Anybody like White Ash?

[Papa Matt]

I've not felt a lot of love on the PA site for White Ash. Anybody like it? (Not just have you used it before, but do you really LIKE it). Any advantages to White Ash? Were there any NA tribes that preferred it?


~~Papa Matt

[JackCrafty]

Ishi made some bows from ash (I don't know if it was white ash) and he seemed to like it....but not as much as juniper, of course.  I don't know if any tribes preferred it but many surviving NA bows are made of ash....especially among the Sioux and other Northern tribes.

Advantages:

White ash steam bends easily, is cheap, flexible, plentiful, responds well to sinew backing, and is light weight.  Is looks purty too (to some people).



Personally, I think we have much better choices available.

[Hillbilly]

I have made several bows from white ash, and I like it just fine. It ain't osage, but you can make a good bow from it. Advantages: it's usually straight-grained, not many knots, works easily (it's actually a joy to work), splits straight, and is all-around pretty tough stuff. Like hickory or most whitewoods, it can hold on to moisture in a humid area, and it takes a bit more set than some other woods. I would rate it as good or better than many of the common white woods. Dunno why it has a bad rap, I've never had any trouble with it, and never broken an ash bow (can't say the same for locust, osage, and many other "premium"woods.) Never chrysalled one either, and I have a couple ash bows that have had thousands of arrows shot through them and are still going strong.

[Papa Matt]

So it sounds like durability and ease of working are the 2 main advantages that you two have found. I'd say I agree. I've made 3 ash bows so far. The thing I don't see with them--and it may not be the wood at fault, but the way I made them--is that they seem to shoot sluggish.

Pat or Hillbilly have either of you seen this to be the case with WA?

Thanks for the input

[Pat B]

I have terrible luck with any ash. I know I try to push it too much and that is probably I have trouble. I'm so used to osage its hard for me to be careful with other woods. 
   Steve Vonderhey, in his book "The Secrets Of the Omaha Bow" uses ash to build the plains type bow and it must have been a preferred wood for them.      Pat

[knightd]

The good sides have been covered above.. I have built a few short 56" to 60" sinew backed recurves from white ash..and they weren't slugish at all.. I would much rather work with it than hickory!!

[DanaM]

Haven't made a ash bow from a stave but have made a bunch from white ash boards. Its good wood after all if
they use it for baseball bats I believe. I nedd to get my hands on some next summer the emerals ash borer has reached the UP
now and I'm sure it won't be long before the state starts cutting all the ash down like they did in the lower peninsula

[Papa Matt]

KnightD--Do you think the sinew helped the ashbows you made, and perhaps without it they would have been slower or was it just for assurance?


Dana, I have quite a bit of it drying right now, has been drying actually since March. If you end up needing some let me know.

Thanks for the input guys...

[JackCrafty]

GET TO WORK MAGGOT!
I WANT TO SEE ASHBOWS AND ELBOWS!

(sorry...couldn't resist)
 

[knightd]

IMO they were alot snappier with the sinew..but was preety good with out it..

[kayakfisher]

I made a plains style sinew bow from ash.Made some mistake's and it came out lighter than anticipated.It would sure fling an arrow though !Ash is hard to find here . Conservation Dept put out an article on the Emerald ash borer and the millions of trees they destroyed
                  Dennis

[Hillbilly]

I haven't noticed any wood to be particularly "slower" or "faster" than any other wood. The ash bows I've made are no more sluggish than any others-speed is in the design, not the wood. You can make a screamer out of second-string wood, or a dog out of osage or yew. The trick is finding the right design for the wood. I think one thing that has turned people off to ash is that there are several species, and some are lighter/weaker wood than others. White ash is pretty much evenly comparable to hickory from what I've fooled with it, maybe a fuzz more likely to take a bit of set during tillering.

[robbsbass]

Just wondreing, would white ash or purple ash for that matter be a better wood for a beginner to start with., rather than snakey locust or osage

[Pat B]

robbs, If you want to make a quick shootable bow the straight grained ash will get you there. If you really want to learn bow making, and you have a strong constitution, go for the snaky stuff!

[JackCrafty]

I haven't noticed any wood to be particularly "slower" or "faster" than any other wood.

Hillbilly, you bring up an interesting point.  I think it's especially interesting considering your experience.  Personally, the more experience I gain, the more I notice differences in wood...and the more I notice how one wood is faster or slower than another wood.  It seems to me that some wood will "fight back" and other wood will "go with the flow".  I find this tendency occurs more between different species than between different staves.

The Boywer's Bible series explains how to get the most from each wood based on design and there's no disputing that design is the most important thing.  However, most bows have basically a D cross section, with rounded backs or rounded bellies.  They are not shaped like and H or W (or some other cross section).  Bows also have the basic shape of being thick in the handle and narrow at the tips.  Therefore, there is a limit to how much we can adjust the design to fit the wood.  Once this limit is reached, the properties of the wood itself take over.  That's why a perfectly designed yew bow will outperform a perfectly designed ash bow, for example.