Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: uncleduck on January 25, 2014, 03:39:28 pm
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I have a extra billet that I was able to salvage off of the side of an osage stave I got a bow blank out of today. The growth rings on the billet are "dished" (the outside of the tree side), and what was the inside of the tree, has crowned growth rings.
like this:
outside of tree ))))) inside of tree
Has anyone used the inside of the tree as the back of a bow? Or is this a bad idea? Thanks
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Should be fine. I've saw bows made that way
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Not a reason it shouldn't work I have thought about trying it myself to
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I think Pappy and Gary Davis made a couple of bows like that.
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The yew bow found with otzi the iceman was made with inside out growth rings.
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The backward bows that ya'all are referring to, were split out of the log so that the ring structure bearing the tension load was of a quarter sawn nature. Not one ring. The structure of osage and other ring porous woods is not an immediate delineation between the early and late growth of the same years ring. It is actually a somewhat gradual transition from the extremely porous early wood to the dense late wood. What that means is, even if you remove the early wood from the belly side of the ring, the late wood will still be more porous (weaker) than the outside of the ring that formed at the end of the annual growth. So...not a good idea. You would be better off chasing the concave side of the ring in the traditional manner and making sure that you maintained even thickness across the limb so that the higher portions (outside edges) are not bearing the brunt of the tension load. It is a pain to chase a concave ring, but you will have better results if you do. Just my .02 Josh
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Thanks for the input. Josh, that is what I was worried about when I started looking at it closely.