NZ Black Locust Bow Plan

[Threy Cameron]

Hey everyone. Managed to chase a ring on my first black locust stave, found it similar to osage in a way just softer and with a less defined early wood ring. There are a handful of pin knots with one cluster around 12 inches from one limb tip, I've left all of them raised with the remnants of an upper ring on top for insurance. The stave is around 80" in length with a usable chased area of 75", the last 5" having had a chunk of wood split off and dive into lower growth rings. The stave is slightly crowned which I've read is a positive for black locust.

I was wanting to get some advice and share the build. I was wanting to use an eastern woodlands design with similar dimensions to a Powhatan bow from 1665. The one featured in "The Encyclopedia of Native American Bows Arrows and Quivers" volume 1 page 14. I was wanting to query whether the dimensions of this bow would hold up if made to 60lbs @ 28".

I was planning to stretch the bow out to 72" long but am not sure if its necessary. I was also planning on making the belly perfectly flat and heat treating it over a coal pit. I don't have any experience with black locust and only have 3 staves of it so far, really want to put my best foot forward and ask the experts so as to not ruin this beautiful stave.

Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers guys

[Pat B]

I cut my bow building teeth on black locust many years ago. I could buy an 8' split fence rail for $5 back then.
 You could build it 68" long and get 60#@28" but with locust your tillering has to be spot on because it is prone to fret. Heat treating the belly helps with that. The knot clusters look ok as they are but keep any from an edge.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I agree with Pat. Those dimensions at 68” would be just fine to get the weight you want. Going 72” will potentially drop performance a smidge but increase your chance of no frets.and could probably allow you to go narrower and keep the weight. If the edges start to get thin, reduce the width a bit to drop weight. You’ll want to heat treat the black locust as well. It’s not needed but really ups the performance and reduces fretting chance. If you’ve tillered to 20” then heat treat, it’ll rest you back to about 10” at the same weight. But makes the wood very hard on scraper edges. I can get two Osage bows from one sharpening of my scraper but may have to sharpen in the middle of a black locust bow. I’ve also found black locust to respond to wood removal quicker than Osage. With the fretting of black locust, what I’ve found is that it’s not because locust is compression weak as much as it has low compression resilience and decent resistance. So essentially once it starts to compress much, it likes to crush (frets) as opposed to springing back. And the heat treat helps keep it from compressing as much.

Sorry for the info dump. I hope it’s some useful tidbits

Kyle

[Threy Cameron]

Appreciate the advice guys It's really great information. I'll draw out the bow and start removing mass today and might post an update with how its going. I'll leave some extra length on there for safety and can always shorten later if need be to air on the side of caution.

I've also heard black locust doesn't need an extreme heat treatment and toasts rather easily. Has anyone known this to be the case or is it hearsay?

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Compared to woods like hickory, it does heat treat quite quickly. I like to slow heat (gun a few inches away and moving at a slightly quicker pace) untilI can feel heat the heat through the back. Then I’ll place the gun about an inch away and move slow while the wood darkens to a purply black. Should take about 20-30 min per limb.

Kyle

[Threy Cameron]

Compared to woods like hickory, it does heat treat quite quickly. I like to slow heat (gun a few inches away and moving at a slightly quicker pace) untilI can feel heat the heat through the back. Then I’ll place the gun about an inch away and move slow while the wood darkens to a purply black. Should take about 20-30 min per limb.

Kyle

I will keep that in mind man thank you very much. I'll use that method myself and see what results I get later on