Stave wood from my property

[TheArborist]

First off, Hello all, I'm new here.  I'm a certified arborist by trade who loves outdoor recreation and and hand tool woodworking, so I was pretty excited to find this forum after I started reading TBB recently. 

Anyway, I own a small parcel of 14 acres of mixed woodland and prairie in Central Texas, and I would like to start cutting some staves in preparation for learning bowyery.  Here are the species available to me: Hackberry (Celtis laevitaga), Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), Cedar Elm (Ulmus crasifolia), Eve's Necklace (Sophora affinis), Post Oak (Quercus stellata)

What should I start with?  Preference to beginner friendly, as I have never tried to make wood bendy before.  In fact, my furniture projects usually focus on making the wood not be bendy.

Also, is limb wood worth using assuming it is not twisted?
The reaction wood of angiosperms tends to be tension wood which would build up on the top side of the branch, so would it be better on that type of wood to try making the back of the bow from the top side of the limb, as it would be preconditioned for tension?  It's kind of like how if you see the stump of an angiosperm you can tell what the lean of the tree was based on the pith.  Wood will have build up more on the outside of the lean.

That's a lot of questions I know.  Thanks for any help.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Hackberry is the only one that catches my eye. You can make a bow out of nearly any wood. Durability and usability are number for me. Limb wood, or second growth is most often more resilient and make a better bow, in some woods.

[John Scifres]

Yes, hackberry is my choice from the list.  I'd not mess with limb wood as your first bows.

How big of a tree do you have?  Cut one that is 10" or so.  Make sure the butt log is 6' long or more. Split it into staves 3" across the bark.  Take one stave for use now.  Seal the rest for at least 6" at the ends. 

Best to do all the following in one sitting:

Take your chosen stave and peal the bark carefully so that you have an intact outer ring.  That is the back of your bow. 

Cut the stave to 70".  Mark the tip-to-tip center.  Make the handle 4", 2" either side of center.  Make the fades 2" or so past the handle.

Draw a center line the full length of the stave.  Hackberry usually has straight enough grain that this is going to be a straight line.  Mark the fades at 2" wide, 1" on either side of your center line.  Mark the tips as 2" wide for now.  Connect the dots.

Cut the line wide.  Thin the limbs from fades to tips to 5/8" thick.

Seal the stave with shellac,

Cut a 2X6 with a gentle reflex, flat at the handle.  Clamp the stave in reflex to the board.  Use strong packing tape to hold it on.  Let it dry for 1 month in coolish conditions.

Come back to it in a month.

[Marc St Louis]

Cedar Elm is one of the hard Elms and should be excellent for bows

[TheArborist]

These are great responses.  I really appreciate it. 

I have a lot of thin trees of around 6" dbh and less, but there are definitely larger specimens available.

I'm hesitant to use the cedar elm because it is so impossible to split, and my bandsaw only has about an 8" resaw capacity.  Also, it is ridiculously hard though nothing like the mesquite.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Somebody on here attempted and/or made a cedar elm bow. Try typing cedar elm in the search function, you might find something.

[TheArborist]

Here is a cedar elm bow I found.  This looks fantastic and makes me want to try this wood.  The majority of my trees are cedar elm  - probably 75%. 


http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35359.msg465454.html#msg465454

[PEARL DRUMS]

That's the one, I had a feeling Kevin was the guy.

[wizardgoat]

I seen some nice sinew backed mesquite bows too. I'd be tempted to cut some if I found anything suitable, it's such pretty wood

[TheArborist]

I do a lot of other stuff with mesquite like fly boxes and mallets, and it really is beautiful.  It almost always grows crooked and twisted though.  I assume that would be problematic.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Fly boxes? Now you have my attention

[TheArborist]

Am I allowed to show images like this?  I don't want to break any forum rules here.  I think that the mesquite I've got might make nice risers though.  It would certainly add some weight to the center of the bow.

[Chief RID]

Welcome aboard there Arborist.

[Eric Krewson]

I make my first split on big logs with a chainsaw, this way I can get them to a manageable size quickly.

"you will waste some wood by using your chainsaw and not following the grain" is the normal reply to my method. Wood loss is minimal and wear and tear on my aged frame is minimal as well.

I got 17 hickory staves out of the last two logs I cut, a chainsaw split was my first order of business on both of them. It was easy to knock the halves into quarters and less after that first split.



I used saw horses, a skill saw and a chalk line to cut out my staves, easy peasy.



My point is, cut your staves anyway you can with any tool you can, it's all good.

I only make one chainsaw split with osage and split everything with wedges else because that is what osage likes.

[Thunder]

Welcome to PA fellow Texan,
I'm not sure about the rest but I'd try the Elm or Hackberry first, even a 2" sapling can make you a great hunting bow.
Nice fly box btw

Cheers,
Thunder