Anyone know about box wood?

[stuckinthemud]

Ok, so, 4 years ago I buried a couple of 60" long staves of buxus sempervirens in the bottom of my stash to seasonThey're not perfect, in fact they are a bit knotty in places but careful planning will get around most of the problems if I were to use them as bow staves. Equally, I could cut them up and make three piece or five piece bows to take advantage of the clean bits.  I am a bit conflicted.  On the one hand, box is supposed to be a great bow wood, but I've never seen or heard of a bow being made from it.  I have no idea what the best design would be for the type of timber.  Anyone know of any bow made from box wood anywhere?

[sleek]

Hey, I have no clue about it at all, but if it has good tension properties, theres no reason it cant make a good bow. I built a bow design program that relies on the woods specific gravity to design the bow around. If you can do a test to give me the S.G. of the wood, or tell me what you think it is based on online research, I can design a bow for you.

[Del the cat]

It is good fine grained, solid, great for small parts. I've never seen a bit long enough to make a bow
Try a small piece as a miniature?
Del

[stuckinthemud]

SG is listed as between .80 and .96 at 12%moisture. As this is Welsh timber I would err towards a lower density

[Pat B]

Makes good carving wood from what I've heard. Don't know about bows but like Del said I've not seen any big enough for a bow.

[stuckinthemud]

I think that as it's value is so high, merchants tend to chop it into small lengths to maximise their returns

[sleek]

SG is listed as between .80 and .96 at 12%moisture. As this is Welsh timber I would err towards a lower density

Seems to be on par with lower grade osage. Id build a bow to similar dimensions of Mulberry. Its stiffer than osage which may indicate it would be more brittle. Making it wider will help with that, maybe make it a rounded belly. Honestly though, it sounds like an excellent wood to use in a laminated bow, with bamboo as a back. Boxwood has much higher compression resistance than osage. I really think its best as a belly wood, under sinew or bamboo. If you do that, you can make it more narrow than osage even.

What type bow do you think you would rather build?

[Hamish]

From memory, I think it was Gaston Phoebus, 14thC book Art of the Hunt mentions boxwood as a good bow wood. I assume he would be referring to a typical medieval bow design like a round belly longbow like an English longbow(French in his case).

I bet it would make any design of bow. I have only ever seen it available in pieces long enough for billets.

Post photos of the staves if you can, so we can see what you're dealing with?