Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: DC on September 13, 2015, 09:18:22 pm
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I just collected my first piece of Cascara. How does it dry? How would it compare to Douglas Or Vine Maple? Thanks
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Don, I have a few staves roughed out and they did move on me a bit. I thought they were dry enough but apparently not. I can't give you too much more advice, I've heard it has decent tension and compression qualities, not really excelling in either though. Pretty wood, some of mine you'd swear were yew
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The piece I got is a sapling only 2" on the big end so it's gonna be high crown. It's a real snakey piece though. I couldn't leave it.
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Cascara, the poor mans yew😄
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Worked and cut LOTS of Cascara......tension is good, but don't nick the back. If this is your first go around, back it with something is my advice. Compression is good if tillered well. I like to decrown Cascara and back it myself. The diameter of stave you have may be a little small.
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I'm always surprised with how light cascara seems when I dry it. Haven't made too many bows of it, but I prefer to leave it a bit wider... That said, I think it makes a fine bow.
Gabe
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Yep, I'm still sitting on a 3" wide, decrowned stave from Brian. I've got a nice piece of rawhide for it.
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I made a cascara bow early this year. It dried very quickly, the wood was way easier to work than vinemaple in my opinion. I loved that bow, but one day tried to straiten the handle with heat to get better string alingnment, I tried several times and it would not budge. I toasted the back on accident while triying to staighten it and when I shot it a few days later it blew.