Here is a bow that I recently made out of Pacific Cascara wood. It is also commonly known as Buckthorn. This stave was harvested in a favorite hunting area in the Northern Oregon coastal mountains. This is my first experience with cascara and I must say I am impressed with the wood. It is not very dense, somewhat like juniper, but it seems quite elastic and strong in compression. The bow did not take any set despite the fact that I made the limbs rather narrow and trapped the belly somewhat. I’ve overlooked this wood often in my search for vine maple, but no more. I expect I will make many more bows out of cascara in the future.
Here are the specs: 50# @ 28”, 64” ntn, 1.5” width limbs tapering to ½” tips, diamond back snakeskin over silk backing (I’m not sure how strong cascara is in tension so I backed it), belly heat treated once after floor tillering, purple heart overlays, and elk-hide handle, Tru-Oil finish. The stave had some pretty good whoop-de-do’s that made tillering a little interesting, but I think it came out alright.
The quiver was made by Ron York.
