Gnarly Dogwood (and now some Black Locust)

[Lee Slikkers]

Ever since I read that Flowering Dogwood is a real good bow wood I have been on the look out for something to meet my needs.  Finally found a healthy mature one with some sizeable wideths to work with...

Both logs are 80" long, they are both now debarked and sealed with shellac...would have liked to split the stuff but has anyone tried splitting this wood before?  Makes splitting mature Osage feel like a cake walk!

Enjoy~

[Blacktail]

dog wood is some great bow wood..and you have some nice logs..the bark looks differant than what i have seen here in oregon..i cant wait to see  it done...john

[Pappy]

Nice looking logs,but if you don't split them now from my experience it will only get worse and will
take forever to dry. Should make several fine bows.
 
   Pappy

[fusizoli]

That "dogwood" looking elm to me

Shure it is not dogwood (cornus mas or cornus sangifolia I use here)
But it looking very simillar the elm I use.

Anyway if it is elm, the bigger log have perfect ring ratio for a warbow and the other one looking good too. Take care with spliting, elm could make tricky things.

[RidgeRunner]

Lee:
They look more like hickory to me...?
Might be some type of Dogwood that don't grow in my locality.

David

[Lee Slikkers]

Naw, they are definitely Dogwood.  I cut some smaller Dogwood saplings from this same stand and this one was surrounded by nothing but Maple and you could still see fairly fresh dogwood flower petals all over the ground around the tree.  The Saplings all had much smoother bark but somewhere between 2"-3" and this size the bark really seemed to change...unless its a Dogwood hybrid of some sort.  I have two saplings debarked and drying and you can see that the wood under the bark on all these are the same tree type.  These large ones have little, sharp "teats" all up and down the entire tree once you get it debarked.

I'll snap some pics of them up close all debarked and you will be able too see what I mean.  I need to go but a sledge, my 2 boys ran off with mine in the woods last week and can't find it and they are on a road trip for 10 days so I have no other choice than to break down and buy a new one.

I also just got in form cutting a real nice diameter Black Locust so I'll get those three logs debarked and snap some shots of those while I am at it...

Thanks!

[fusizoli]

Dogwood is very very reare with this dia and have tight rings. The fast growing cornus sangifolia has max 2-3mm or less (colored like chiken meat) and the harder C mas have tight rings like yew or buxus and a log like this is over 150 years old for shure. Newer saw any cornus with this kind of fat rings but could be another type I haven't know.



http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/4141/PreviewComp/SuperStock_4141-50150.jpg

[fusizoli]

Looking arround on net for some other kind of dogwoods and ound really big trees from flowering dogwood (florida)

But it has other kind of bark, as the others too.

http://www.google.hu/search?hl=hu&client=firefox-a&hs=Qtr&rls=org.mozilla:hu:official&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=T1P2TZv-MoaM-wausK3LDw&ved=0CBsQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=582&q=dogwood%20bark%20pic

Just like to help

[Lee Slikkers]

The leaves from ours do not have the serrated edges...they are smooth, and almost a gloss like appearance.  Here is a pic off the net of the same leaf this tree had...



Here is shot of the bark listed for F. Dogwood as well...very similar to what you saw on my logs...

[jonathan creason]

Hey Lee, all the C. florida I've ever cut has wood that is almost pink.  Also, the bark is in scales like the last pic you just posted.  Hard to tell from the angle of the pic of your logs, but the bark almost seems to have long deep furrows like an elm.  Either way you're gonna have some good bow wood.

[fusizoli]

Yes the leaves U ve posted is looking dogwood, but agree with Joathan on that bark thing.

Hope will have the answer soon

(I vote for elm, if looking for the bark and the inner wood)

Cheers Z

[blackhawk]

Here's my two cents,

The bark you have on those logs are furrowed. Flowering dogwood has scales,and when it gets that big in diameter the bark really scales more and looks more peeling and scaley than when its younger. Im almost positive by the bark I.d. that whatever it is,is not dogwood. There might have been dogwood around the tree you cut and dropped its petals by it,but that doesn't mean it came from that tree.

Who knows...its always tough to id wood online,without seeing it with your own naked eye. We also can't see the leaves and what type of pattern they were.

[gutpile]

I wouldn't call it hickory either ..it has no heartwood....certainly doesn't look like dogwood to me..probably best anyway..dogwood takes more set than most woods...my guess is possibly sourwood from the pics.....gut

[Holten101]

Im with you Lee...that looks like Dogwood:-)

Sizable Dogwood trees in my parts of the world (Denmark) get that kind of bark and exactly that colour and texture wood:-)

Coincidently I was arrow/bow stave hunting in a dogwood thicket yesterday and I took these pics:





Now there were bigger trunks (had I only known about this post;-), and the bigger they get the coarser the bark, until they reach what your pics show.

Could very well be dogwood....looks like it to me anyway.

Cheers

[fusizoli]

Actually Holten and Me living in Europe and here we have two kind of dogwood which good for bows. On Holten's pic is cornus sangifolia (nice old ones) it growes max 3-4 inch and colored like white meat inside....as wrote in my other post etc. It is a very good arrow shaft material too, on the heavy side.

The other type is Cornus Mas. It growes biger but slower about 4-5 was the biggest I ve seen and looking for a lot because use it for hornbows and try to find a 75 long warbow piece too. The clean straight 50-long part is very rare! Better chance with cornus sangifolia here.
It has bigger piles like sangifolia.

Non of tham looking like yours there, just the leaves like U posted. All of tham like to growe up very near under other trees because the birds eat the fruits and sitting on the tree after that.... u know what I mean Than the cornus bush going to bigger and bigger and surround the tree. Not often but have seen that sometimes.
So I'm not agree in this with Holten