Woods superior to osage

[PaulN/KS]

Paul...I will save you a spot.  I had planned to wait until the next anniversary, but I actually found a small travel trailer and I plan to be there.  It is always hard to miss our family reunion. 

I hear ya  .
I'll be bringing the Scamp so we'll have the tiny trailer trailer park at the top of the hill. 

[organic_archer]

One of the fastest bows I ever made was from fire-hardened Chinese elm sapling. I’ve got four fresh staves of it that are as straight as boards and really looking forward to them being dry!

I’m a huge fan of Hackberry. Similar in properties to elm. Light in physical mass, has no commercial value and takes over farms around here so it’s easy to get permission to cut as much as you want, and usually grows pipe-straight. With a good heat treatment it’s not difficult to get 165 fps out of good hackberry. With careful design and an aggressive treatment it’ll do 175 fps no sweat.

It’ll handle just about any design you throw at it. From Holmegaards to Ishi paddle bows to heavily-radiused longbows. Of course some designs are more “optimal” than others, but I’ve made a couple hundred bows with rounded at lenticular cross sections with it by now and they don’t disappoint.

If I was forced to choose only one wood to use for the rest of my life, it might just be hackberry.

[bassman211]

Elm is the best white wood for me for making bows. American elm is what I have at hand, so it is what I use. If Chinese elm is superior it would have to be one hell of  a bow wood.

[Eric Krewson]

For us that live in abundant osage country it is hard to try something else when you have a few hundred seasoned osage staves
ready to go.

I have only made a few hickory bows, one red cedar, and reworked a handful of other people's hickory backed red oak board bows. I have 4 acres of woods with various species of hickory, hackberry, elm, black cherry, red and white oak and hop hornbeam but have never cut the first stave from any of these wood types on my land to try to make a bow out of. I have cut a lot of hickory off a friend's place to split into staves for my bow students.

I don't have any osage on my land but could easily get permission to cut it off local land that was about to be cleared for development.

[Badger]

Elm is the best white wood for me for making bows. American elm is what I have at hand, so it is what I use. If Chinese elm is superior it would have to be one hell of  a bow wood.

 Hackberry is one of my favorites also. It is the most steam bendable of all American woods and surely one of the most bendable woods n the world. You can make some very radical designs with relative ease using hackberry. If I ever got another shot at it I would take more time keeping the moisture down. It is kind of hydroscopic.

[organic_archer]

Eric you’re missing out on some fun bowmaking! Many of the “lesser” woods are a joy to work with. Abundant. Straight. Durable.

Yeah it’s hydroscopic in my experience too. It’s not prone to checks so I let hackberry bows sit in the dry box at 90-100 degrees overnight between roughing out and tillering sessions. A solid heat treatment really helps to keep it straight and lively in the long term.

Steve if you’d like to try hackberry again and don’t have access to it, I’d be happy to send you a stave. Reach out to me at the email on my site. It’s listed on the “contact” page.

[Eric Krewson]

My focus was different than most part time bowyers, I made bows to sell, donate to charity auctions and give away to others which turned into an almost full-time job for a while, perhaps for 20 years or so. My focus was developing a bow design that was stable, consistent and durable that people wanted and they all wanted osage. If you have a backlog of orders you don't want to waste time playing around with other woods. At one time I was turning down about 12 bow order requests a month just to keep things manageable, keep bow making fun and not turn it into drudgery like I did when I was a duck decoy carver and had a 3 year backlog of orders.

Early on I did a little experimenting, I tried a sassafras bow that blew up, I tried to make a bow out of white oak pallet wood but used gorilla glue and found that gorilla glue had no place in bow making when the glue failed.

[bassman211]

I have tried every bow wood from birch to black locust that grows in my area over the years. I don't build nearly as many as I used to, but from here on out it will be either  elm, or Osage when my good friend Will B gives me an Osage stave. He builds longer bows, so he gifts me with well seasoned shorter Osage staves from 50 to 60 inches long. With my short 25 inch draw they work fine for me. For a good solid hunting bow I have nothing against   black locust either. Fire hardened hickory, and white oak works out pretty well also.JME

[ssrhythm]

When I was cutting down my hickory in SC, my buddy kept pointing out elm trees asking if they were hickory.  I'm not sure of what types of elm they were, but he has a blue million of them scattered throughout his massive acreage.  He also offered to cut down a persimmon that was absolutely towering...probably 10" diameter, and it snaked fairly straight up for what looked to be 30' as it raced to keep its leaves in some sunshine. 

Does the type of elm matter, and if so, what is the optimum elm tree y'all like for self bows?

Should I get my bud to drop that persimmon for me next spring when I'm home chasing turkeys?  He made a good point regarding compression/toughness....Persimmon was the wood of choice for golf driver construction back in the day, so seems like should be a good bow wood.  I know people like persimmon, but is is worth the time and effort when time is limited and I have Osage and Hickory, and will have some elm?

[Badger]

 I did one persimmon in my life, and hopefully the last. I think the wood on my tree was full of silica or something. I dulled every tool I have within a few strokes. I kept sharpening and sharpening, sticking with it until the end. It was not worth the work; I don't know if all persimmons are like this, hopefully not.