Author Topic: Eastern Red Cedar Long Bow  (Read 3587 times)

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Offline Knoll

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Re: Eastern Red Cedar Long Bow
« Reply #15 on: March 09, 2020, 07:15:03 pm »
Can be reeeeally exciting when erc explodes.   ;)

Would look sexy as laminate with hard maple as back?
... alone in distant woods or fields, in unpretending sproutlands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day .... .  I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing & prayer.  Hank Thoreau, 1857

Offline peacefullymadewarbows

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Re: Eastern Red Cedar Long Bow
« Reply #16 on: March 10, 2020, 02:31:21 pm »
Thanks again everyone for the comments!

Whiskeyjet-  Yeah I think the knots add so much beauty to the bow and there was no way to avoid them anyways. :D

Bjrogg- Indeed she did. It's too bad you can't keep the smell and apply a finish. Maybe someone will make a cedar oil someday.  ;)

liyeliye123123- Thank you very much. They can be done. They just need tender love and care when it comes to tillering. Sounds like you got a bite but I've just been lucky to have friends with property overflowing with cedar. I can't wait to see what you make. With your workmanship cedar surely will be gorgeous.

Ryan C- I encourage it. The nice thing is it is soft wood so even if you break one it isn't back breaking work to rough out another. Plus it smells so great.

Hawkdancer- I hear they make some mega snappy hunting weight bows and indeed most of my cedar bows have felt fast for their draw weight but I don't have a chrony to prove it.
 
Allyn T- A flatbow should hold up just fine. You are probably just gonna want to chase a ring on the sap wood so you still have heart wood left on the belly as that is what can take the compression. And make it overall longer than you think it should be. Like a a 50lb @ 28" flatbow should still probably be 70-72" long for durability.

Knoll- I have had my BANGs with cedar but this one has held up so far. Maple could work. I believe someone else made that very thing on here as a flatbow a while back. I'm not very interested in backing them just yet and also care must be taken with backing cedar as it is very easy to overpower the cedar belly and cause frets. 

Offline JohnL

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Re: Eastern Red Cedar Long Bow
« Reply #17 on: March 10, 2020, 11:07:04 pm »
Hey DC,
     That's the loop style I've made on every single string I've laid up, since I started making bows.  It's like a simple snare slip knot, that tightens onto itself, when pulled.  Truth is, I saw it on a youtube video search on string making.  I believe it was a fella, sitting around a campsite, making a whitewood bow, and  demonstrating a simple string making technique.  I did it, it worked well, and I stuck with it. 
One thing I like is how that loop style makes it impossible for the string to slip off to one side, no matter the nock style.
I twist my my looped end tighter than that, actually reverse wrapping about six inches out to start, before taking the looped end off the nail, and threading my unfinished string through the loop.  Then I hang the threaded loop end back on the nail, and finish reverse wrapping the string.
Another bonus is, if you make a wide, flat-limbed primitive bow, that has wide limbs out to the tips, this style loop does not require a string with longer than average loops, to let the string slide far enough up that wide limb, so the bow can relax completely when unstrung. Because this loop will open infinitely large, and then tighten-down firmly onto the tiniest of pin nocks.
Just thought I'd chime in, since I've had good luck with it. 
*My bows only range in weight up to the mid-60's, so I can't attest to those warbow weights.

–John

Offline HH~

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Re: Eastern Red Cedar Long Bow
« Reply #18 on: March 11, 2020, 10:29:45 pm »
ERC can be speedy. Good looking ELB

HH~
MAFA: Makin America Free Again

Long is the road, Hard is the way.

Mother Gue never raised such a foolish child. . . .

Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight onto the Ranger objective and complete the mission though I be the lone survivor. RLTW

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Eastern Red Cedar Long Bow
« Reply #19 on: March 13, 2020, 11:41:47 am »
Ryan C,  pm sent
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry