Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: stuckinthemud on October 17, 2025, 07:00:22 pm
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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?
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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.
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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
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SG is listed as between .80 and .96 at 12%moisture. As this is Welsh timber I would err towards a lower density
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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.
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I think that as it's value is so high, merchants tend to chop it into small lengths to maximise their returns
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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?
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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?
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As Hamish says: heard it is good bow wood IF you find find a good piece...
Pics please!
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(https://stuckinthemudsite.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/img_20251020_124706783_mfnr2.jpg)
Not the cleanest of staves, but I reckon they can be worked around
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I periodically think about box wood and other exotic woods like African Blackwood and strongly consider shelling out some dough for a piece of lumber. Some online suppliers have pieces large enough for a spliced bow. A couple of bamboo backed ELB’s would be sweet. Just a lot of money to spend for a board you can’t see in person.
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True, but God is good and I had permission to cut these
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The log on the left looks promising, for a one-piece bow. Too much character in the other one, but it might have a section for billets, up the top end.
It all depends on rough marking out and if you can avoid any of the major knots. I would get some chalk and rough out potential staves/billets.
Personally, I would go for billets. You end up with the cleanest wood, matched symmetrically, and increases your choices of design to longer draw lengths.
I reckon you will do a good job, once you work out how you are going to tackle this wood. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
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Those would make for some very interesting character bows. Unless, you cut split billets and splice them?
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Hence the original question. The one on the left marks out nicely, missing most, or all, of the knots, and I'm a sucker for a bend through the handle, but my real favourites are five piece with small statics and Turkish style handle with v-splices, not necessarily with sinew, but, I have been known to use it when I can get it
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I think its a great candidate for a 5 piece. Its better than osage in compression.
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I’ve worked with Box a lot but not as bows. My gut would be that it will fail unexpectedly in tension. I’ve got a good stash of it but only use it for tool handles. Unless you want to try and use it if I were you I would sell it and use the proceeds to buy a stave or two of something else. In the U.K. I would guess if you chop those up into turning blanks/ handle blanks/knapping billets there’s at least £100, maybe £200 if your patient, in each stave
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James, you may be right about the profit margin as craft wood rather than bow wood.
I still would advocate for bows, and not cutting it up. Anything in boxwood that is billet length or stave length I couldn't walk past. I would feel the same about someone cutting up bow quality yew staves or planks and using it for furniture and craft items that don't require full length run of grain. There is plenty of short bits of these woods coming from logs that would never provide bow quality material.
Unless there are pins that aren't properly compensated for, or the bow is too narrow I wouldn't be very worried about a break in tension.
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James, you may be right about the profit margin as craft wood rather than bow wood.
I still would advocate for bows, and not cutting it up. Anything in boxwood that is billet length or stave length I couldn't walk past. I would feel the same about someone cutting up bow quality yew staves or planks and using it for furniture and craft items that don't require full length run of grain. There is plenty of short bits of these woods coming from logs that would never provide bow quality material.
Unless there are pins that aren't properly compensated for, or the bow is too narrow I wouldn't be very worried about a break in tension.
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Coming back to this today, I absolutely would not cut those pieces up 😂