Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Dane on February 27, 2009, 09:14:59 pm
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Hello, everyone.
Just a quick, I hope, question. I was at the lumber yard buying a bunch of 4/4 and 8/4 white ash for a new stand for my catapult, and fell in love with a quarter-sawn cherry board, about 80 inches long and it looks just lovely. TBB IV has highly positive things to say about cherry, with some cautions.
Has anyone ever worked with quarter-sawn cherry, or staves for that matter? I was thinking of a relatively narrow bow, a unique Egytian style self bow, with tips that bend in instead of straight or recurved. A bit hard to describe. The point being, 1, do you think cherry would be a good choice considering it is quarter-sawn, and 2, does cherry like being steam bent or dry heat bent? I have some quarter sawn ash that I will also mess about with to experiment.
The board was only about 22 bucks, so I am not terribly worried about loss. The wood can always be used for other purposes if this doesnt work out.
Thanks much,
Dane
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Dane.... the Only Quartersawn Cherry I have ever made a Bow out of ...was a 2 1/4" wide California Styled Paddle Bow....and it turned out awesome....without a Backing too....worked just fine for Me
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l've never worked with cherry yet but l was walking around in the woods behind my house and discovered a crap load of cherry trees and they're all purty much straight. l'm thinking about firing up the chain saw and give cherry a try. And l have a question also....can l leave the sap wood on and use that as the back or do l need to take it down to the heartwood?
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l've never worked with cherry yet but l was walking around in the woods behind my house and discovered a crap load of cherry trees and they're all purty much straight. l'm thinking about firing up the chain saw and give cherry a try. And l have a question also....can l leave the sap wood on and use that as the back or do l need to take it down to the heartwood?
Strip off the Bark and call it good....thats what I have done with it......Lots of People believe in Backing Cherry....but for the Mid-Weight Bows I build....I haven't done any more than Rawhide once for a Backing....and that was just due to a Knot I wasn't too sure of.....
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Black Cherry is relatively weak in tension but its also not great in compression either. Its light wood and will
make a sweet shooting bow if you get it right. I would start long and wide and make sure sure lots of limb is bending
with a perfect tiller, in my experience it will fret at the first sign of a hinge. I broke several staves before getting a shooter
and that one developed a ton of frets on the inner limbs where I had it bending to much.
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I had really good luck with one cherry bow, I left on some sapwood, flattened the back, and glued on canvas for a backing.
I posted this cherry bow awhile back:
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,9989.0.html
Good Luck Dane! I would probably back it, especially if it's narrow. With any quarter sawn board it can be hard to read if the grain crosses though the back at any angle.
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Adam, that is a handsome bow. Thanks Dana and everyone, I have decided to keep it wider and back it. The piece I have is 8' long, about 4 inches wide, and 1" or so in depth, and is remarkably light to pick up, not like an ash or similar piece of heavy wood. I'll use a nice piece of quartersawn ash for the Egyptian experiment.
Cherry is pretty stuff, and I think worth the care.
Dane
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I've made several bows from american black cherry, all backed with hickory or maple, and they all turned out very well. Keep it a bit wider and long, with good tiller.
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I guess I should not have omitted....that almost all of My Bow I build are at least 2 inches wide....I prefer Paddle Bows over all else...
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cherry is one of the fastest bowwoods, as long as you can keep the bow in one piece. At the end most cherry bows break, according to the stories I've heard. Linen, rawhide will keep it alive, so I'd really recommend you to back this board.
Nick