Persimmon qualities

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I'm about to get started on a persimmon Victorian ELB. I've never messed with the wood and have little idea of how it should be treated. From what I've gathered its hardness and density makes if pretty compression strong and hard on tools. Outside of that I'm not sure of how it should be treated. The goal is for about 50# at 27", and not knowing the wood, I'm thinking about starting with it 76" long, 1 1/4" wide. Then just trim and narrow as necessary.

How's that sound? And any have any tips for working persimmon?

Thanks,
Kyle

[Pat B]

68" to 70" ls plenty long for your 27" draw.  The only persimmon bows I've seen were flat bows but give an ELB a shot and see what you come up with. Lots of folks around to talk you through the process.. I know persimmon is hard tough wood and because of it's silica content it is hard on tools.

[Whiskeyjet]

Can't wait to see it! I love eating persimmons,just another good reason to start growing them!

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Thanks for the tips. I suppose I was going a little excessive with extra length. I'm excited to get to workjng on this one.

Kyle

[justsomedude]

Watching this...my neighbor just told me he will be cutting down a very large persimmon tree and it has some very long straight sections without branches.

[bradsmith2010]

I think the extra length might be good, I tried making one,, it was shorter and took more set than expected,,

[Pappy]

It make a fine bow, and sounds like the spec's you gave should be fine, the only problem I have had with it , beware of the knots, they usually go deep and rotten wood/bad wood all around them unlike most wood that you can just work around and leave a little extra, it needs to be clean, JSD even though
it looks straight and clean be sure to check the bark good for spiral, I have cut several that look straight only to have them spiral really bad when you try and split it, I usually on get a good split out of the first log. Beautiful wood and will take on a purple color as it seasons.
  Pappy

[Mo_coon-catcher]

That's good to know about the knots. I loved the black that was built up around the knots and the center of the log. I'm guessi that's the soft stuff that'll fail. I've got about 6 or 7 staves of it that are about 80" long and as straight and knot free as you can ask for. The rest of the pile are all pretty straight, but some are quite a bit shorter and some have knots. I look forward to seeing how the wood looks when it's polished up. I'll try to get started on it this week. And se what I can do wth it. It's only been drying a little over a year. So itll be a little slow in getting done. I'll get it roughed out and let it sit in the house for a few weeks before making it flex.

Kyle

[BowEd]

I've only tried a couple of logs of persimmon myself too.Never got a chance to make a bow from it.Each splitting produced badly twisted staves.Bone white wood.It had this black pith like interior.I quess it's related to ebony???Semi ring pourus??.It grows about 6 hours south of me though around Springfield,Missouri.I was gonna treat it almost like dogwood myself or even hickory for width etc.
Every now and then a bow is posted from this wood.Keep us updated.

[justsomedude]

The good news about my neighbors tree is that I can inspect it section by section and just use the rest for firewood. There is some crooked bark on it but it is a tall one.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I went ahead and got it shaped out and floor tillered. It's bending as if it's about 80# right now. I feel like the wood will be real pretty when polished up and finished. Overall it's a light grey with some dark streaking and some light purples. It's pretty interesting to carve with a draw knife after just carving on black locust. Here's a few pictures of what I'm working with. The roughed out now has about 1" of reflex at the moment. We'll see what it ends up with after I let it dry inside for a week or two.

Kyle

[justsomedude]

Very cool. Sounds like an interesting wood that I look forward to trying.

I also like your board mounted vise. I was thinking about mounting one to a 2x8 that I could move to different locations like that.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

The vice setup works pretty well. I set it up to use in the bed of my truck while at school. It works fine off the ground, but sits a little low. So after a couple hours you get a little kink in your back.

Kyle

[justsomedude]

I wonder if you could prop it up on a log like a seesaw with the board angled into the ground.

[Selfbowman]

I built a couple . The wood is supposed to be close to Osage in density but I don't feel the staves I used compared. 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 wide at fades same at midlimb then to 3/8 , 68-70 length. 10 " handle
Arvin