Fruit Bows--show us yours

[Huaco]

Just curious... What kind of Fruit woods make good bow woods?  I figured these woods would be WAY too soft, but I have seen more than one bow here and there that are made of some type of fruit wood.

If you want to show us your fruity bow, go ahead and post the pix.

[Pat B]

I haqve not made a bow with fruit wood but I have read that any fruit or nut tree will make a good bow.     Pat

[DanaM]

I haqve not made a bow with fruit wood but I have read that any fruit or nut tree will make a good bow.     Pat

But can a fruit or a nut make a bow thats the real question

[deerhunter97370]

This isnt mine. I have nowhere nere this talent but this the best fruit bow Ive ever seen.

 http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,4773.0.html

[Rich Saffold]

I've used lemon, and Guava, ,and I  have seen fine longbows made from apple, grapefruit.

[snedeker]

There have been some nice crabapple, cherry,  and plum bows on here.  I did a crabapple last year and have the other half of the log section to do someday.  Serviceberry and mulberry have been discussed recently. Of course, technically, all the non-gymnosperm trees bear fruits, just not all are fleshy juicy and tasty are they.

[rkeltner]

hey, what about the ultimate bow wood....osage is a fruitwood. it just isn't humanly edible!!!

[Ryano]

I've made decent bows of wild apple, and hawthorne which gets a small crab apple like fruit.

[JackCrafty]

IMO, fruit wood makes the best bows.  Some popular examples of fruit wood are:

Osage (already mentioned)
Mulberry
Juniper and Yew (see pictures of berries)

If you consider pods to be fruits, then there's:

Locust
Mesquite
Kentucky Coffee Tree

Other good fruit wood:

Serviceberry
Apple
Plum


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[Kegan]

The old rule of "fruit or nut woods make a bow" definately seems to fit. I've made a crabapple/bamboo bow, an osage, and a few sassafras (I've heard they bear fruit). I've also been looking for a straight section of apple for a few staves, but it's getting too late in the seasaon to cut now.

[adb]

I've made excellent bows out of cherry.

[orcbow]

Here's a bow I made from Indiana Black Cherry. Thanks to Minuteman for the stave. The back is flattened to reduce the sap wood and to improve the cross section. So I backed with some strong hemp canvas, since no ring was perfectly followed. Length 70". Draw weight 58# at 28". Aprox. 2" wide at the handle, with a sharp taper to the tips which are 7/16" wide. No nocks, just a wrapping of sinew and hide glue. I am very proud of this bow. It is beautiful. It has 1 3/4" string follow.

[orcbow]

Here's a close-up of the tip:

And a full side view:

[Rich Saffold]

Orcbow,  That looks sweet!

[sailordad]

I've also been looking for a straight section of apple for a few staves, but it's getting too late in the seasaon to cut now.

yup, good luck with that qwest there, i've been around a lot of apple trees,grandparents had a small orchard 30 acres worth when i was just liilte one,now there all gone and so is the orchard,never seen a straight apple tree limb that was more than about three feet long.
however i have been contemplating doing an apple billet bow,using a "z" style splice. just havent found the right apple tree yet,that wants to give up a limb for the cause.

there is a guy on the next block with a pear tree,seen him eyeballing it the other day,maybe hes getting ready to do some gtrimming or possibly removing the whole tree( i wish )



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