Opinions on Bow Wood

[adb]

If I had to pick only one wood to make bows, it would be osage... hands down. Osage does it all... backed (with ash, hickory, maple, or bamboo) board bows, stave bows, character bows, ELBs, war bows, flatbows, R/D bows... narrow, wide, flat, stacked, round... osage does it all. It's dense and strong, doesn't break easily, and takes little set if you do your part. Only down side for me, it doesn't grow here.

[dragonman]

Perhaps I'm the only one on this site that has never got hold of any osage....never even seen the tree or wood...or a bow made of it.   If anyone wants to send me some to try....I'll tell you what I think  of it?

The best bow wood I've found though (so far)... is Ipe... followed closely by bamboo

[crooketarrow]

  OSAGE, if you can't get a bow from a OSAGE stave you need to by one. (ANY DESIGN)

  YEW  I conceder it a little under OSAGE because it's simbley a little brittle and dos'nt take any big mistakes like OSAGE. AND I ONLY BUILT A FEW YEW BOWS. Just hard for me to get. Anyone wheeling to trade a stave (NO LIMBS). I have OSAGE STAVES up to 20 years old.
 ihave a good many hickory staves with 2 or 3 inchs of reflex add also.

  HICKORY you need to make a couple precausions on the intake of moister but again there's no reason you can build a HICKORY BOW. With the right design. I've built dozzens.
 
  ELM I conceder ELM just a bit under HICKORY. I love the interlock grain. I've made my longest draw with a RED ELM BOW 30 inchs. Keeping string follow under a inch.

  Although you can get a bow out of just about any peice wood. I've used any and everything I could get my hands on at one time or another. I very seldom waste my time with other woods.
 
   THESE ARE STAVE BOWS I've never built a board bow in my life.
 

[ionicmuffin]

Osage is number one,and anything else is a distant second. But I do like black locust,hhb,yew,and those are prob my top woods although I will and have used many many others. Most folks not in osage country won't list it as there number one because of its lack of availability.

i agree with you, someone like me that wants to work osage would have to trade quite a lot to get enough to where it becomes favorite. If you mess up on your first osage and you don't have enough around you might think "what a waste of time" So basically those that are fortunate enough to live with mountains of the stuff are the ones that cant live without it. Ship enough of it up here and ill call it my favorite too 

[Tom Leemans]

I once heard Dean Torges say, during a conversation about someone asking him which woods were best. "Pretty much osage and yew and screw the rest". Of course, there are others, but I snickered to myself when he said that. I wish he'd say what's on his mind. 

[blackhawk]

Some of you younger guys out west and folks in non osage country need to play "Johny horseapple seed" ,and start planting the stuff everywhere,and specifically down in the lower elevation valleys alongside fertile rivers. That way ya all will have it and for future generations to come,and you'll stop complaining from not having any too..lol.   

[ionicmuffin]

send over a couple thousand osage fruits and i will!

[RyanY]

I don't even think I've worked with ten different species of wood but my list would probably go like this based on work experience, availability, and the bows I've made.

1. Hickory
2. Maple
3. Red oak
4. Osage
5. Yew

[Bryce]

I wouldn't say everyone here in the lower 48 prefers osage orange. 

Sure, say that now hater!

Lol I got some Osage from Steve (seabass) and within a week I had 2 shoot able bows. These are my first osage that I've have to myself and wasn't helping someone with, so Ive had some time to enjoy and study the wood. I have nothing but good things to say about it's just not my favorite lol.
I like woods that are strong but soft and easily workable. Osage is tough hard but very elastic, and practically melts under a heat gun. But to me it's unavailable and makes my tools dull hahaha

Some of you younger guys out west and folks in non osage country need to play "Johny horseapple seed" ,and start planting the stuff everywhere,and specifically down in the lower elevation valleys alongside fertile rivers. That way ya all will have it and for future generations to come,and you'll stop complaining from not having any too..lol.   

My grandfather would have a heart attack if he found out I was planting non native species trees
I know there is some osage down there in southern Oregon but I ain't driven all the way down there lol
KEEP YOUR OSAGE OUTTA MY YARD 

[Bryce]

I once heard Dean Torges say, during a conversation about someone asking him which woods were best. "Pretty much osage and yew and screw the rest". Of course, there are others, but I snickered to myself when he said that. I wish he'd say what's on his mind. 

Isn't that the conversation that started MoJam?

[GregB]

With what I've worked with in order best to worse...osage, hophornbeam, hickory, dogwood, hackberry. I've also heard very good comments on winged elm.

[blackhawk]

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet I believe is the environment we live in. Some woods do well and better in a desert than vice versa,and it depends on if we hunt or not and in what type of zone we hunt in if we do hunt.

[rossfactor]

I'd take yew over osage any day of the week because of how easily it works, its enormous elasticity and its lightness.  I sneak around in the woods and crawl through brush, but I've yet to use a bow as a battering ram. I don't mind a ding or two here and there, but good yew heart wood is actually remarkably tough stuff.

All that said, plum is the my favorite, because it feels so damn good to shoot a plum bow. Hows that for a quantitative assessment?

gabe

[JackCrafty]

1. Juniper
2. Red Oak (because it's readily available)
3. Osage
4. Elm
5. Hophornbeam
6. Mulberry
7. White Oak
8. Hickory
9. Ipe
10. All other woods

[bow101]

Mmmmmm.. some good replys here. It is of no surprise of course that most prefer, Osage or Yew over most woods.
I noticed a few like Juniper and Red Cedar, Fuuny thing because I did a thread on Cedar and everyone said stay away due to it's softness. Latelty I have done some surfing and some guys have built some nice recurves from cedar, backed with whatever..!

What is the major difference between Winged Elm and Red Elm...?