Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: mullet on June 07, 2014, 01:38:12 pm
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Has anybody ever heard of this wood? I picked up a 1947 Popular Mechanics magazine from 1947 at the Flea Market this morning. It was called What to Make and How to Make it. What caught my eye while thumbing through it was a section on how to make a takedown bow and broad head arrows. It mentions using four kinds of wood; Osage orange, Yew, Boam and Lemonwood.
I've heard of the rest but never heard of Boam. It's a pretty cool little magazine.
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BOAM??
Bow. Or. Arrow.Material
LOL ::) ::)
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here's some pictures
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that set of plans is the takedown, I used the plans they have for an alb for my first couple bows, got those same plans you have there eddie, then I found the ferrets board bow plans and really took to them
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heck Eddie I googled it and nothing came up
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Wikkipedia shows nothing!
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How many of you guys wear a white shirt, tie and an apron in the shop. I think Pop Mech was aimed at a different class. >:D
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I think it is another name for Lemonwood. I read the article, and yes I did see they also stated Lemonwood. The time period the most popular woods were osage, yew, and lemonwood. I remember (vaguely) the word Boam I think yrs ago the question was on stickbow, I could be mistaken. Ask Badger he may know, he spent time on stickbow.
VMB
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Here is my research trail :P
This link will take you to a page in a Philadelphia medical dictionary which defines words for medicine, surgery, pharmacy and... botany :D
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=LS1AAQAAMAAJ&pg=PT138&lpg=PT138&dq=tree+species+boam&source=bl&ots=tK9YN1x6gm&sig=qOlVQoleKUtUMywvwPidHXLY5lY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=y4qTU8rrCYvYkQXBy4DgBw&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=tree%20species%20boam&f=false (http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=LS1AAQAAMAAJ&pg=PT138&lpg=PT138&dq=tree+species+boam&source=bl&ots=tK9YN1x6gm&sig=qOlVQoleKUtUMywvwPidHXLY5lY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=y4qTU8rrCYvYkQXBy4DgBw&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=tree%20species%20boam&f=false)
If you google the scientific name it takes you to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbus_chamaemespilus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbus_chamaemespilus)
Which is basically a subgenus of this (AKA "aria", from the same entry in the medical book):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebeam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebeam)
So I would say it's basically a whitebeam. They are in the same family as apples, pears, plums etc, so probably make good bows. More closely related to Rowan.
Looking at my wood density spreadsheet I posted in the "How to" section, it gives a density of 611 - 672 kg/m3 for Sorbus aria. A bit denser than american elm.
OR "white boam tree" could be a typo for "white beam tree" :laugh:
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yep I think you are on to something crogacht, google whitebeam and a native british tree comes up, a fine grained hard white wood, where as google whiteboam and a bunch of stuff about bombs comes up, got to be carefull or big bro will swoop down on you searching that :laugh:
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It says on one of the pages that is it hard, strong wood, so even if whitebeam is NOT boam, it is probably still good bow wood, given the related species ;D
It is odd that it doesn't come up elsewhere, but I imagine a lot of stuff from 1800's doesn't come up online :P
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The only thing I noticed from the charts is BOAM requires
more stock to give the same punch.
Not much help but an interesting quest. lol
Zuma
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This subject came up on stickbow several years ago. Never did come to a conclusion
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Another COOL find Eddie ! Bob
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Bows Of Another Material.....
Maybe it just means "white wood" bows, such as hickory,etc.
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Bows Of Another Material.....
Maybe it just means "white wood" bows, such as hickory,etc.
For some reason.....it seams like I have read this somewhere before..... you might have it nclonghunter
DBar
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I think you are on the right path.
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Seems like it would make more sense to write "whitewood" if you wanted to talk about something other than osage/yew/lemonwood.
I can't read it all, but in that second pic on the right page it says something like "Yew and boam have ?? sapwood and will require trimming down". It seems strange that the article would compare "boam" with Yew, if it was just referring to other misc. whitewoods. But maybe things were a bit strange back then :P
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Yea, I read the whole article and when it mentions Boam it treats it like a separate species of wood.
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I'm not convinced by my own explanation either though :P
Why would a magazine printed in New York (I think) list Osage, Yew, Lemonwood and Whitebeam as possible wood choices. Is whitebeam common in that area? I had never heard of it. Wouldn't you list hickory, red oak and so on before you'd list what seems to be a random european tree? ???
I still don't know what to make of this mysterious "boam" ::)
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Here is the article for anyone that wants to read it. Although it claims it is 1945, it looks to be the same as the one you posted.
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=qN8DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA106&dq=bow&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mQiVU6b9HNHrkwXvzoHIBw&ved=0CCYQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=bow&f=false (http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=qN8DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA106&dq=bow&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mQiVU6b9HNHrkwXvzoHIBw&ved=0CCYQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=bow&f=false)
"Boam" appears three times:
Once in the table, which advises that the thickness should be the same as Yew, but it should be slightly wider.
Here: "If you want the best, however, use osage orange or boam"
And here: "Yew and boam have more sapwood and will require trimming down"
From this we can deduce that:
- It has similar properties to yew, but needs to be made 1/16th of an inch wider for a given thickness, length etc.
- However, it is also considered to be "better" wood than Yew or lemonwood.
- It also has more sapwood than osage and lemonwood and requires similar treatment to Yew in that regard.
I'm not sure they are using "boam" to describe "other wood" in general with statements like that. Doesn't sound right.
Do these clues suggest any particular type of wood to you guys from USA? Do those clues fit Whitebeam, for anyone who is familiar with it?
There's a few hints in the article as you can see, so maybe we will solve it yet! :laugh:
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Eddie what month is the publication? You might try emailing the publisher, and asking if they can define it for you. ;)
Wayne
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I'd bet anybody connected with the article is dead or feeble, now.
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Eddie, Swat that fly on pic 3, he's bugging me!
Kevin
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Eddie, Swat that fly on pic 3, he's bugging me!
Kevin
LOL didn't even notice it. ;D
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:)
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Like the guy in the article, I always wear a white shirt and tie while making bows in my shop :).
There was a Popular Mechanics Encyclopedia set that came out in the fifties that we had at my house. It had the same article in it as well as neat plans for making a crossbow with a car leaf spring prod.