Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Aaron H on January 10, 2015, 08:38:12 am
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I found a few good trees and decided what better way to spend New Years day than harvesting some bow staves. I found a good straight 10" diameter juniperus virginianas trunk and ended up getting 7 good straight knot free staves out of it. Now I know the sapwood is pretty thick, but with the other juniper bows I have made I have always had to reduce them down to leave about 1/4" sapwood anyway, this one will just take more drawknife work.
Now to the good stuff, this was the straightest nicest osage tree I personally have ever seen. She was 9" in diameter and straight as an arrow for 7'. I split that one up and got 9 really nice pieces with med. rings. Now comes the hard part, waiting.
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Oh yea, and these two trees were about fifteen feet apart.
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Nice haul. Those are some straight and clean staves.
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and it looks like they were close to the road as well. 8)
Nice staves Falcon, any tree that is good bow wood growing that straight and clean that close to a road and visible,....... well is just asking to be cut, split and made into bows. ;)
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Very nice. Enjoy. Jawge
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and it looks like they were close to the road as well. 8)
Nice staves Falcon, any tree that is good bow wood growing that straight and clean that close to a road and visible,....... well is just asking to be cut, split and made into bows. ;)
and that is exactly how it happened, I was just walking down that road a few weeks ago and I saw that juniper and thought, well that's as good as split up already. It wasn't until I returned with my gear that I saw the osage right next to it. Jackpot!
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Those are some great looking staves!
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Those osage staves are all about 6' and the juniper are about 7' long. Leaves with a little to trim off the ends per any unseen flaws.
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Drool!! :P
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Very nice find and harvest. If the ERC heartwood isn't thick enough on any of those staves you can build a nice bow with just ERC sapwood. I shot one a few year ago that was all sapwood, pulled 45# and shoot very well and was quite zippy. Having a little heartwood in the handle and down the belly of each limb makes a very cool looking bow also.
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Ohhhhhhhhhhh
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Now THATS bow wood right there. You can make anything ya want out of those. Good find and haul. I'd take that over 200 mediocre staves any day of the week.
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Pat -Each of the juniper staves I split so that the heartwood cross section measured about 2-2 1/2" across. That is why I only got 7 pieces from a 10" trunk. I have only built a few erc bows, and each of them I have trimmed down to about 1/4" sapwood and the rest heartwood. I did this because I knew it was possible to build an all/mostly sapwood bow, but heard from numerous resources that are susceptible to taking more set.
Thanks guys
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Good for you Falcon. Those look awesome. Danny
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That's almost TOO easy!
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wow very nice :)
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Sweet harvest! Looks like you got some good hidden bows there! :laugh: Patrick
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You did a nice job slpitting them up, very clean looking staves.
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Thanks Steve, actually more on that subject. I used my usual steel wedges, but this time I also tried out some pink plastic wedges that my dad got me when he was out in Montana. I was very surprised to see how well they actually worked. I started all my splits with my axe on the ends, but then I used the pink plastic wedges the rest of the way on a few pieces I was quartering. You can see a couple of them laying on the ground in one of the pictures. Has anyone else used these before?
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I decided what I want in trade... ::) ;D >:D
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Haha, I will set one aside for you Scott. Maybe I can get a few more points from you or a knife or something this summer.
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Very cool. Nice haul!
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Nice harvest falcon. Wish there was some sage out here other than brush :)
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Falcon, I have used the plastic wedges before. I found them useless and returned them in several pieces and never even split one stave. Patrick
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Falcon, I have used the plastic wedges before. I found them useless and returned them in several pieces and never even split one stave. Patrick
Leaned to love my plastic wedges when I went thru wildland fire suppression school.