Got some plum

[Marc St Louis]

Don't confuse dense/hard with elastic.  Elasticity is a more useful property when making bows

[joachimM]

I have two plum bows here at hand, both I consider pretty good bows, but the wood I can dent it easily with my fingernails. So hardness may not be important at all.
They are elastic, I can tell you that!

 

[DC]

I was thinking of leaving the bark on but with my OS bows it's not if but when the bark pops off. Does the bark stay on Plum bows?

[upstatenybowyer]

Baker says if its a sapling the bark will stay on.

[joachimM]

Baker says if its a sapling the bark will stay on.

It might come off if you dont sand it down a bit to thin it. Had this on two branch bows.
Rub with oil to avoid cracking of the bark.

[Springbuck]

What a HAUL!  I, for one, am jealous....

[shofu]

I got some purple plum, I was told a Japanese variety.  Wood is heavy and not soft to finger nail, but rasps/shaves easily with Sureform like yew. (property of grain?)  I dried it with bark on and sealed ends - no checking and started tillering - no moisture packing up the rasp.  I decided to remove bark and was surprised by weight of removed bark (aka bark was still wet).  Continued to work it and back started to check while working it (within 1/2 hr) . Stopped, sealed it and checking stopped.
Very dense, very elastic, hard to dry with bark on.
Just wonder Joachim M - how big is big log and why can't it be used for bows? (sorry I am green...)

[DC]

Baker says if its a sapling the bark will stay on.

It might come off if you dont sand it down a bit to thin it. Had this on two branch bows.
Rub with oil to avoid cracking of the bark.

What kind of oil? I'm thinking anything that hardens, like tung oil for instance,would moke the problem worse.

[joachimM]

What kind of oil? I'm thinking anything that hardens, like tung oil for instance,would moke the problem worse.

When wood (or bark) dries, it shrinks and becomes stiffer but more brittle. This is responsible for cracking. Oil is intended to replace the water or to avoid the bark from drying out completely, thereby avoiding the shrinking. Since oil hardly evaporates, it makes for a more stable bark. I wouldn't expect hardening oils to make this worse, but I might be wrong.
There's nothing wrong with rubbing the bark from time to time with a bit of olive oil.

J