Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: ricktrojanowski on March 30, 2008, 07:21:57 pm
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I cut this today in my parents yard. I think it's a black walnut. Just a guess it's been a long time since my last field botany class. ??? It appears to be all sapwood. There is a small amount of the darker heartwood about 1". The wide end is about 7" and the narrow one about 5". Does it look like Black Walnut? Is it worth trying to make a bow from? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
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BW don't grow up here but I would think here would be more heart wood. Sure is straight eh.
More mystery wood :D
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Based on the off center core, it appears there's an obvious tension side. Am I correct Rick?
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Sorta looks like it to me. Split it in half and seal the ends. I would make an overbuilt(as per Paul Comstock) bow out of it. After it has seasoned for a while, remove the bark and that will be your back. Ideally you should wait until the growing season to harvest whitewoods(and yes, BW is considered whitewood in bow building)so the bark peels off easily. Depending on where you live, it may peel easily anyway.
Dana, It takes a big walnut to get enough heartwood to be valuable. Walnut has very thick sapwood. Generally speaking, if you were to grow BW for a money crop, it would be your grand children that would reap the benefits. ;D Pat
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black walnut doesnt get a heart wood till it gets older . looks like walnut or butternut. i know butternut is crap
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I could get two piggyback staves of sapwood without getting into the heartwood on the 16" diameter log in my garage. Justin
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Thanks fer the edukamation Pat
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Joe- probably not a tension thing more of a wind driven thing. I think the narrower rings were on the nw side (wind side).
Dana- It is sick straight, that's part of the reason I wanted it. That and the B.L. I cut was complete garbage. I'll bring some of the mystery wood to TN.
Pat B and Jamie- I'll do as Pat suggests and hope for walnut not the crappy butternut.
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Bark looks like walnut to me. :)
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It's definitely walnut. Probably black, could possibly be butternut, but there's not much butternut left anymore (at least around here) after the butternut canker disease has killed most of them. Like others said, black walnut doesn't get much heartwood until it's older. You would usually see a couple inches of heartwood in one that size, but if it's in a place where it's growing fast there won't be hardly any. Sapwood is what you want for a walnut bow anyway. It should have a distinct smell to it, too, and yellowish colored inner bark.
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Maybe Pappy wil jump in here and tell the story but seems like I remember when I first started coming around the Twin Oaks Club someone brought a log down and they said it was white walnut I had never heard of it
Ron
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Ron, White walnut is also called butternut. Pat
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Cool Thanks Pat
Ron
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Thats a nice looking log by anyones standards. I hope for your sake it turns out to be good bow wood. Danny
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I bandsawed it in half today.... Definitely black walnut. There was only a little bit of heatwood in it but that was the aroma that only black walnut has. ;D. I have it drying bark on ends sealed. Can I debark and dry or would I have to coat the back w/shellac after debarking as if it was osage?
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I usually shoot the back of everything with some shellac or glue just to be on the safe side. I've lost a few to checking before I started sealing all of 'em.
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Thanks for the advice, I'm interested to see whats under the bark.
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I started debarking. I got the thick outer bark off easy, but the inner chocolatly bark is really attached to the white wood underneath. Should I worry about taking up some of the wood with the inner bark? Or soak the stave in the shower for a while to help soften and loosen the inner bark and then scrape clean ???