Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Joec123able on March 15, 2013, 07:27:17 pm
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What's your favorite bow wood ??? Whether it be because of the beauty of the species or the performance I wanna know ... My fav is probably the old yeller wood Osage because it makes real nice bows and it's beautiful wood.
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Dry
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I like the kind that makes good bows ;)
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Definitely Yew!..... No Osage!.......Actually Mulberry! You can't ask me to decide this it's too hard! :-\
But if I really had to choose I would say Juniper, More specifically my local One Seed juniper. It grows everywhere, quick dries with no checking, smells wonderful, and in my opinion is the most beautiful wood I have ever worked with.
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The kind I haven't broken..yet :o
I love ERC just cause it looks good and smells great but I have little experience with A LOT of wood types.
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I tried over a dozen different types of wood and I wouldn't say I have a favorite,just some that I like less.to me it's like saying ,I like pizza,but I wouldn't want to eat it every day.same goes for design.
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Free. ;)
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ERC, though I'll gladly whittle on about anything.
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though I'll gladly whittle on about anything.
Definetly agree with that
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Free. ;)
...... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Yup....
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Well it's not Osage. I think Osage is the worst bow wood out there.
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Well it's not Osage. I think Osage is the worst bow wood out there.
Why do you think that ???? :o ??? :embarassed:
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Balsa I like a challenge :laugh:
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Balsa I like a challenge :laugh:
Yep good balsa is hard to beat. >:D
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Balsa I like a challenge :laugh:
Lol no Way I would love to see a functioning bow from balsa
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I make all my war bows from balsa. Strong, straight grain, pretty, and durable.
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Let's see. My favorites are osage, yew, black locust, maple, the oaks, elm, hop hornbeam, hickory and many others. If it's on my bench I like it. :) Jawge
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Osage-juniper
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About 98% of my bows and OSAGE for hard woods and HICKORY for white woods.
With ELM coming in a close 2 nd.
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I disagree with bushboy. I like pizza and could eat it every day, especially if it was better than the alternative, pizza v dry toast, pizza v humice, pizza v canned salmon, pizza v lima beans. Pizza gets my strong endorsement.
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If I could get better staves of it it would be osage... but I hate chasing rings.
Otherwise, clean, knot-free ERC. It finishes beautifully and is sooo easy to work.
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I like 'Em all - but I prefer Osage. Bob
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Free or.. if no one is looking, either way same thing.
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Free wood is easy to get you just have to get off your ass and harvest it yourself lmao which is no problem to me I like harvesting my own wood any wys
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Free. ;)
LOL +200
most if not all my wood is free or i get the caretaker to look the other way. >:D SS
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I would have to say Serviceberry, i've made most my bows from it. It's real close with Hawthorn, Apple and Mountain Maple tho. O yeah, OS is pretty good too ;D
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YEW juniper hhb hackberry ocean spray osage only if its real snakey in that order
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Can anybody guess mine? ::) do I even need to say :laugh:
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poplar?
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I have some yew and ocean spray drying, but for now it's vine maple followed close by cascara and hazelnut. Dale
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AHAHAHA muffin's a smart cookie!
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either that or a smart mouthed cookie
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Pine, Cyprus, and willow are also some of my favorites :P
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Elm, down flat, no thought needed on it. The grain interlocks more so than hickory, is more moisture resistant than hickory, therefore less likely to take set, less likely to check than osage, needs no ring chasing like many woods, is easier to find growing straight with less character, heat treats wonderfully, and takes dry heat and steam bending well ( not as good as osage or mulberry but well enough ). For all these reasons, I give it a +1 over ALL other woods and can prove it. ALL HAIL THE NEW KING! Honestly, why is elm considered a second string wood?
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Hell I've made two elm bows back in my early bow making days and it held up to me beating the hell out of it it made one of my favorite bows which was a D profile bow it broke when I over drew it about two inchs but it's very good wood
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Balsa I like a challenge :laugh:
yep i like balsa, just not for making bows >:D SS
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Sleek, I don't think anybody considers Elm a second string wood (or if they do they haven't done their homework).
My bias is obvious, but as I have said many times before, purple leaf plum is in my preferred bow wood over Osage, Yew, Ocean Spray and many others. I'll work any bow wood, and I love them all, but 9 times out of 10, plum is my go to when I need to make a choice. The reasons are many: outstanding compression and tension strength, very elastic, heats treats very very well, steams and bends into almost any profile, frequently grows pipe straight, the most workable wood I have ever used (loves a scraper, rasp, drawknife, or file and it sands very well), durable wood that is very light in the hand for its strength and durability (I've abused plum bows to no end, and they very, very rarely break), absolutely gorgeous with flecks op peach colored yellow, you can leave the bark on smaller staves for an awesome camo effect, it's diffuse porous and much less vulnerable to reductions in cast and set under humid conditions than most woods I've worked with. I am dead serious when I say that in my experience, plum has been a better bow wood than Osage and Yew.
But none of these are as important as the number 1 characteristic of plum wood: "bowyness" The wood loves turning into bows.
Gabe