Coppicing for bows

[BowEd]

I would imagine it would'nt be very beneficial in ones' lifetime to coppice yew because of it being so slow growing.

[High-Desert]

Just like D.C. said, a lot of my yew comes from old growth yew that has been knocked over.
Most deciduous trees can be coppiced. Many conifers that are cut to the ground will start growing again, yew does this, and redwood.

[osage outlaw]

I cut a fallen osage tree this spring.  I noticed in a few staves the grain in the sapwood changed directions and was flowing up towards the sun.  The heartwood grain was normal. 

When you split a fallen tree that has the sucker limbs growing on it you can still get good staves from where they are growing.  I take a hatchet and chip off the base of the sucker limb.  The heartwood will be fine underneath it and won't have a hole like a normal limb causes.

[BowEd]

Good point Clint.

[BowEd]

  I think if you coppiced selectively it could work. I wouldn't want to leave a trunk 3-4' high unless it already wasn't suitable for billets, or could have yielded nice clean full length stave/s. 

 I have seen wind blown over mature osage, send up new branches dead straight towards the sky, like a coppiced tree.

Hamish....Reason for the trees cut off at 3 to 4 feet is that these tress are along a barbed wire fence line already.To reduce chance of damage to chain teeth on saw they are cut off at that height.It does serve well and better though that way to get the most sprouts from multiple trunks.

[Badger]

     Right before I started making bows about 1995 I cot off about 20 black locust maybe 6" off the ground. I went back over to check them out and there are at least 20 pipe straight locust maybe 25 feet tall. The guy that lives there now told me I can take some if I like. I plan to get them soon. Guessing they are about 10" in diameter.

[BowEd]

that's a nice windfall for ya.I keep my eyes open here all the time for opportunities like that and what I pictured also.The thing is I believe these sapling osages make some of the snappiest bows I build.Could and I sure be that way from different species also.

[hoosierf]

Reminds me a little bit of the fence posts they use in Costa Rica and probably other places in the tropics I’ve not visited.  They cut a log or limb for a post stick in the ground and it starts growing again. The posts the grow together and form a fence line with minimal wire required and they become quite strong as i understand.

[BowEd]

Now that's something I've never seen happen.What kind of wood is that?Is it decent bow wood?

[Stick Bender]

Very cool article Ed , I have a lot of strait branch trees like you exsplained Im cutting this winter , I like the idea far less work then cutting the whole tree !

[hoosierf]

Ed i went and looked again and i didn’t have it quite riight. They cut a branch of one of four species about six feet long then stick those in the ground then they grow into a fence line. Google Costa Rica tree fence and you’ll see them.  You see it everwhere there.

[BowEd]

hoosierf.....Looked it up and it is interesting.4 or 5 different species is used I see.Not surprising with the diversity of plants in a rain forest enviornment.I'm sure I'll never make a bow from any of those species just because of location reasons.I'd have to live there to see to what extent it is used also.The DNR in this state had ideas of incorporating a plant called multiflora rose as a natural fence line which backfired spreading all over the country discriminantly.One of a few other attempts by the DNR introducing species that are costly to control by locals now.
The osage here is used in that way many times also.Along fence lines that is as a natural fence over time.When land is sold or exchanged bull dozers are used to remove such an established type fence line.Quite an expensive undertaking.Windfall time for harvesting bow wood at that time then too.The thing is the osage tree through a lot of involuntary repopulation by wildlife has spread all over this country.Along with a tree called the red cedar.Unfortunately voluntary new plantings don't always grow quite as nice and pipe straight as the coppicing process.

[DC]

Like said coppicing produces nice straight shoots that grow fast. Almost any kind of heavy pruning will do the same, plums are a prime example. One thing I'm unsure of though is if the wood is as good. Sticking with Plum for the moment, the suckers grow very fast so the wood can't be as dense, can it? Is the sucker wood as good as the trunk it came from. When I cut some Plum suckers back in March I oven dried some off cuts and the SG was .65 which ain't bad but I still wonder if the trunk would be better. It's hard to find a straight Plum tree though

[BowEd]

I've had really good luck getting snappy bows from osage as saplings.See no reason other species would be any different.I keep an eye on those areas where they grow.Advantage here there's noone else I know of that cares so I pretty much got dibs on them myself.
Maybe someday we can do a trade or two.Osage for plum.

[DC]

I only have a few Plum myself. Not that common. Only on private property or where someone threw a plum pit out of the car window twenty years ago.