight stays above thirty five pounds is hard to do because none of my attempts could handle tillering.

[DarkSoul]

Make an 80" bow. It will be nearly indestructible, no matter what wood you choose. It will not shoot fast, but an 80" bow is really ten times less likely to break as compared to a 50" bow. Increasing the bow length dramatically increases your success rate. When you got the basics figured out with your woods, gradually make the bows shorter.
Also, read the Traditional Bowyer's Bile vol. 1. It will be a HUGE help. And get yourself a book about local trees. Learn how to ID trees and shrubs, both in summer and winter. Not knowing what wood you're working with, is a big mistake.

[Jah-army-glows-bright]

I couldn't find and 80 Steve to save my life. And I'm 5'5" so I doubt I could shoot it if I found a stave long enough. I have a copy of the bowyers bible bookmarked and I read from it often. As far as my local forest go aside from obvious pines oaks and sweetgums none of the tree I have on my land match any tree description out there perfectly. They all appear to be strange subspecies with one or more key features skewed or absent. I know enough of them to know what I'm working with but maybe my land is covered in ornamentals or something. Especially the locust they match descriptions perfectly except for the absent thorns.

[Marc St Louis]

Perhaps you should consider posting some detailed pictures of some of the trees you think may be suitable for bow building and let some of the members tell you what they think.

[Wiley]

If you look around that 40 acres you might find some pecan even if they weren't planted there on purpose. We have a small orchard that was the result of clearing out woods and leaving the pecans, all the pecan trees we have were planted by crows and squirrels. Hickory will be there as well.

Persimmon probably grows there as well. It tends to grow pretty twisted though and will be one of the ones that splits awkwardly. I tried to split some persimmon that was cut years ago and was just left on the ground for firewood. Bark had nearly rotted off, I hit it with our fisker splitting axe and still hard as a rock. I want to comb the woods around here and try to find a straight growing one as it's about as dense as wood gets here.

Depending on where in Louisiana you look there may be some dogwood if your able to find a straight growing clear piece of it, but dogwod can make a bow.

Learn your local fruit and nut trees, provided they are growing in a non twisted manner and long enough clear pieces there is potential for a bow in them. I can't think of any indigenous fruit or nut trees around here that wouldn't work for making a bow under these parameters.  I imagine Louisiana trees would follow a similar pattern.

A walk through the woods knowing what you are searching for and i'm sure you will find a bunch of potential good woods for making bows out of.

[Eric Krewson]

If you don't see any thorns you don't have any honey locust, the trunk always looks like this:

[Jah-army-glows-bright]

Ok. Throw the locust aside for a quick second because I feel like everyone is pinpointing that. Whether or not they are locust trees is not the issue, I only tried one bow of the supposed black locust and I have a stave I believe to be honey drying in my attic. The only reason I tried was pure childish curiousity. I can identify 90% of the wood on my property. Most of that is pine, oak, magnolia, and sweetgum. The rest that I can identify are sycamore and sassafrass but they're less common. Of the very few I don't recognize two similar types that seemed like they would make decent bows and upon looking through countless guides and pictures I decided they could be young locust and cut a few small specimens only to have one break and the other is iffy from the start. The advice I was looking for wasnt about the wood. I have that covered when I make the trip to see my dad this Friday. I was more wondering if I could get advice on choosing the branch/trunk I cut, splitting said branch in the most efficient way possible, and maybe advice on the choice of design and method besides go longer. I simply can't go longer, I'm uncomfortable holding a 70" bow so 50-60" would probably be best.

[mikekeswick]

A 50 - 60 inch full draw bow is a tricky customer! Try by all means but later you will appreciate what darksoul said to you. I'd start at 68 inches ntn.
You should be looking for straight grain primarily. The staves you talk about spliting funny can all be avoided from the start.
Get your head at the base of the tree and look directly up the bark. If the tree is growing with twisted (althought it may be plum straight overall) grain then the bark will also be spirrallled up the trunk. DO NOT CUT if you see this at all.
As for size of tree to cut, I wouldn't be going larger than 4 inch diameter. Trees around this size can be split in two. Try banging the first wedge in the middle of the length with smaller diameter stuff. Although don't get stuck thinking you have to get two staves out.....1 good one is a wholelot better than 2 pieces of firewood.
Look for trees that at first glance could be mistaken for telegraph poles  Seriously though the straightest tree makes the easiest to tiller bow. If your staves have humps/bumps/diferent profiles between the limbs etc it becomes magnitudes harder to get a great bow out than it is with a plum straight,untwisted stave.
Get something roughed out then post plenty of pictures. You will get great advice and once that first one is tillered properly you will have a better idea what you are trying to achieve.
Good luck!

[SLIMBOB]

Good advice so far.  I would add that you need to start with the right piece of wood to better your chances of success.  Right species is a big part of the equation.  You've been given the list of woods.  Straight as possible with no knots.  64-68 inches long.  These three things seem to be, in my mind, why your struggling on previous attempts.  Get them right first and then worry about the rest.

[George Tsoukalas]

Sounds like the best advice I can give you, Jah, is to double your draw and add 20-25%. If you draw 26 inches your bow should be at least. That starts at about 63 inches nock to nock.
As you gain experience you can go shorter.
If you think about it, you rarely see a baby go from toddling to running.
They walk before they can run.
Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

Thanks for posting my site, Bubby. Jawge