Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: danlaw on June 18, 2013, 04:18:21 am
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Holy cow. I was experimenting with mock orange, and the first piece I tested came out with a specific gravity of .92! I can hardly believe it. Got my first stave drying...
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Mock orange ?? Never heard of it
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I believe it is another name for Osage. ;) Like hedge apple, etc. :)
Wayne
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Yes, Mock Orange is Osage. Osage orange, hedge apple, Bois d'ark, bodark.
Grady
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Yes, Mock Orange is Osage. Osage orange, hedge apple, Bois d'ark, bodark.
Grady
horse apple
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Mock orange can also refer to a shrub out here in the pac NW also known as Syringa. Is that what you have Dan? It makes good shoot shafts. Keenan has made some nice bows from it.
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Syringa is Lilac.
Mock orange is Philadelphus.
They are two completely different plants....I have a bow thats been waiting to be sinewed for a year. its hard hard wood and a beautiful yellowish colour
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The mock orange we have in Alabama is not osage, it is a smaller tree with thorns and has orange fruit about the size of a quarter in the fall. A friend tried to make a bow out of it but it didn't come out well.
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It's philadelphus, a pacific northwest shrub (Keef). There's a couple blocks of it growing wild next to our house so I thought I'd give it a try. I usually use ocean spray, so this was quite a surprise. It is very hard. I haven't heard it is that popular for bows but I'm not sure why. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
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Good to know, you know how things get bastardized regionally. I have heard old timers call Osage mock orange all my life. Just goes to show you are never too old to learn.
Grady
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It's philadelphus, a pacific northwest shrub (Keef). There's a couple blocks of it growing wild next to our house so I thought I'd give it a try. I usually use ocean spray, so this was quite a surprise. It is very hard. I haven't heard it is that popular for bows but I'm not sure why. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Ahh..That depends on which variety it is... There are apparently several species native to the USA... They are widely planted here in the UK as garden shrubs and rarely reach a size worthy of even a small bow, but I located a grove of really old small tree sized Philadelphus that had a few bow staves
Look out for the shoots of this plant for arrows too...Very good stuff
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Thanks Keef. This is philadelphus lewisii (I'm in BC). It grows large enough here for decent 66" bows. I just did a rudimentary bend test to see how it failed. I used my specific gravity tester piece though, so it was way to dry - exploded without warning basically and showed failure in tension (which means little I guess considering the lack of moisture). I thought my vice was going to break first ha.
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Too dry I mean. O:)
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Now that we know its not maclura pomifera we know that its worthless junk,and firewood at best ;) :laugh:
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Had you kept it seasoning for long???......I'm a little puzzled by that result
To me, its another of those 'Prone to splitting' woods that are best dealt with by reducing to near final dimensions and then sealing up with PVA.
The Philadelphus we tend to get here to good size is hard and dense, and extermely " springy" if you know what I mean?
Hop[e you achieve some good results though as Its certainly a resource worth exploiting for bows
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Now that we know its not maclura pomifera we know that its worthless junk,and firewood at best ;) :laugh:
I wouldn't listen to this guy, he spent all weekend harvesting ash staves. we all know what ash is good for
, baseball bats >:D
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I baked a split piece in the oven at 350 to get near zero moisture. That's why I was so surprised at the result. I was just pondering doing a photo essay on this wood, from branch to bow. I've got a great drying technique people might be interested in. We'll see.
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Lol I missed that last post Paul. Ash hey? Hmmmmmm
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I think I found mock orange under Syringa (philadelpus sp?) in volume four TBB. They have it at .75 (about). Lilac is also called Syringa in TBB but under a subheading. I took some photos of roughing in a stave but I can't seem to upload them from my mobile.
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I know Mock Orange as a shrub here in oregon, that makes dang good arrow shafts and was a preferred material by the Modoc people of Northern California.
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I've never made wooden shoot shafts. I have such a hard time getting consistant flight from my own yellow cedar shafts that I haven't built up the courage to try shoots yet.