Elder (Sambucus Negra) bow???

[CHRIS STEER]

Hi everbody, i¨m new to the community and to bow building, it¨s great to see that so many people are involved in this sort of thing, and to such a standard! I¨ve made a couple of hazelwood bows for my kids, and for various reasons that will probably be my wood of choice for the future, i intend to make some full sized hazel bows too. But my question is, does anyone know about the quality of common european elder, sambucus negra, as a bow wood?  I¨ve got some good sized stems dried out ,originaly for another purpose, and would like to know if it¨s worth the effort, especialy as a beginner!

[bobnewboy]

Hi Chris,

I understand that if you can get a good piece of old Elder, with minimal pith content, it makes a very good bow.  Pith apart, the wood is one of the hardest around in the UK/Euope, and so it makes for light strong limbs with low set when using a good design (flatbow, pyramid bow etc).

[Pat B]

I believe Keenan built an Elderberry bow a few years ago, and maybe Alberto from Italy. Do a search.

[CHRIS STEER]

Thanks very much for the help guys, i¨m going to give it a shot.

[Del the cat]

Hey..
Interesting, I'd assumed it would be soft and floppy as it is sooo fast growing and pithy.
Sounds like it's worth a try, there is tons of it around here (UK).
My daught made some nice Elderflower cordial this year..very refrishing...
Dink the cordial, shoot the bow..could be fun.
Del

[CHRIS STEER]

Mature elder is surprisingly hard and stiff, young shoots are brittle, being mostly pith. It's ideal for folk wind instruments, because the pith guides the auger, and here in the Czech Republic they used to fritter the blossoms, I finally got round to roughing out my elder stave today, I'll get back when there's any more progress.