cherry wood as bow wood ?

[ohiocountryboy]

How is cherry  as a bow wood?
I come across a couple of acres worth today on our property at work. Thanks

[rossfactor]

Depends who you ask, what kind of cherry you got and how you want the bow to look in the end.

Somebody will be along soon to tell you not to waste your time.... they may even make reference to some supposed yellow 'king.' My advice is to offer them a glass of hater-aid and continue on your journey. 

If that doesn't turn you off, many fine bows have been made from cherries. Black cherry works well in a laminate bow (e.g. backed with Ash or Hickory), and can also be made into fine selfbows.  Remember cherry is much stronger in compression than tension, so it needs to be wide (think 2.5 inches ish) in the inner limb, and prefers pyramid style taper. Fine, and long lasting cherry self bows can also be made from longer staves (e.g in the 70" category)

Sinew backed choke cherry bows are reported to be some of snappiest shooters around, but that is purely anecdotal as I have never shot one of these.

That being said, for most intended purposes there are usually better bow wood options available. But if you got a field full of trees and want to give it a go... don't let me stop you. Rock on.

Gabe

[Joec123able]

Cherry is good bow wood cut as much as you need no matter what someone else here is probably gonna say, cherry WILL make a bow that's a fact

[DarkSoul]

Run a search for "cherry".
Seriously, you'll be amazed at the shear amount of topics that have already discussed cherry in the past.

[Pappy]

Any wood[almost] that's available is bow wood,if I had lot of choices Cherry probably wouldn't be the first but I have made bows from it and most done fine,beautiful and light. It seem to dry rot [deterierate] pretty fast  if left out so if you cut some get it out of the weather,spray for bugs or debark and seal as soon as you can,little wider and a little longer will take care of a lot of woods  weaknesses and turn out some fine bows. Go for it.
   Pappy

[BowSlayer]

Search "cherry bow" or "cherry longbow" into YouTube there is a guy called Colin peck here in the UK and he made one. 

[dwardo]

One of my favourite bow woods  Search on here for the ones I have made.

PS just ignore the last one 

[SLIMBOB]

Most of my bows don't break.  Black Cherry has broken on every attempt for me.  Most have been my fault, too narrow, too short, bad choice of grain selection on backing.  I'm determined to get a bow from it though and I'm sure I can.  Fickle wood in my book, but I'm oddly enamored of it.  Go for it and post pics.

[BowEd]

ohiocountryboy....What kind of cherry is yours?Choke cherry here makes good bows in Iowa.Some of the choke cherry here is 8" accross.Pretty stuff too.Well behaved while drying wood.I had to rip my staves on the bandsaw though.It did not want to split straight.Could be because of it being a diffuse porous wood.No checking either.Self bows wider and longer.Sinewed ones shorter and narrower.

[Slackbunny]

Cherry can be tricky due to being weaker in tension than compression. Most guys are used to working tension strong woods, and you have to treat compression strong woods a little different.

[Dances with squirrels]

I tried several, self and backed with boo and hickory. Most all failed. I had success wih a very thin hickory backing, bow 1 3/4" wide and 68" long. Makes a very nice bow... when it survives.

[Buckeye Guy]

Cherry is notorious for sap inclusions that can spell disaster !
But if you get a piece with out any serious ones it is a beautiful bow for sure !
No way of telling just go for it till it breaks your heart , or you fall in love !
Keep your chin up !
Guy

[Gwynnin]

I've had a lot of luck with cherry, both flat bows (I have one I made 15 years ago that's still shooting fine) and semi-stacked longbows. Might not be as brilliant as ossage, but it's pretty, works well and shoots just fine.

[Slackbunny]

I wonder if geography might have different effects on cherry. Prunus serotina, or black cherry has a range that stretches from southeastern Canada all the way down to southern Mexico. I wonder if northern black cherry fares any better than southern black cherry or vice versa. Something to think about anyway.

[Chadwick]

I loved working a cherry stave into a nice little bow. It smelled great, too. Then it broke. I'm willing to try again though!