Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Jonas on September 19, 2017, 12:47:56 pm
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Hello,
this is the first time I used buckthorn as a bowwood and I must say, its pretty good stuff.
I often hear that buckthorn is inclinded to break at the back, but this one luckily doesnt have this issues. I ll build more to see if this was just a lucky shot. Nevertheless, it s not a bow wood for beginners, you ll need a lot of sandpaper to make it shine, it s veeery soft and no fun to work with the drawknife.
However- here it is. It s 33lbs@26", weights about 400g and is 170cm long.
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Whohoo that is gorgeous! I've only broken one buckthorn bow, and that had tons of knots on the back. I don't think buckthorn has a tendancy to break, but it really needs to be processed immediately after cutting-debarked and split at least. The staves I've cut and not debarked immediately developed gray colored decay underneath the bark from the residual moisture- the cambium is very wet.
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Hey Jonas ,
Love the character and colour contrast to that bow
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Great job man- you must be proud of that. Love the cambium camo on the back! 😎
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Beautiful color contrast to that wood.Cool muscled up back also.Excellent tip work too.Your more then lucky.Your a bit skilled there too.Congrats!!!Full draw tiller looks very good too.Eliptical.Should shoot pretty sweet for ya.Probably was a bit narrow though.Reason for the set I imagine.Still a very nice bow.Did you heat treat it any?It might jeopardize the back though doing that and then make you unlucky....lol.It all depends on how elastic that buckthorn is.
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That's a pretty bow Jonas!
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Nice looking bow
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Love the simplicity. Nice work :)
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Real nice! That bow has character!
Hawkdancer
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Could have told me that was Yew and I would probably have believed you.
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Let me first say I admire what you have done here, very good executed. Good job on finish, tips, and so on.
But, I think this wood is not worth the effort. I'm pretty sure this is glossy buckthorn (rhamnus frangula) not the common buckthorn (rhamnus cathartiga) we see from time to time here and which makes good bows.
At least the glossy buckthorn I have heere in Germany is not good bowwood. I have tested some bows and after some time I made firewood aout of them. The wood is brittle, extreme low sg, and breaks after some shooting unexpected and with a great bang.
No offense here, but I would suggest put your nice work into better wood and be prepared about a sudden bang!
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Thank you all for the kind words!
@ TacticalFate: Thanks for sharing your experience. I also have a stave with the bark left on because I didnt know which way to dry buckthorn best - I ll see if it makes a difference.
@Beadman: Honestly said, I was thinking the opposite, that the area after the fades (was that what you meant by narrow? the language... ;)) might bend a little more. Anyway - since its shooting pretty good, I ll leave it the way it is ;)
@Simson: Interesting, I didnt know about the different kinds of buckthorn. I looked them up and now I am pretty sure it is the common buckthorn. When I first cut the wood, I thought it was dogwood because of the leaves, which are very similar to buckthorn. The leaves of the glossy buckthorn look different.
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Nice job Jonas, beautiful bow, simple and effective. :)
Pappy
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This bow and the wood look beautiful! Never worked Buckthorn so I can't comment about if it is a bow wood or not but I like the attitude of "just go for it and make a bow". Well done!
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Beautiful bow
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Ooooh that's pretty, I like it when you can see the central pith either end of the grip :)
Del
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Great looking bow! Love the tiller on it and the colour contrasts.
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Thank you!
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Jonas...I see your point and to a degree and to be honest that might help but will give you even more set yet though.More width and thinner is the only thing to counter that,or more length.That's a good eliptical tiller you made there.
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Beautifully done. I love it. I have a hunch that Simson may be correct. My buckthorn bows and staves don't have the rippled back.
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Now I m getting confused ;D
I found this https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/invasive-species/GlossyBuckthornBCP.pdf (https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/invasive-species/GlossyBuckthornBCP.pdf) and I think the leaves looked like common buckthorn as shown there. Initially I took the bugthorn for dogwood, I dont think this would have happenend it it was glossy buckthorn. On the other hand, glossy buckthorn is known for growing at wetlands whereas common buckthorn uses to grow at open fields or woodlands - the place where I found the trees was defininitly a wetland.
I ll have to got to the place again, maybe my memory is deceiving me about the leaves.
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I looked into my stave pile.
Now I'm sure, what you have here is not the common buckthorn - you have glossy buckthorn. Marginal, or no bowwood.
As said, I admire your work. But my tip is to use better wood. No offense!
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Non taken ;) Still have to check the place to believe it ;). I ll also shoot the bow now and then, see if it breaks - the actual performance is not bad, I have ash and elm bows which are way slower than this one.
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Jonas, take a look at the bark. The bark difference is more evident than the leaf difference. Common buckthorn has a dark gray birch or Aspen like texture with a bit of an iridescent green to it, where the glossy has more of a ruff texture to it. I've never used glossy for a bow so I have no POV on durability, etc. What is interesting about your bow is that you have an good mix of sap and heartwood like yew so I hope it lasts forever for you.