A new contender for king of bow wood

[danlaw]

If you get off the highway and into the woods the ocean spray is much taller and straighter - it has to grow up looking for light so there are less knots too. If it gets full sun it just sprouts and is useless (maybe good for shoot arrows). a big straight piece is hard to beat (but hard to keep from checking if you don't know the tricks). I haven't tried vine maple though. Sounds like I will have to now - it's getting some good reviews here.

[Carson (CMB)]

Those are some nice pics Bryce! I wish I had a pic of ocean spray as a whole beast to go along with those. 

Marc, you could saw that about any number of woods.  Big leaf maple would make great bows because it is straight as can be, but only if it was denser...but because you said that about witherod..I still need to check it out. 

Like Danlaw said, the ocean spray staves are in the back.  I don't mind cutting ocean spray shaft shoots all day long on the side of the road though. Them some nice shoots.

If you ar new to ocean spray hunting, learn to idnetify it during summer, while in flower, then go hunt in winter when it is best to cut it (from a moisture standpoint), and you don't have to contend with all the underbrush foliage to find the big ones!

[Marc St Louis]

Witherod is a very good looking wood and makes an attractive bow, the wood looks a bit like Yew in color.  The one bow I made, about 12 years ago, hardly took any set.  Because of the short length of billets I had to work with I made it as a primitive style take-down, was a bit noisy when drawn but it held together.  Here's some pictures of the bow I made









It finished up at about 45# @ 26"

[crooketarrow]

  I think you conceder it close to Osage and yew because it local to you and a good local wood.  I've only built 3 ocean spray bows. And its a fine wood I liked it. But theres no way it can take the mistakes Osage can take and still make a useable bow. To someone with a few bows under their belt. It dose make a fine bow but not close to Osage, yew. Yew can't even take the mistakes Osage can take.
  My worst thing I can see is it develops string follow as the years pass if it'd really shot. Far more than OSAGE would ever do. That along doesn't even put it in the running for king. Osage doesn't matter what design right or wrong just about any idiot can build a bow from it you can't say that about ocean spray.

[dbb]

The way i think about it isnt how you can make mistakes with it,that says more about the maker than the wood.
Its what a skilled bowyer can make from it that counts.
That said,i would love!! a hedgerow of osage outside the window,because ill prolly need that forgiving quality 

/Mikael

[Bryce]

  I think you conceder it close to Osage and yew because it local to you and a good local wood.  I've only built 3 ocean spray bows. And its a fine wood I liked it. But theres no way it can take the mistakes Osage can take and still make a useable bow. To someone with a few bows under their belt. It dose make a fine bow but not close to Osage, yew. Yew can't even take the mistakes Osage can take.
  My worst thing I can see is it develops string follow as the years pass if it'd really shot. Far more than OSAGE would ever do. That along doesn't even put it in the running for king. Osage doesn't matter what design right or wrong just about any idiot can build a bow from it you can't say that about ocean spray.

Non of my ocean spray bows took any string follow.
And even a bad bowyer or first timer would have an easy time making a bow from ocean spray as well as Osage. Whenever I teach someone to make a bow it's always an ocean spray stave.
My thought with this post was not to say that ocean spray is better than Osage, yew, or juniper
My thought was that ocean spray is a very over looked bow wood and deserves to be on the top shelf with all the other kings of bow wood, Yew, Juniper, Osage, Hickory, mulberry, ect.

[vinemaplebows]

Bryce,

                I understand your feelings, I lean tward Cascara as a bow wood "I like". Ocean spray is a very good wood, BUT does not have the abilities to be used in all bow designs, because of it's size.

Brian

[Bryce]

Bryce,

                I understand your feelings, I lean tward Cascara as a bow wood "I like". Ocean spray is a very good wood, BUT does not have the abilities to be used in all bow designs, because of it's size.

Brian

Very true!
Just harvested my first cascara staves this last weekend. Looking forward to it.

[Tom Leemans]

Hee hee this sounds like a conversation that started the first MOJam. lol!

[tom sawyer]

Ocean Spray, isn't that what they sacrificed to the Knights Who Say Ni?

This is yet another wood commonly called ironwood.  We need more ironwood species after all.