Questions from newbie

[BowEd]

It can be an anxious time waiting for wood to dry enough for making a bow[been there at one time myself] and I can tell you like to make the best of things and don't like to waste things either.Good sound attitude.
If the anxious time is too much you can try reducing and taking it into a dryer 50% humidity enviornment.While accumulating more wood for future bows.Bows can conservatively be made time wise of less than 2 months quicker drying as this.It's what I did for the first year myself.
Sounds like you've done your homework on identification etc.I'd just make a bow and see what happens.

[piotref1]

The ash one was from tree that died so will try this one. If it breaks later cuz it was green... Oh well I've got experience from it at the very least ^ ^
During the time it will take wood to dry I will probably learn some woodworking or something else. Or can always make a good shave horse or tillering tree during that long time.

And about that part

I can tell you like to make the best of things and don't like to waste things either.

That's true. With wood you can at least make fire if you mess up, put sausage on stick and have soemthing to eat.
And during walk I found something worthy of being warbow.. It even bent to shape of one and it's oak! Why make mere small bow when you can go bigger?

Let's end with some more serious thing than a silly joke I doubt the bark will give enough information about tree.. But maybe. It's dead tree and broke high enough that would be usable for something. But as you shouldn't take everything you can from forests I want to try to ID it.

[BowEd]

Once a person gets addicted to this bow making it can take you to places you did'nt imagine in the beginning.Many times the same bow wood will make excellent split timber arrow shafts also.The poplar,oak,& birch just to name a few.

[Hawkdancer]

That one arcing in the pic might give several reflexed staves an a lot of arrows, if handled properly.
Take what you need and use what you take!  Good philosophy!  Btw, what is the appropriate greeting in Polish? Formal and informal?
Hawkdancer

[piotref1]

So.. I've got probably nice find. White oak, thick and long tree that fallen. Few branches that could be i think usable. Easiest for me to post it through imgur than to make few posts and resize them down.
http://imgur.com/a/4He1FO5

For the ease.. My question is, how long should I cut it? 2meters; 78.74 inches?or smaller or bigger? For reference I'm around 190cm tall: 74. 8 inches or in more proper measurements 6 feet and 2 inches.

And when should one split log? Before drying, after? And I think last question will be at what width to do so.

About greetings:
Hello =Witam.
Good morning = Dzień dobry.
Good evening = Dobry wieczór.

For informal it would be "Hej" or "Cześć".

[Morgan]

If it is a whitewood such as oak that is fallen on its own dead in the woods, it will most likely not be good for bows. If the tree just blew over and is still alive it should be ok. White woods succumb to decay quickly even if the damage isn’t visible.

[piotref1]

This one.. Was standing and didn't give easily. Though bark has few holes . Should I debark it and then paste wax the whole thing?  After cutting it with hand saw i'm.. too tired to find calipers and check width. It's way more than the ones in first post though..

The fallen one is oak but it was windy lately and for this one it gave at the roots. Even if it won't make good bow, experience of shaping and what not will be the same with good wood right? 

And thanks for all replies ^ ^

[DC]

Start cutting live wood. There are very few woods that can be used if it's dead. Osage and Yew are the only two that I know of. Use all that dead wood to heat your shop It will just bite you if you try to make a bow from it.

[piotref1]

I will cut some live ones buy first things first those ones :p
As I never used draw knife before they gonna make great practice material.

And for live ones. Before they dry this gonna take up time.
Also.. Don't all failed projects heat up houses or workshops? 

[DC]

The thing I'm afraid of is that you will learn some bad habits from working with dead wood. You don't know how long this wood has been dead so you don't know how much decay is there. You won't learn as fast with inconsistent wood.

[piotref1]

True.. So far what I've got from green wood is Cherry that i've got also today. It even had cherries on it! But they were sour even with nice red color... >>

Oak I will say not so long. It's heavy, not dry and some of the branches weren't snapping cleanly from the main trunk. And at the bottom of it there were new tiny oaks coming from main stem.

I will just try for now to gather more and use what I've gathered from deadwood to make sure I can sharpen draw knife and use it in a way that it won't dig into wood when I don't want it to.
I tried using it on some knotty larch... Results weren't great. Larch I've got is of the type that is used to make alcoves in garden. Thicker beam type.

[piotref1]

I've managed to get my hands on one of black locust tree. Got four logs but.. Should I split them? And if yes now or after they dry? Asking because saw different informations when googled.
I didn't have time to seal ends after cutting them and lost my wax somehow.. Os they started cracking..

Pics are from one end of each log. One is 51 inches long. Other 3 are around 79 inches long.

http://imgur.com/a/ie0qiAn

[piotref1]

As I could get on PC just now I've added pics to post. Should I be looking for anything when splitting? I doubt that it can make more than 2 staves each log.
Asking because on the 3rd log there are cavities so probbaly not gonna split very nicely...

Black Locust. Cut on 3rd of this month.

Log #1:  9.5cm x 12cm ; 3.75 inch x 4.75 inch ; 130cm/51" long
Log #2:  16.5cm x 12cm ; 6.5 inch x 4.75 inch ; 200cm/78" long
Log #3:  10cm x 10.5cm ; 4 inch x 4 inch ; 200cm/78" long
Log #4:  9.5cm x 12cm ; 3.75 inch x 4.75 inch ; 200cm/78" long

I guess it's gonna be one of the last questions in this topic as on tuesday gonna start making shaving horse from the plans posted in here.

[George Tsoukalas]

Red and white oak are good bow woods but they must be cut when the tree is living. Take fo the bark and make a bow.
piotref1.

Black locust can be used if the tree is dead. For this wood you should remove the sapwood and make the back heartwood.

A good way to start is to cut a 2-3" sapling of white oak and follow the directions on my site for a sapling bow.

While you are waiting make a board bow. I assume you have red oak boards handy but I don't know.

There are buildalongs on my site.

Jawge

[piotref1]

I'm reading through Your site Mr George in free time. Good read ^ ^

All of the boards I found are pine or other variation. I will wait for this locust to dry and in meantime use some hazel.