How To Find & Prepare Bow Wood
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.พ. 2024
- One of the most challenging parts of a new bowyer's journey is actually finding bow wood; and once you've found some, the work has only just begun!
As with all things in woodworking, wood carving, and other lumber trades ~ quality wood must first be sourced, processed, and most importantly dried before it's stable enough to transform into functional and long-lasting products. The same rules apply to the art of bow making.
Cutting and processing the staves is pretty straightforward. There are many ways to dry the wood, including force-drying in a homemade kiln and fire hardening over a bed of hot coals; but this video is geared toward the old-fashioned "seasoning" method described in many of the archery textbooks. After all, bow making is not the best choice of pastimes for the impatient.
I hope you found this video helpful. Thanks for watching!
Instagram : @organic.archer
Website : www.organicarchery.com
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You’re work shop is awesome! So spacious and organized
Thank you! I believe creative energy flows better through an organized workspace!
Yes! This is something I’ve been wanting more info on! Thank you
This was super interesting
Glad it was helpful!
Great explanation!
Awesome video Cory. I enjoy watching you work your craft, any I can tell you really enjoy sharing this art with us. Thank you so much
My pleasure!
Just found this channel! Always loved your work and on other platforms so I am super stoked to watch your videos here. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and artistry
I really appreciate your continued support as I venture into TH-cam! Thanks for watching!
Great work! Very thorough!!
Thanks, Cubby! 👊🏼🏹
Wow..I Am envious.. Been looking for some Hackberry in North Texas. Have made bows in Ash.. Oak and Osage...
We are fortunate to have hackberry, not because it’s superior, but because it grows so straight and trouble-free!
Thanks.
Thanks for the info
No problem 👊🏼
Great video man
Many thanks!
Absolutely loved the informative video! I’ve got a few oaks around my property that I’ve been wanting to harvest to make bow blanks out of! Can’t wait for the next video!
Oak makes nice bows! Go for it!
@@organicarchery i have a tree that showed signs of dying so we cut it down. Do you think the wood is still good to use for a bow or should i cut a small green tree and let it dry?
@@roberttaylor631 green trees only, and they need to be processed asap. If it’s been on the ground for more than couple weeks, it’ll already have microscopic decay. Dying and/or dead-standing wood does not have the structural integrity to withstand the stresses of a bow.
@@organicarchery thank you thats great information I didn’t have lol
Beaucoup d'informations très interessantes. Merci pour vôtre travail
Continuously valuable information on this channel. Generous of you, Cory. Thanks!
I appreciate that! Glad you enjoyed.
Thank you for this very important info Cory! 👏👍👍
My pleasure!
Really great information and delivery Correy. Thanks for being such a great steward of your craft.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Eye opening! I had no idea it took that long for bow staves to be ready.
It can be hastened considerably. Powerful bows can be made in as little as 24 hours using forced drying and fire-hardening. Check out the Beckum Outdoors channel to see a 170+ FPS bow made from green wood. I'll be doing a similar "survival bow" build soon.
I have a few Hackberry bows that aren't finished yet but I love the way it works with hand tools. I'm planning on making some arrows from split timber Hackberry. I'm not sure how they're going to turn out but I'm hopeful that it will make fine arrows!
I’ve been meaning to try that too, and have a feeling hackberry will make excellent arrows!
nice
Really interesting stuff, I'm an aspiring bowyer and I'm sure this will come in very useful one day. Thank you for continuing to share your knowledge.
Great to hear you found it helpful!
Thank You Cory... Always fun watching you create...20+ years ago I purchased a very nice Osage wood bow blank on eBay that came from Texas. I am in Ca. and it was delivered with just clear plastic wrap & shipping label. I put it up in my dry, dark, summertime HOT rafters for when I decide to dive into it BUT I did not expect 20+ years, omg!
Retired now with tons of time on my hands and projects going in my shop as a life long machinist. Looking above me at the untouched plastic wrapped bow stave wondering if in fact it was good for it or not being unable to breath? Perhaps I will find out as my time passes? So many projects, so many challenges to test myself in my shop & perhaps one day my attempt at archery? TM
Osage is extremely resistant to rot, so as long as there's no visible mold when you unwrap it, I believe you'll have a premium stave on your hands! It's very unlikely that it suffered any decay issues whatsoever in arid California.
That Steve should be better. Perfectly seasoned than one that isn’t wrapped especially in your rafters. I’m jealous. I wish I had a piece of wood like that right now. Lol have a good day. Sorry if my reply went through twice.
👍
Great info, thanks!
What about rotting/dead trees? What’s the threshold and what’s pushing it?
