Juniper Compression Wood

[E. Jensen]

Compression wood in conifers and tension wood in broadleafs fascinates me.  Generally considered inferior, it seems it has its place in bow making.  For example, the thread floating around about the vine maple has a back of tensionwood.  What I am curious in knowing is how juniper compression wood does.  I have two Juniper staves, that were branches.  This means there should be a definite compression side and a definite non-compression side, which they call opposite wood.  The idea split the branch, and make identical bows, and compare results.  It's considerably outside of my skill set, nor do I have the time.  Are there any experienced bowyers out there that would like to take on this project?  The staves are free (although it'd be nice to get help on shipping), the only payment required is the results!  I have two of these branches, and although only a few inches in diameter, they are very long, very straight, and very clean.  Quite uncommon for Juniper from what I hear.

[wizardgoat]

I have roughed out dripping green juniper branch staves and they didn't move at all. I usually just pick the cleanest side for my back, which usually ends up being the tension side anyways.
I haven't made many compression wood bows, mainly because I have enough good wood to keep me busy. If I was short on wood I'd try it out

[Limbit]

I envy you....good juniper is hard to find.

[Gordon]

While I have seen real differences between using vine maple tension and compression wood for bows, I have not experienced the same with other woods. I have not worked enough with juniper to know if there would be any difference, but I suspect not.

[JackCrafty]

I usually don't weigh in on bow topics but I have some experience with juniper.  Where I live, we have Ashe juniper.  It tends to grow twisted and chaotic but when it grows straight the branches tend to sprout form the lower side (compression side) of the wood.  This is also where the sapwood is thickest and is where I harvest wood for bows.  I've made bows with the crown of the branch as the belly and also as the back.  I've even flipped a juniper self-bow around after tillering it in one and then tillering it in the other direction because I wanted to see if a "backwards" bow was possible.  It was and it worked very well.  I saw no difference in performance.

(Edited:  I used "sapwood in this paragraph where I meant "heartwood".  Sorry)  I've seen drawings and explanations where juniper wood is harvested from the upper side of branches (where it's clearest).  But this wood (tension wood) is mostly heartwood.  Ashe juniper heartwood is great when wet but self destructs as it dries.  It becomes useless when it reaches a low moister content, in my opinion.  I never recommend using juniper tension wood.

I've read many accounts of guys using all parts of all the different species of juniper tress - and making excellent bows worthy of hall-of-fame performance in every hunting/target situation, in all weather conditions, and in all climates.  I believe maybe 10% of those accounts.

Juniper is prone to checks and warping, hard to find in straight/untwisted pieces, knotty, and can have significant variations in density along the length of a stave.  These properties far outweigh the subtleties of the properties of compression wood.