Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Prarie Bowyer on March 20, 2013, 02:19:03 pm
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So I'm bumping around on line and looking for a lemon wood source. I found bow staves for $180.00. Thansk but for that price I'll get a Yew stave or 2 osage. I knew historicaly lemon wood comes from Cuba but apparently it also (originaly?) comes from Africa. Then I stumbled into a source that said Lemon Wood is Satin wood. My local artisinal wood store gets satin wood.....? ? ?
Also I'm looking at my huge pile of milled logs, blocks and such tha were originaly for carving and I realized I have a few straight cut flitches from large Pear trees (Bradford?). The stuff is dense and ultra smooth grained. Lovely to work with bladed tools. Anybody have experience with making a bow from this wood?
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Yes lemonwood is satinwood or degame, it has nothing to do with citrus tree. lemonwood comes as you said only from Cuba and from a location in Africa, I don't remember exactly
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pear has a sg. of.73 and tim baker lists it as a true bow wood
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The wood we use for bows that is so highly sought after, is called lemonwood or degame. But not all lemonwoods are the degame we bowyers appreciate so much. There are indeed some lemonwoods that are better known as satinwood. But that satinwood is NOT the wood used for bows. To add to the confusion, none of the several tree species producing a wood called lemonwood actually produces lemons (citrus fruits). The name lemonwood just refers to the color of the wood, and its similarity to the color of a lemon.
Don't use satinwoods in bows. Do use lemonwood, but make sure that you have the correct species of lemonwood. I'm not sure degame comes from Africa as well; I thought it was only from Cuba. Maybe the satinwood lemonwood, which comes in a few tree species to complicate things, comes from Africa? I know for a fact one true satinwood comes from India/Sri Lanka.
Degame is getting increasingly scarce and expensive. 180 USD for a stave sounds possibly, although excessive in my opinion. I would advice you to look for a cheaper alternative, which is more readily available (ipé, massaranduba, yew...).
Run a search for "Bradford [pear]" I'm sure this wood species has been discussed before.
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The actual family that Lemonwood belongs to (Calycophyllum) has several other related trees. All appear to be in the Mexico to South America region.
I think it's more likely that some of these may be known as Satinwood since they can be polished to a high luster rather than true Satinwood actually being a member of the lemonwood family.
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So lets get back to the "pear wood is true bow wood" comment. What does that mean? It's an excelent wood? I'm not certai nI know what that number is and how it compares to other woods like Osage or Hickory.
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Bradford pear is a true pear(Pyrus) and although I've not made a bow from Bradford pear I think it would b a good bow wood.
Lots of folks think Bradford pear is weak because f the way the trees fall apart with an ie or snow load or high winds but it is actually the structure of the tree that i weak and not the wood itself.
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you should check out Tim Bakers bow woods list that he compiled, list's non bow wood borderline and what he considers true bow woods
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Pretty much all fruit trees are good bow wood....thats a generalisation but it more or less holds true.
Degame is the correct name for the lemonwood that was highly prized as bow wood. The lemonwood that I can get is not so great in my opion, it acts 'soft' for it density, taking more set than other tropical woods of a similar density at the same width (talking about rounded belly elbs here).
It is about £160 for a 6 x 3 x 7 foot long board....ipe 6 x 1 's are £20.....as you can guess it's not a difficult choice for me ;)
I also know its not degame but haven't been able to get a definate latin name for it yet. Be careful with lemonwood is my advice!