Great stuff, as always, but I get so jealous seeing you guys out west - I wish we had hackberry in Florida lol
You should have hickory down there, and it’s a top-shelf bow wood!
I have access to pignut and mockernut hickory, along with a ton of oak and some dogwood. I’ve just been intrigued by hackberry for years - probably because I’ve been following your work lol
I prefer to seal the ends immediately after felling the tree. Checking happens fast on a dry, windy day.
That’s a solid plan, especially with dense, oily woods like osage. Sometimes I’ll get checks in just the few hours it takes to load osage and drive home. Hackberry is resistant to checking, much like hickory.
Question- Gardening in my front yard overgrown with very large dense bushes. Clearing out the underbrush I discovered several Oak trees (do not know what type) had sprouted in the dark undergrowth. I noticed that the small trees had grown straight up through the large bushes and had only sprouted side branches after it had reached the sunlight. This left the 6+ foot tall trunk fairly free of any defects. Only about 2" in dia. now but I left alone thinking it might make wonderful future archery wood when it becomes thicker?
This got me thinking about the selection of wood in relation to how it had grown. Not unlike in the age of wooden ships how the selected young trees were artificially bent to grow and form the shapes for future boat construction. Forests were very slowly manipulated this way. Archery is perhaps simple enough to just select the correct length (free from knots) taking into account the sapwood, heartwood, straightness than just go about constructing the bow OR what if the artificial manipulation of young saplings were encouraged to grow straight and free of defects than when ready, cut for bow wood?
If you had total control of planted seedlings of your choice what seedlings would you choose? Would you periodically prune or bend the seedling to give you what you were looking for in a future bow. Could a seedling be artificially bent backwards to give you a future natural recurve bow? I understand when dealing with simple bow wood staves can be easily formed by heat, steam to usually bring the wood into the desired shape. What if you had total control over the entire process? What would be the most perfect bow stave?
TM
I’d wait until those little oak saplings are about 4-5” in diameter at chest height and turn them into to bows! You’ll be able to quarter and get four quality staves each by then.
I can see your theory on ancient civilizations grooming bow trees being true, but I’m not a fan of manipulating their conditions aside from trimming small branches. Any extra bend added will make the entire process more difficult. As you mentioned, it can be easily done with heat later… but it’s less hassle to plan, layout, and rough out bows on straight staves.
The most desirable stave to me is any tree that naturally grows perfect. 😬
Just got into archery, any tips for a first bow?
I was thinking not too expensive since I will probably go up in weight and quality over time and know my preferences better.
Maybe one day I will make my own
I only make and shoot primitive bows and don’t have any advice for you. You’d be better off doing a YT search for “best longbow for beginners” or something.
@organicarchery thank you for your honest reply. I will definitely shoot bows made of a single piece of wood.
It's a huge ask but it would be amazing to see you build one of your beutiful bows then go hunting with it, even for small game.
I hunt deer for 4 months out of the year, and will attempt to film a hunt this year! The next open season for my region is squirrel, and it starts in August. Deer opens in September.
What's your opinion on how long to season yew staves? Ive heard it can take 5 years or more. Do you debark your yew staves? And is it necessary to chase a growth ring on yew wood? Thanks for the videos
I don't have much experience with yew, but the old stories about 5-10 years season time seem a bit much. I'd say 2 years is more than enough.
I don’t think my other went through sorry if it did for the repeat but I got some black walnut can I use the sapwood and heart wood for a yew like color combo or does it need to be removed I thought I saw you use black walnut but it was white wood ?? That’s why I was wondering if it was sapwood if you get time please let me know thanks for sharing
Black walnut sapwood and heartwood both make excellent bows. You can make it all sapwood, all heartwood, or chase it down so it's got a contrast like yew.
Thanks Cory appreciate you man
Have you made a penobscot double bow before?
I have not, and have little interest in them at the moment... but might do one in the future!
I would make yourself a nice green wood maul to use when splitting, the difference from metal on metal is enourmous for your ears
I’m gonna look into that! Such a pain to wear ear pro when splitting.
Whats the black mesh on the helmet for, keeping the sun out of your eyes.
It protects your face from large, flying chips and small branches in the understory… but in my opinion one should still wear safety glasses under it. The small stuff gets through sometimes. It also offers a marginal amount of kickback protection.
I asked, as you did not have the visor down when felling the trees, that was me trying to be funny as in Ha Ha, great video.@@organicarchery
Where are your chaps Cory??? 😂
I'd be wearing a full medieval suit of armor if it were up to the internet safety people, ha!
So this is random but did you know hackberry is part of the cannabis family..