Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Cloudfeather on June 25, 2013, 12:45:20 pm
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For the past couple years, I've been mowing my neighbor's yard(he lives in Texas most of the year). I've kept looking at the bark on a few of the trees that line his property thinking that the bark looked kinda like Osage but the leaves were nowhere close. Finally did some research and discovered that these were black locust trees. Got permission to take a couple off the property. The question is: What kind of bow is best for this wood? Does it behave similarly to Osage at all? Any info would be helpful. Thanks.
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I'm not a BL expert but my understanding is that BL is very strong in compression but is brittle therefore prone to getting compression fractures if overstressed or poorly tillered. Osage is much more elastic and therefore more forgiving of stress and poor tiller. BL can make a really good bow but it must be designed and tillered well or it will start to fail. I can't tell you the best design but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I will speak up soon.
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Black locust was a popular wood used in many older Cherokee flatbows, 52"-60". Don't rush the tillering.
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Here's a recent thread about black locust so I don't have to repeat myself..its just one of many...do some searches and you'll find more than yiu can read in a day....black locust can do any design as long as its "properly" designed and a proper execution of that design just like anything else basically
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=40529.0
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According to what I have read, BL seems similar to a low-elasticity osage- it has high strength, but far less elasticity. It tends to fret... so a wide, flat design with a crowned back? does a slightly crowned back help reduce the compression on it? I dunno.
I don't think a crowned belly would be a good idea though. I think thats pretty certain...
LOCUST, black .69. Stronger in tension than compression. A flat-back design is fine, but a crowned-back, wide-belly design is ideal, as from a smaller diameter limb or trunk. This wood is more likely to fret and chrysal, but here there is variation between trees. Nature loves bowmakers. She knows it’s hard to tiller a bow for best safety and speed, so she gave us the locust tree as teacher. If a locust bow develops clusters of frets in one or a few small areas this is locust’s way of telling us we haven’t tillered the bow well. The fretted areas were put under greater strain, the unfretted areas loafing . Someone may think they’ve tillered a bow perfectly, but in the case of locust, the bow will actually tell you if you have or not. A well tillered bow will either have no frets, or else small frets spread along almost the entire length of the limb. If a locust bow is tillered perfectly and still develops frets, this is locust’s way of saying we haven’t designed the bow properly for its weight, length and draw. The locust stave is a classroom.
LOCUST, honey .66 A little less dense than black locust.. One of the prettier woods. Its sapwood is about twice as thick as that of black locust. Thorns grown on both trunk and branches
-Tim Baker's bow-wood -https://sites.google.com/site/onemississipp/bowwoods
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I've got a nice BL stave that gsulfridge gave me a while back. It's got nice crown on the back. I'm gonna go with 64 in, 1 5/8 wide, full width to an inch past mid limb, down to 1/2 or 3/8 nocks. We'll see what happens. That'll be this winter's project.
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I wouldn't listen to anyone here telling you it's bad in compression or whatever your best bet is to go experient and learn what design is best for it not what someone tells you that they heard from someone who heard something about who read it somewhere Lol GO EXPERIMENT
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I wouldn't listen to anyone here telling you it's bad in compression or whatever your best bet is to go experient and learn what design is best for it not what someone tells you that they heard from someone who heard something about who read it somewhere Lol GO EXPERIMENT
+1. BL varies so much. I have made stuff other than bows from it. Sometimes it is quite hard, other times softer.
I think that goes for any wood, minus a few- willow is generally low in compression ;)
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I wouldn't listen to anyone here telling you it's bad in compression or whatever your best bet is to go experient and learn what design is best for it not what someone tells you that they heard from someone who heard something about who read it somewhere Lol GO EXPERIMENT
No one said it was bad in compression. There's no harm in him getting some advice from people. He doesn't have to reinvent the wheel by breaking five bows before he stumbles on a design that works. We all benefit from asking questions and getting advice. Otherwise there wouldn't be much reason for this forum.
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Oh yea, forgot to mention this in my post-
I think he is confusing inelastic with bad. BL is known to be inelastic in compression...
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I cut my bow making teeth on BL. I haven't made a BL bow in a few years but it is time and I am. I make them 1 7/8 to 2" wide and 64-66" long for 26" draw. Jawge
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If you have a good black locust you make a pyramid bow about 66" long and about 50-60#. Good black locust can do more than 180 fps at right tillering.
This is a Romanian . In his excellent black locust bows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VA0sd8saDI&list=WL01D89E2F795406FC
This is a useful topic
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28587.0.html
George
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I helped a friend make a black locust bow yeaterday, a good design is a wide flat belly appx 2" above handle with a straight taper to a 3/4" tip, Heat treating the belly is always a good plan this will hardern the wood help prevent compression fractures, A wider belly allows for a wider compression surface and is a good idea with black locust.
good luck!
Eric
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I have only made 1 1/2 so far. The first was a great bow till it blew on a pin knot that i sanded down too far. The second one is working out just fine for me so far. No belly fretting yet. It is not as affected by humidity as hickory is ::)
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Thanks for all the info, fellas. I tried using the advanced search option but it only gave me a few results. Maybe I've got to tweak my search a little bit.
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check out badly bent's posts, he builds some sweet locust bows