European Buckthorn 56" Shorty #70@27"

[Bryce]

 

  This past summer i found myself a little piece of slightly waved buckthorn amongst my staves. ive never worked this wood before so i thought it would make a good little shorty for myself. its been a really long time since ive made a bow for myself. and to be honest i just wanted to make something simple.
so i went for just the basic D shaped bendy handle.
  i have to say, this wood is really impressive stuff. its light but can really take on some stress. i was always really impressed with Cody Wrights buckthorn bows and found that his claims about the wood were in fact legit.
what a great material. not to mention beautiful contrast and flexibility. smells good too lol
i had built this bow in the summer time, thrown a couple coats of finish on it and for some reason i just set it aside, and only just last week put the final coats on and finished it up.

  Anyways, its about 1 3/8" at its widest. tapers to some 3/8" wide flared peg nocks with a bit of horn
i filled the knots and old bark holes with some crushed turquoise and CA.
8 coats of Tru-Oil and the final coat is Satin Varathane (oil based)
the handles-back is build up with just a bit of cork.
i had a bit of kangaroo rawhide left over that i used for the grip.
been using linen for strings lately and i really like the way it feels.
 she came in at about 72-73 pounds and then after more sanding and shooting seems to be settled in right at 70 which is just right for me.
anyways thanks for lookin guys.

The Tiller

[bambule]

Nice work. Do you know which kind of buckthorn it is? Rhamnus cathartica maybe?
70#... it would be like a warbow for me :-)

Greets
Cord

[Jakesnyder]

Awesome. I love the turquoise inlays.

[bownarra]

Nice bow She's bending
From what I can see of the wood it looks identical to prunus spinosa? What we in England call blackthorn.
Do you know the species of buckthorn? Latin name?

[PatM]

Nice bow., Bryce.

 Buckthorn is Rhamnus, not prunus.

[Marc St Louis]

That is a nice one

Blackthorn is a member of the prunus species.  Buckthorn is Rhamnus cathartica and an invasive species in NA.  Blackthorn is reputed to be a good bow-wood

[redhillwoods]

Impressive bow.

[RyanY]

Beautiful work. Those accents are awesome. That buckthorn is some impressive stuff.

[PaSteve]

Very nice bow. Excellent work!

[bjrogg]

Nice stick Bryce.
Bjrogg

[Stickhead]

That’s my kind of bow!  Short, stout and with a great profile.  I’ll have to try one based on that design.

[portlandfire]

Beautiful job! 

[Bryce]

Nice work. Do you know which kind of buckthorn it is? Rhamnus cathartica maybe?
70#... it would be like a warbow for me :-)

Greets
Cord

Nice bow She's bending
From what I can see of the wood it looks identical to prunus spinosa? What we in England call blackthorn.
Do you know the species of buckthorn? Latin name?

Yeah it’s just the common European Buckthorn. We don’t have it here where I’m at. It was sent to me from the eastern US.
The native buckthorn we have in my area, the Pacific Northwest. Is called Cascara. And it’s a bit different but also makes a nice bow. Has a lot less heartwood. But similar white sapwood and salmon colored heartwood.
The Cascara definitely has a stronger fruity/raspberry smell.

I post another reply with some tagged pics of the differences.



Thanks guys:) it’s definitely a fun one to shoot. Might have to have it with me in a Pronghorn blind soon😁
It’s always hard trying to decide what bow to hunt with.


I have one other stick of this good wood that I wanna make a nice longbow or ALB out of. Just can’t decide.

[Bryce]

better picture of the pink/salmon colored heartwood







*Cascara, C. Buckthorn, C. Sagrada, Bearberry, Chittem, Chitticum*



*European Buckthorn, Common Buckthorn*

[diliviu]

Impressive bow!