Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: huisme on September 12, 2013, 08:37:05 pm
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So I'm looking to get more involved with other bowyers, having remained shy and secluded from my senior bowyers up till recently, and my most recent BL tree looks like the stuff y'all might like ;D
Some decent rings for just under the sapwood; this stuff was hell on my axe and hands!
(http://i.imgur.com/hnacP2Jh.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/56mvpd3h.jpg)
This section is about ten feet long
(http://i.imgur.com/wbg0e1Eh.jpg)
And this twelve
(http://i.imgur.com/cVfjZxfh.jpg)
I wonder how many bows I can get from just that ??? ?
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Don't know, looks good though. That was a good bit of chopping right there.
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damn, youll get plenty of bows out of that
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Cut w hand ax :o You will get plenty of staves outta that one. Good haul!
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Cut w hand ax :o You will get plenty of staves outta that one. Good haul!
Yep, and you bet my hands were numb by the time I got through it. More dense than any of the other trees I've cut, but it's older too so that might have something to do with it. Maybe. Don't really know ???
I tell people I fall them with an axe so I do it partially to keep my word, partially because I just like it better than the seconds it would have taken with a chainsaw.
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Like your philosophy on making things worth while.That's good log made of the right stuff.
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It will toughen your hands up anyway!
I'll very much like to trade some of those staves. Only problem is i'm in England but if you want to work something out...i'll make you a blinding bow for some of them :)
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I swear using the black locust around my place is like cheating. One of the neighboring trees yielded this piece of reflexed straightness right from the get-go.
(http://i.imgur.com/OktTtzY.jpg)
I'd be happy to make a trade, but I'm not sure what the postage for a few of these currently very heavy staves is. It'd certainly be worth a bit to finally have a bow built by someone other than me, but I am poor among bowyers for now :-[
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Good looking tree,should get a lot of staves/bows from that. Wished I had your drive,I'll stick to the chain saw. ;) :) :) :)
Pappy
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Someone needs to teach ya how to notch n directional felling....that way ya won't get that one section splitting off and wasting a stave or two there...plus your tree will fall where you want/need it too....I see lots of videos of dumb people cutting a tree without notching and directional felling near there possessions like cars n houses,and they take no consideration of the heavier side of the tree and don't notch and directional fell and watch the tree smash there truck or house....be careful if your cutting trees like that...
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Someone needs to teach ya how to notch n directional felling....that way ya won't get that one section splitting off and wasting a stave or two there...plus your tree will fall where you want/need it too....I see lots of videos of dumb people cutting a tree without notching and directional felling near there possessions like cars n houses,and they take no consideration of the heavier side of the tree and don't notch and directional fell and watch the tree smash there truck or house....be careful if your cutting trees like that...
I actually worked quite a bit at that. It was leaning over the garage. Got the tree leaning away from the garage and it looked like it was pretty well past the post you see in the photos, and I just let it fall there.
You're right, I see it a lot, but falling trees has been my job in the family for a while ;)
Relevant story though, a big Elm in a driveway I was looking at for staves forked about twenty feet in the air, but had survived eighty plus miles an hour winds, so nobody thought it was dangerous. I'm outside while the sun is going down working on my first car when it starts raining again, so I go inside, and not ten seconds later the earth shakes and I hear the sound of crunching metal.
The rain must have finally soaked the moss enough to pull the branch, which I found out was rotten to the core, from the tree and right on top of my '80 Chevette. About four tons of wood sat on one and a half tons of car, and my heart sank like a rock :'(
If I'd inspected the tree before parking under it I'd still have four on the floor and thirty miles to the gallon. I learned my lesson ::)
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I'll take mine with a chainsaw, please O:)
Knapper
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Cut w hand ax :o You will get plenty of staves outta that one. Good haul!
Yep, and you bet my hands were numb by the time I got through it. More dense than any of the other trees I've cut, but it's older too so that might have something to do with it. Maybe. Don't really know ???
I tell people I fall them with an axe so I do it partially to keep my word, partially because I just like it better than the seconds it would have taken with a chainsaw.
I get you there. I use a saw due to 18 years of hard labor....horse shoeing and carpentry.
