A tale of 5 Yellow Birch Bows / great bow wood not often seen

[Pappy]

Not sure I would have ever thought of using it,but those turned out very nice.Nice work as usual. Looks like you may have got a little snow.
 Pappy

[Del the cat]

Nice work Rich (as always).
Dunno if we get that Yellow Birch in the UK. Maybe if I pee an some silver Birch it will turn it?
How do you get that white background for your pics?
Del

[Gsulfridge]

Nice bows Rich.

[JonW]

Rich I like the looks of the bow in F.D. pic number 3. What are the stats and profile of it? More pics of that one please.

[Easternarcher]

I got a large stash of rough sawn yellow birch cut 10 years ago or more.
Rich can you show the back profile and give a few dimensions?
I assume that it needs to be abit wider...I never make bendy handle bows, but alot of backed bows.
Nice bends in those bows too!

[burchett.donald]

Rich, you nailed it again... Never would have considered that wood...
                                                                                                                Don

[half eye]

I will get you fellas closer pictures and measurements this afternoon, for sure.

Josh, dont know about tough, but I can tell ya that cabin fever sucks big-time

bubby, badly....it's not super plentiful, but does seem to grow in stands where the ground is more wet than the hill tops and ridges

Lostarrow, yes it is, around here it's not held in high regard by the loggers, who will run it down with their skidders to get to the maple and ash. Once on the ground it doesn't do very well at all.

Thank you to all for the nice comments, but it was passing on the idea of the wood, not just some more bendies,eh?

Eastern, Jon will get the dimensions and close up picks posted as soon as the morning honey-do's are done.

Dell, It might be the very same tree as some folks around here call this tree "silver birch" cause of the bark color. I'll get the scientific name up with the next post.
Pappy, Dell.....that's what 170" of snow cover looks like after 2 days above 32....now it's going back to minus digits again for a while.....I'm thinking that spring may arrive around July ....maybe

[PatM]

Silver Birch is a different tree.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betula_alleghaniensis
  Here's a pic of the nice sinew-backed one that Marc made a number of years ago.
 http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Marc-St-Louis/media/Sinew%20Backed%20Bows/Yellow%20Birch%20Recurve/FullDrawBack.jpg.html?sort=4&o=3

[Pat B]

You can see from the map that was on the info page PatM posted where I live is in the very southern most part of yellow birch range but here it is only at higher altitudes. Mountain Ash(Roan) is another tree that only grows at high altitudes here.

[Parnell]

Those look very good to me Rich!  I love seeing different wood used.  Yellow Birch is one I'd like to try someday.  Congratulations on those.

[half eye]

Fellas, here are some more pics and dimensions:

The scalloped Chippewa bow is 53" ,  1-3/16" wide at the grip ( parallel 8") , 1-1/16" mid-limb and 3/4" tips.....thickness is 5/8" at grip, 7/16" mid-limb, 5/16" at tips. Flat backed stave 45# @ 26"

The yellow bow is quarter sawn board 58" long and 49# @ 28"...grip is parallel for 10" and is 1-1/4" wide, 1" @ mid-limb, 11/16 @ tip. It is 5/8 thick at the grip, 1/2" at mid limb and 1/4" at the tip.

The small white bow is a concave back stave, 53" and 44/45# @ 23" tillered to 26"....10" parallel and 1-1/8" wide @ grip, 1" wide midlimb, and 5/8" at the tips. It is 5/8" thick at the grip, 1/2"+ at midlimb, and 3/8" at the tips.

The darkbow (last) w/o string (qs board) is to show the stain coloration of the birch.  Bow is 60", 55# @ 28" and is tillered out to 30" ( specs that my friend wanted)  This bow is parallel for 12" and 1-1/4" wide at the grip, 1-1/16" midlimb, and 3/4" at the tips. The thickness is 3/4" grip,  9/16" mid-limb and 3/8 at the tips.

[half eye]

rest of the pics

Pat M beat to the distribution map and name ( Betula alleghaniensis)  but also has the common names of gray birch, silver birch, and swamp birch. The silver birch in Europe is like our white paper birch so dont believe it is the same.

Anything else please advise.
rich

[KHalverson]

rich
good lookin bows as allways
I got a big yeller birch in the back yard
might hafta cut that sucker.
Kevin

[half eye]

KH, it'll make ya some very fine and tough bows sir.....
rich

[Arrowind]

All those bows are awesome!  I made a recurve from a yellow birch board once.  I actually thought it was hickory when I first bought it.   I really like the wood.  That bow shot and still shoots really nice but has developed some crystals.  I'm not blaming the wood.  I'm not sure my tillering skills where up to snuff when I made it or perhaps it's not the best design for that wood.  I have a couple of others in the works.  I hope they turn out half as good as yours.   I think with good design and good tillering it's good bow wood as you have well shown.  Thanks for sharing.  Awesome as usual.