Privet Sapling Bow

[Rākau]

Hi all, this is not a post about an amazing bow, more of a documentation of privet as a bow wood. There is a lot of it around and you don't hear of many bows being made from it, so just adding to the online knowledge base of what I consider to be a pretty good bow wood. I have made three bows from it so far and in my opinion it is very good (compared to others I have access to at least).

Design in part inspired by Bubby's "tree to bow in 30 days" http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,52048.0.html

Self privet sapling bow, handle depth is the full thickness of the sapling ~1 1/8" in the middle of the stave.
Pulls 40# at 26" 63" ntn
4" stiff handle, 1.5" fades
Flipped the tips with dry heat.
Little self pin nocks.
She is a sweet wee shooter, could go all day and not feel a thing. After a good session she follows the string by maybe a 1/4"
finished her up with a light sand and a rub down of some beeswax based boot waterproofing compound, still a couple of hatchet nicks in the belly by the fades.

I would have liked her a bit heavier but I had reduced the stave down to the pith for drying (you can still see the pith in the limbs) and this was all she wrote. managed to gain a few lbs with a good heat treat on the belly but couldn't get it past 40. the other option would be to pike her limbs a bit, maybe half an inch or an inch off each tip, but then i would start to wory about taking too much set so I'll leave her as is and try a bit heavier on the next one.

Initially I left the bark on the back of the stave, it was going well until i reached 24" on the tiller tree then it popped off and I lost about 6 or 7 lbs, annoying, but lesson learned.

Cheers,
Zach

20200425_105310 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20200425_105248 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

fd by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20200425_105506 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20200425_105411 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20200425_105432 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20200425_105358 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

[George Tsoukalas]

Wel done! Superb tiller. Jawge

[Gordon]

Nicely executed.

[Pat B]

Very nice privet stick. 

[Shamusrobert]

Wow,
Nice work on that one.

[Eric Krewson]

I am impressed, especially with the great tiller.

[PaSteve]

Looks like you made yourself an all day shooter. Nice bow.

[Stixnstones]

Nicely done...

[BowEd]

Sweet looking sapling bow.A natural look that's appealing and comfortable to shoot in the hand.

[DC]

Good job

[Rākau]

Thanks all,
I think high crown contributed to low set, must be fairly tension strong. Will go for 45-50 on the next one.

cheers,
Zach

[simson]

That's fine, a simple primitive bow. I like that elegance.
Privet is a white wood to love, can be polished like bone and it is easy to work on. Hard to find in my homeland ...

[Hamish]

That's a sweet bow. Narrow, stiff handle, yet no set. Well done.

[backtowood B2W]

That's a fine looking bow! I love such sticks!
Going down to the pith is saver to avoid cracks. But I experienced if you leave it for a thicker stave it will only crack in the middle down to the pith, which didn't harm any of my bows yet. Trimming the sides will also increase cracks there.
BTW

[Rākau]

That's a good point B2W, I will bear that in mind for the next one, and depending on the thickness of the stave will rough it out down to just before the pith. To be fair I think this privet is extremely resistant to drying checks, as an experiment I debarked a 6ft long 3" log and did not seal the ends or back. . .  and did not get a single check or drying crack on the whole log after several months over summer. Following on from this I have not sealed any ends on privet since that point, and still no drying cracks,it is awesome stuff!
Haha It would give the compound and fiberglass trad guys at my club fits if I turned up with a bow that had big cracks in the limb!