Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Blacktail on June 07, 2008, 01:18:04 am
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is elm a good bow wood.and is the differant elms that make better bows than others.any info would be great.thanks john
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i have heard all elm makes a good bow. there was a very nice elm bow just posted and i will be starting one soon
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Try a pyramid style elm flatbow. I do believe it will be better than a longbow style with this wood. I'm working on one myself!
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All Elms will make a Bow...but some aren't as Good as Others....Siberian Elms (Ulmus pumila)...and Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) aren't as good as American Elm (Ulmus americana) ...or Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra) are....but they will all work if you don't over stress the Wood....like already stated...make a Wide Limbed Bow...or Pyramid Style...
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Elms have a wide range of densities, with Siberian being light, fairly weak wood, and winged elm, cedar elm, and rock elm being the heaviest and strongest. All of them are good bow wood (except maybe the Siberian, and it may be-never tried it) just adjust the design to match the density of the type of elm that you're using.
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Another option is hackberry which is fairly common in the USA and is not prone to the Dutch Elm Disease like red/slippery and american making larger specimens more common.
Tracy
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Elm can make a very good bow.
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Elm is tough stuff I have a bow named bob, that I beat the heck out of and it still shoots just ask some of the guys at Pappy's,
heck I used it to wipe my feet on, something ya don't see every day ;D
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Elm makes a terrific Holmegaard bow.
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Elm was used to make ELB's. It was called wych elm. There was an article several years ago in PA about the only female bowyer in England. She wrote in the article of using wych elm.
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I believe wych elm is a eoropean species my only experience is with american elm and its tough stuff :)
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Well there's ol' Butch!! Hi ya buddy.
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I saw a Wych elm bow recently. It was an ELB or warbow. Appearance wise it looked a bit like a yew bow where the coliur of the belly had been a bit washed out by sunlight.
It looked heavier than really was. I was very suprised at how light in the hand it was for the size of it, and how light the draw weight was.
I imagine it could make quite a quick bow if the tips were kept narrow and therefore really light.
I am trying to get my hands on Whych Elm to try out.
I have used Elm in the past and it worked well, if very hard to split.
I am working on a hatchet Elm bow now which is odd in that it was very easy to split.
Even here in the Uk we have quite a few diffeent Elm types.
Mark in England
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elm makes a good bow......so give it a try and see what happents
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Hello Dano. Sorry I missed you last year at MoJam. Will definitely be there this year. Hope all is going good for you. See you in July.
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I love elm, here is a bow that is the throw away part of a stave after it was roughed out on a bandsaw, 5 years later still shooting, massive violations everywhere, this bow was actually sawed into this shape,
[attachment deleted by admin]
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I'd say somebody's pretty darn talented with a saw then!!! Really, that's beautiful Badger. Saw Filer
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I'll say elm makes a great bow!! http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,7522.0.html
I couldn't resist since I just saw these 2 postings back to back!! Joe H
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I started using elm a few months back after I read that elm responds well to heat tempering and heat bending.
Elm is MUCH easier to work (split, bend, shape) when it is green rather than dry. If you have a dry piece of elm...you're going to find yourself wrestling with it. But it's worth the effort. Elm is like hickory except it is less stiff, lighter and easier to dry (will not check or warp as bad).
Around here we have "cedar elm"...and it will take an enormous amount of set before it breaks. I backed a cedar elm bow with some strong thread (instead of sinew) just to see what it could handle. I could not break it. Also, heat tempering the belly made a big difference in the stiffness.
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Hey...then Maybe these Elms around Me here in the Panhandle aren't Piss Elm ...I always thought that they were just Siberian or Chinese Elm....they may be Bow Wood afterall!!! :o
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Steve, How long is that bow? I have a piece of elm that RyanO gave me that I haven't decided what to do with. I like that shape.I've never used Elm and I'd like to try a different style.
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Destructo....by all means use the Texas elm or "cedar elm". It is less stiff than other elms but more flexible (in my experience). Careful with the bugs, though. Use only green wood and remove the bark right away to avoid them. The dead wood usually has worms.
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Use this trick when working with elm! Lay out your bow and then use a jig saw to make cuts near to the dimension of the bow less than 1/2" between them. Then come back with a chisel and nock out the mass. Viola! You have gotten right down to your bow dimensions! This is, of course, if you dont have a band saw like me! :( But this also allows you to get around a lot of the problems with elm too!
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Eddie, that bow is 58" long about 40#. It was the throwaway piece left over from a stave I roughed out on the bandsaw. I looked at it on the ground and just thought I would try tillering it just for the heck of it. My daughter in law shoots it now. Steve
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D TIller, I use that technique all the time, but mainly on the arrow shelf, and always with a pullsaw.
I have seen a buildalong where some super bowyer used a handsaw and chisel to cut out the BELLY portion of a holmegaard...it was awesome!
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Yep! Thats about what I'm doing too. Sure speeds things up. But the Oh! *&it factor goes up when using power tools. I find when working on the belly on staves I like to use the push pull saws since I can lay if the stave flat and come down from the top. Its because there are so many more undulations in the wood. But when making a laminate I will use the jig saw and law the stave on its side while cutting into the belly since things are very even with no undulations in the wood to contend with.
David
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makes sense...
today my boss gave me a 2x8 of "grey elm"...i work in a custom woodworking shop :D...so i cut my lunch break in half, cut the thing into 4 sections 1.75" thick...bandsawed those in half...chucked 'em through the planer to clean 'em up (now they're just under 3/4" thick...wrecked one of the eight billets in the planer...that'll be laminations some day in the future...
now three pairs are cut to 36" with the z-splice laid out...tomorrow i'll cut lunch in half again, and cut out the splices...next day, glue them up...j
beauty is, the board had a wicked bow in it near one end...this translates as natural reflex in the billets....should be good...the wood is a beautiful yellow colour with long feathery grain...i think i should get some hickory, though, to back it with, cover the splice...