Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: Shiloh on February 06, 2013, 07:10:59 pm
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I'm curious, where do most of you guys get your wood from? I'm hoping to graduate from board bows to staves sometime, but so far I haven't been able to get a straight answer from anyone in the Washington State Forest Service/Department of Natural resources as to where or if I'm allowed to harvest trees from public land. :-\
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Off of my land, family land, or friends land......also traded for a lot of them. Purchased some osage also.
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you can get some on the trading post.
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I cut all my staves from my property. I'll trade them for other types of wood that I don't have.
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By the big tree with the moss on the east side. durning a full moon ;D ;D ;D ;D >:D
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By the big tree with the moss on the east side. durning a full moon ;D ;D ;D ;D >:D
:laugh: I'll keep that in mind. Maybe it's Ishi's sign of "you must make a bow out of this tree"...
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It is definitely a matter of finding the right person to talk to because most either don't know anything or they pretend like they don't because they don't want you cutting trees. If it's anything like Oregon, once you find the right person to talk to it will be relatively easy. We went out and cut yew in the national forest and checked in at the ranger station nearby. One of us had already talked to the right person on the phone so they had our paper work waiting for us and they even circled some areas where they know there was a lot of yew. It was just a dollar a 'stave' (how do you define a stave? we decided not to ask... ::)) It may be different in Washington but just be persistent and you'll figure it out. Or better yet find someone on PA who has harvested in Washington and maybe they'll show you the ropes.
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Carefull Weylin, you just might start a stampeed to the Oregon territory! :o Now, Repeat after me. "Not sure what that wood is? What did you say it looks like" LOL just kidding Weylin is right around these parts you have to find the right person in the forest service and jump through the hoops.
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Just keep your eyes and ears open for all possibilities. Back when I was an osage cutting maniac, I was on high alert all the time, watching vacant lots with osage growing on them, any sign of clearing and I drove straight to them to ask the people clearing if I could have the osage, never was turned down.
Throw the words, bow making, osage and bodoc (Alabama pronunciation) out in crowds of people you don't know. Someone will say, "my uncles farm is covered up with that nasty stuff", or some other lead you can follow up on.
Just today I was shooting my flintlock with a group of guys, two I knew and four I didn't know. One of the guys who knew me said something about my osage bows. One of the guys who I had never met said"my farm is covered up with the stuff". Next question; mind if we cut some? "Cut all you want" says he.
That's the way it works, do your home work, ask around and you will have more wood available than you can cut
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Check with local tree trimmers and always scower your area after an ice storm. My last sinew/carp backed bow was fro an ice strom. Huge branch that came down. Asked the guy if he needed help getting it off his fence. I got the staves
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Thanks guys, I'll keep an eye out. I have a friend with some property, I'll ask him if he wouldn't mind me coming out and just seeing what's out there.
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Logging areas are a good start, I've called Weyhauser and Fiber offices both here and in Oregon and Washington ask for the supervisors message phone in the area your looking at and leave them a vague message about wanting vine maple for primitive bow building. Usually takes a few days but I've never had one not get back to me cause most loggers hate vine maple and don't mind if you remove some after ,you get a yes meet up with them if possible so if any one try's to give you grief you can let them know who gave you permission to cut. Don't be afraid after you secure permission to throw out an intrest in yew and oceanspray. City tree trimmers are a great resource I got dang near a whole pear tree for a couple of Starbucks gift cards. And don't be afraid to check with local ranch or farm owners I've traded labor for tree cutting in the past and got a couple of hunting areas to boot. And last but not least the BLM office sold me a permit for "vine maple and yew fence posts" and pointed me to a cutting area for 11.00 if I remember right that allowed me 24 6" diameter post. Good luck to you
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Shiloh, all of the above is good advise. where there is a will there is a way and one of these days you will be sharing your stories with one of the new guys. The main thing is get out there and start the ball rolling. Danny
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Well the Lord works in funny ways sometimes. ;D I was at a friend's church camp and got to talking with his parents. Turns out there's a TON of vine maple they're hoping to get rid of. Most of it isn't good for bows, but I said I'd be more than willing to take care of most of it if they'd be willing to let me have some after I explained the circumstances. AND not ten minutes later I got to talking to a really nice woman whose husband works with a company that goes out and trims/fells trees for parks. Talked to him for a few minutes, and he said that if he ran across any good maple, dogwood, or apple trees that he could salvage he'd throw them in his truck for me. :o Two bow-wood sources in the span of twenty minutes.
I iz a happy camper.
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Keep friending those tree trimmers Shiloh, I just talke to a crew today when the big man himself( owner) came up ,well we got to chatting and now I get to go shadow them tomorrow while they remove a bunch of apple trees. Bad side was I just missed them taking down and chipping an elm and multiple plum trees I'd been eyeing on my drive to drop the kids a school for the last three years
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I didn't feel like cluttering up the boards with another thread, and this seemed like a simple enough question that I felt it would probably fit here. The vine maple I was hoping to cut at a friend's property is about 5" in diameter; do you folks think it would be better to split it with axe/wedge or saw it?
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I'd only split/saw it if you're sure that there are two bows in a particular log. From what I've seen it's a rare piece of vine maple that has two bows in it. Most of the time people use the tension side and discard the bottom side and make one bow from a "log". Pictures might help if there are some that you're not sure about. Most vine maple grows at an angle and the part of the trunk that faces the sky is the 'tension' side and that is what is usually used.
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Get in touch with Brian Melton about cutting wood in Washington. He get's permits from the forestry people, I think.
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Thanks Eddie. Yes, I know lots of people that are local here and can give permits....yew is a different story, it really is about who you talk to, and how they "feel" about you personally. You should always come across as a person with a legit "hobby" not for business purposes.... Find local cabinet shops, some of the larger ones will set bundles out in their lots that are garbage to them, but perfect sized for bow making. I just picked up abiout $500 worth of black walnut some with figure... :laugh:
VMB
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Thanks everyone, I'll probably just play it safe and go for one bow out of the bigger one, plus I'll see if I can de-crown some of the smaller ones.
mullet- I really appreciate it, I'll see if I can get in touch with him sometime soon. ;D
Weylin- I'm probably mistaken, but why the tension/upper side of the log versus the lower/bottom? I heard something about gravity naturally pulling the wood fibers closer together on the bottom/underside of the log, making for better fibers and grain pattern, but that was quite a while ago.
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There are people who know more about this than I but as far as i understand Vine maple grows under incredible tension because of the angles that it grows in. The shining quality of vine maple as a bow wood is it's tension strength. The wood on top of the limb/trunk is doing all the tension work for the life of the tree and is thus better suited to be the back of the bow.
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I'm going in with Weylin on this one, its my understanding that the bottom side or the side of vine maple closest to the ground is undesirable its the top half or tension wood that strains and pulls to hold the tree up or in the case of vine maple horizontal to the ground. The first time I cut a piece I went out and found a piece so straight and horizontal to the ground that I knew it would make a powerful bow, when I split out a stave it was as if some invisible force peeled off the stave for me reaction wood I later learned it was called, well while drying that stave curled in to a backward C which since I wasn't any where near ready to tackle experience wise now resides in my shed waiting for me to gather more skills.
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Not all vine maple grows under tension, I look for tension neutral wood, it generally grows straight up with no leaning.
VMB
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Ahhh, that makes more sense now. Thanks, all.
vinemaplebows- The stuff I have access to is all pretty "leany" if you want to put it that way.