Author Topic: most beautiful timber?  (Read 7837 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline stuckinthemud

  • Member
  • Posts: 2,299
    • avenue woodcarving
most beautiful timber?
« on: January 09, 2016, 05:08:29 pm »
Not the most beautiful bow, or the best bow-wood, what do you rate as the prettiest bow-wood?

For me, for the time-being its character yew: two-tone colour and all those curves.....

Offline TimBo

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,031
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2016, 05:53:53 pm »
Eastern Red Cedar, if it stayed reddish-purple...which it doesn't.  Yew is pretty hard to beat.

Offline Hrothgar

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,475
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2016, 06:20:18 pm »
Osage orange gets my vote, the grain in ash can look really sharp when its stained.
" To be, or not to be"...decisions, decisions, decisions.

Offline bubby

  • Member
  • Posts: 11,054
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2016, 06:37:02 pm »
I've seen some ugly bows, but it wasn't the woods fault😉
Lots of pretty woods tigerwood epe yew osage hhb but they are prettier drawn ready to let fly
failure is an option, everyone fails, it's how you handle it that matters.
The few the proud the 27🏹

Offline dirthas

  • Member
  • Posts: 56
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2016, 06:37:31 pm »
The prettiest I think I've seen in person is red cedar, but the look of laburnum really impressed me when I saw it on here: http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=41863.0

Offline Bryce

  • Global Moderator
  • Member
  • Posts: 3,125
  • Pacific Ghost Longbows
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2016, 06:58:00 pm »
Hands down....yew


Clatskanie, Oregon

Offline richardzane

  • Member
  • Posts: 500
  • active Wyandot tribal member
    • richardzanesmith.wordpress.com
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2016, 07:26:15 pm »
I sure like persimmon ...with the light sap wood against the dark
but that yew of Bryce's is sure purty
when i'm working on things my ancestors worked, singing the songs my ancestors sang, dancing the same dances, speaking the same language, only then  I feel connected to the land, THIS land, where my ancestors walked for thousands of years...

Offline bubby

  • Member
  • Posts: 11,054
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2016, 08:09:59 pm »


Black walnut and paper birch is pretty
failure is an option, everyone fails, it's how you handle it that matters.
The few the proud the 27🏹

Offline wizardgoat

  • Member
  • Posts: 2,397
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2016, 08:12:47 pm »
Yew and Rocky Mountain juniper get my vote.
I really like the darker coloured Osage too

Offline osage outlaw

  • Member
  • Posts: 11,952
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2016, 08:13:33 pm »
Curly osage







I started out with nothin' and I still got most of it left

Offline DanD

  • Member
  • Posts: 26
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2016, 08:28:48 pm »
My 2 bow I ever started was a beutiful walnut stave that with no warning what so ever exploded during tillering, I thought that it was going to be the most gorgeous bow when I got done with it but fire wood it became, lol
Some things in life change but my love for archery never changes

Offline PatM

  • Member
  • Posts: 6,737

Limbit

  • Guest
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #12 on: January 10, 2016, 03:44:42 am »
Ebony...but don't tell anyone I said that! Yes, it makes a good self bow if you have the money to buy it and are willing to trust the words "legally harvested" . Looks like obsidian when you are done sanding it.

Offline Del the cat

  • Member
  • Posts: 8,291
    • Derek Hutchison Native Wood Self Bows
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #13 on: January 10, 2016, 05:00:08 am »
Yew... did anyone say Yew yet? O:)
Or just maybe Yew ;D
I think Bryce proved the point with his pic (I'm still droolin').
Most of the pretty laminates are merely mimicking the two tone Yew look.
Del
(Laburnum (AKA Golden chain etc) is also pretty)
Health warning, these posts may contain traces of nut.

Offline Dances with squirrels

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,222
Re: most beautiful timber?
« Reply #14 on: January 10, 2016, 08:32:41 am »
Yew.
Straight wood may make a better bow, but crooked wood makes a better bowyer