bow wood

[hunter12]

any body know if russian olive would make a good bow? i live in roosevelt utah and its every where out here . any info would b great thanks

[Auggie]

Lots of it here in MO.,but it is an invasive weed more or less. I would recommend  spending your time with a better choice of wood,boards or stave for my two cents.

[hunter12]

thanks just wondering.what about birch or aspen?

[bcbull]

hunter   that aint right !!!  i live along the n platte river and we have so much of it   you d never belive it  iv cut a bunch of it  and gave a bunch away  what i do is look for the strightest long s ya can find id say about 12  round  cut them in 8 ft sections seal the ends i cut em in the fall  and  then in the spring i split em in half  wait till about oct the split em into staves de bark em  this stuff is hard as hell  and ill tell ya the truth i made a static recurve  based on one of marc st louis designs and that suckers fast as any bow i made   so dont let it stop ya russian olive make s a heck of a bow make it about like ya do a hikcory bow  brock  p s forgot to tell ya  make sure you spray some incestacide on it   somthime s the wroms are bad  in this   and youll see just how hard it is to split ever split elm ? well  good luck ha

[hunter12]

thanks bcbull im gonna try it out . what part of north platte u around?boy i wish i was n 2 bow building when ilived in iowa and around omaha area thanks 4 tha info

[bcbull]

im east of scottsbluff have some farm ground down there on the river but i live almost to cheynnen ha   ya know to be honest i had a bunch say the same thing to me it wont work  so i tryed it  and never have regerted it  go for it i think youll be suprised  brock

[Auggie]

Okay,now Im gonna have to give these weeds a try. One time tried it for arra shoots,but didnt work too good,and had been told by another bowyer it wasnt bow wood either.Hope it is bow wood,no shortage of it!

[Keenan]

 Olive has a .91 SG.  However Russian olive is a different variety so not sure if the SG is the same.