branch wood issues?

[stuckinthemud]

Hi All,

up to now I have only used stems/trunks for my bows, but am I limiting my stash of timber by not using clean, straight branches?  I have always thought there must be stresses in branches not that are not imposed on trunks, but are there, or am I being daft to avoid using such wood?

[Del the cat]

Yes, daft
But then we all are
Gotta use what you can find unless you have a load of perfect timber at your disposal.
Some of the stuff I use would make your hair curl.
Del

[riverrat]

yes use what you find. itll have character. its o.k., doesnt have to be board flat, perfectly straight, and without knots lumps and bumps. as long as tiller is good and tips,handle lines up, whatever else it does is just its spirit shining through. lol Tony

[sumpitan]

Branch wood rules. With most tree species, branch wood has higher density than trunk wood. It also tends to have higher compression strength. The stresses a living branch experiences are good for wood quality. Important to take the position of the stave in the living branch into account, though, to prevent unneccessary sideways warping. Center of back crown aligning with the most skyward side of the branch is good strategy.

Tuukka

[bowandarrow473]

When I harvest branch wood, I try to remove some of the bark on the side that was facing the sky so that I have a definite marker of which side should be the back (for softwoods, the opposite is true, use the side that was facing the ground). The only issue I seem to have with branch wood is that I have to climb 25ft up a tree with a bow saw to get it!

[stuckinthemud]

so if a branch is thick enough to split and get bows out of the skywards and ground-facing sides , I should only use the one and not the other side of the branch?

[bowandarrow473]

Not necessarily, I have heard that in hardwoods, the top side develops tension wood, which is stronger, and the bottom develops compression wood, in hardwoods the compression wood is supposed to take more set or be less elastic or something like that. in softwoods, the compression wood is supposed to be superior to the tension wood. If I cut a branch that was splitable into several bows, I wouldn't waste the compression/tension wood, I would still try to make a bow out of it and in all honesty I would probably still succeed as I dont think there is a massive difference between tension and compression wood. But those are just my thoughts, others may vary.

[willie]

from some of the branches and leaning tree I have looked at, I think that there are significant differences between the types of reaction wood, but the tricky part if finding enough of that wood to make a bow from. I would be happy to dedicate a single branch to a single bow, and not be concerned too much about the other side, if I thought I could get one good bow from the branch or log

[Del the cat]

Problem with some of this is that the upper side of a branch often has shoots growing from it and the underside is likely to be cleaner...
It's the difference between theory and practice.
Q:- What's the best wood for a bow?
A:- The bit you can get.
Del

[dantolin]

Hi.
Some of my best bows came out from branches (I'm remembering two black locust and one hackberry now). I always knew what side was upwards. But at the end I chose the side that I thought that was going to give a better bow (or as in the hackberry one I put the upper side on bottom limb and the other for top limb (spliced)).
I agree with Del...I try my best with what I have and use theory only as a reference point

[loefflerchuck]

I like what Del says.  Softwood(juniper, incense cedar), my favorite bows are made from the top of a upward curved branch

[sumpitan]

Hardwoods don't develop compression wood on the underside of branches. They deal with gravity by developing tension wood on the topside. Compression wood only occurs in softwoods. These are opposites in characteristics, as well, but both have desirable qualities as bow material, as long as compression wood's low tension strength is dealt with.

In branches and trunks with reaction wood (either tension or compression wood) the wood on the other side, opposite wood, is also different from normal wood. With conifers, higher in tension strength and appreciably denser than trunk wood. Few studies on the opposite wood of hardwoods, though.

With leaning hardwood branches and saplings (probably a good 50 % of the bow material I harvest), I use both sides if possible, but still mark the upper side and split the wood so the upper and lower halves make the staves. Have built quite enough sapling bows with serious sideways twisting by ignoring this practical notion.

Tuukka

[PEARL DRUMS]

Q:- What's the best wood for a bow?
A:- The bit you can get.
Del

Good advice. Keep it simple and don't over think it.

[willie]

With leaning hardwood branches and saplings (probably a good 50 % of the bow material I harvest), I use both sides if possible, but still mark the upper side and split the wood so the upper and lower halves make the staves.

Tuukka,
 
when using hardwood reaction wood for a self bow, do you prefer using the top tension wood
or the bottom opposite wood?

or do you make composite bows with the tension wood?

thank you

willie

[loon]

Don't horizontal branches of conifers have high amounts of compression wood? If so, it'd be great for sinew backed or laminated bows I think
I assume the compression wood is in the area that is being compressed by gravity, not stretched
ugh i gotta start trying to build bows