palm tree?

[sailordad]

          hello everyone,
 I don't know why I thought of this,sometimes my mind just wanders I guess,but I got to thinking about exotic bow woods and the differant types people have used.
I was just curious if there is any kind of palm tree that can be used for making a bow?
 Now I don't know a whole lot about what woods can be used,being a newbie and all. I have learned that hard  woods are used and am not sure if any type of palm is a considered a hard wood, I would think that at some point through out history that islanders some where on this planet must of used bows of some sort.  Thanks for your input.


                                                                  PEACE,

                                                                         Tim

[david w.]

I think Tim Baker has used Black Palm with sucess, but usually palm isnt considered a bow wood. it is mostly fibers

[Hillbilly]

Black Palm is used for bows by aboriginal cultures wherever it grows. It's apparantly a pretty dense, tough wood.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

.........Like Hillbilly said. We call it a good bow wood (have made some) but its really more like a grass (family Poaceae ) than a true wood. Its a monocot. That being said, here come the taxonomy foks ta argue the point cause it has some crossover characteristics. Please my head hurts ! .......bob

[Badger]

I have seen a few of them, it is a workable bow wood but I have never seen one I was too impressed with, they have all seemed to heavy and taken set. Steve

[Marc St Louis]

I have a bow and arrow set that comes from SA. The bow is short and appears to be made from Palm. The back has violations from one end to the other

[Rich Saffold]

Like wood , ya just have to get the right stuff You want Senegal Date Palm, Coconut palm or one of their fruit or nut bearing relatives.. I wrote and article in PA I think its vol 7 issue 2 "In the palm of my hand". I took that bow to mojam and "famous bowyers" took notice . Then I gave it to young deerhunter type whose Dad was having trouble making a wood bow for him to help feed the family..

It shot an easy 10  over at 10 gr. per # for the five years I owned it..

It's not like folks can go get these trees so it doesn't get the interest like other dark fast woods we can buy in board form....

Rich-

[stickbender]

     There was an article about someone who made bow from a small type of palm, in one of the PA issues.  ( I forget the name of the palm at the moment ) It looked pretty good.  It is a common landscape type palm.  I think it was a diamond type shape bow.  I think the guy was from California, but not sure.
                                                                    Stickbender

[Coo-wah-chobee]

 ...................Was guy who posted above ya Stickbender "THE FAMOUS er is it infamous Rich Saffold ! LOL .....bob

[sailordad]

       Thanks to everyone here at PA,
when I posted this topic I never could have imagined that so many here would actually know that much about palm as a bow material.
personally, I never actually thought it was truly plausible,but WOW    I am amazed at the amount of knowledge here.
Thanks again for sharing,

                                                    PEACE,

                                                           Tim