That tree looks like it will have a few straight ones and some character staves in it as well.
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I've only been doing this since I was twelve, about nine years. I don't wear out easily yet :P
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Well I might as well post here since I don't have much for wood options out here in Floodville... er I mean Colorado.
I would love to know what makes a good Black Locust bow stave candidate and what doesn't. So far I have two successful bows out of probably 15 boards and others... and I thought maybe using a stave might yeild more successes. So... using huisme's pictures as a guide... what should we look for in a good one versus say a bad one?
Thanks! (Sorry if this is looked at like a hijack attempt... I don't intend to do that at all... justt seemed as good a time as any.)
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Well I might as well post here since I don't have much for wood options out here in Floodville... er I mean Colorado.
I would love to know what makes a good Black Locust bow stave candidate and what doesn't. So far I have two successful bows out of probably 15 boards and others... and I thought maybe using a stave might yeild more successes. So... using huisme's pictures as a guide... what should we look for in a good one versus say a bad one?
Thanks! (Sorry if this is looked at like a hijack attempt... I don't intend to do that at all... justt seemed as good a time as any.)
I welcome you, so no worries! :)
First and foremost is making sure the wood is healthy. We don't want a but of rot in the stave.
After that I'd check the grain and make sure it's not more twisted in any way than I can handle.
Third, I'd check the rings. Thicker rings have seemed more dense than thinner in my trees.
And something I might do just because I'm nuts is take a roughly bow sized piece and tap on it compared to some of my confirmed better staves. If they both have a nice high ring, I know they're probably both pretty dense. Of course, this is for dried staves only ::)
Alright, and here's a couple of update pics. I wasn't going to spend the hours per each cut to length, sorry gents :P
(http://i.imgur.com/RPirwRX.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/cdsbHt5.jpg)
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That ought to keep ya busy for a couple of days ;) I bet you will be posting some nice bl bows this spring :)
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I've been meaning to ask if BL can be hot-boxed for a couple months and come out alright if I leave a few extra inches on the ends and seal the back. My first couple of bows with this stuff were both sapwood backed and made within two months of falling the tree ('cause I had NO clue what I was doing :laugh: ) and they're still fine, if underweight and overbuilt ::)
I've also experinemted with a trash stave (can you say 80% knots?) in the Washington hot-rainy-overcast-hot wether and only seen one minor check in the end, so I'm almost ready to try slightly quickened drying with two or three staves--
I would like some input though.
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Forget the hotbox unless you remove all the sapwood and even then you should let them sit for a month with no forced drying.
By the way I wasn't joking about a trade - 3 staves for a bow of your choice. If you rough the staves out then they needn't weigh too much. It's also expensive to post a bow to America so we should work out ok. Have a look at some of the bows i've posted to get an idea what I can make....in fact i've just finished up a whole bunch of bows that have been sat about with no varnish on them....I might just get my finger out and post the lot of them. Just PM me if you are interested.
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Alright, I wasn't sure about the wait so that's good to know. I think I'll give 'em two to be safe, then still go kinda slow.
I like the sound of that, and I know your bows are works or art from what I've seen. I'll just need a little time to set the money aside for the shipping, and getting the staves down to size-- though I could just get yours cut up ahead of the rest if it's really apparent which ones are trade-quality, which should be most of them.
Will PM the same message ::)
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Be sure to tell of the cost it takes for sending etc. if you want I mean.
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Alright, I wasn't sure about the wait so that's good to know. I think I'll give 'em two to be safe, then still go kinda slow.
I like the sound of that, and I know your bows are works or art from what I've seen. I'll just need a little time to set the money aside for the shipping, and getting the staves down to size-- though I could just get yours cut up ahead of the rest if it's really apparent which ones are trade-quality, which should be most of them.
Will PM the same message ::)
husime,
To care for the staves correctly debark off to the heart wood and put at least 2 coats of good poly varnish in the ends and back. That stuff will crack bad if you don't care for it correctly. Leave it set off the ground and in a cool dry place for a couple of months before setting them in a dry place to dry good.
I would avoid a hot box.
From the looks of what I see of the picts you have some real premium staves there. That tree will teach you to be a good bowyer.
keep us posted
Greg