Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: ohiocountryboy on June 07, 2013, 01:04:56 am
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How is cherry as a bow wood?
I come across a couple of acres worth today on our property at work. Thanks
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Depends who you ask, what kind of cherry you got and how you want the bow to look in the end.
Somebody will be along soon to tell you not to waste your time.... they may even make reference to some supposed yellow 'king.' My advice is to offer them a glass of hater-aid and continue on your journey. ;) ;D
If that doesn't turn you off, many fine bows have been made from cherries. Black cherry works well in a laminate bow (e.g. backed with Ash or Hickory), and can also be made into fine selfbows. Remember cherry is much stronger in compression than tension, so it needs to be wide (think 2.5 inches ish) in the inner limb, and prefers pyramid style taper. Fine, and long lasting cherry self bows can also be made from longer staves (e.g in the 70" category)
Sinew backed choke cherry bows are reported to be some of snappiest shooters around, but that is purely anecdotal as I have never shot one of these.
That being said, for most intended purposes there are usually better bow wood options available. But if you got a field full of trees and want to give it a go... don't let me stop you. Rock on.
Gabe
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Cherry is good bow wood cut as much as you need no matter what someone else here is probably gonna say, cherry WILL make a bow that's a fact
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Run a search for "cherry".
Seriously, you'll be amazed at the shear amount of topics that have already discussed cherry in the past.
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Any wood[almost] that's available is bow wood,if I had lot of choices Cherry probably wouldn't be the first but I have made bows from it and most done fine,beautiful and light. It seem to dry rot [deterierate] pretty fast if left out so if you cut some get it out of the weather,spray for bugs or debark and seal as soon as you can,little wider and a little longer will take care of a lot of woods weaknesses and turn out some fine bows. Go for it. :)
Pappy
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Search "cherry bow" or "cherry longbow" into YouTube there is a guy called Colin peck here in the UK and he made one.
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One of my favourite bow woods ;D Search on here for the ones I have made.
PS just ignore the last one :laugh:
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Most of my bows don't break. Black Cherry has broken on every attempt for me. Most have been my fault, too narrow, too short, bad choice of grain selection on backing. I'm determined to get a bow from it though and I'm sure I can. Fickle wood in my book, but I'm oddly enamored of it. Go for it and post pics.
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ohiocountryboy....What kind of cherry is yours?Choke cherry here makes good bows in Iowa.Some of the choke cherry here is 8" accross.Pretty stuff too.Well behaved while drying wood.I had to rip my staves on the bandsaw though.It did not want to split straight.Could be because of it being a diffuse porous wood.No checking either.Self bows wider and longer.Sinewed ones shorter and narrower.
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Cherry can be tricky due to being weaker in tension than compression. Most guys are used to working tension strong woods, and you have to treat compression strong woods a little different.
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I tried several, self and backed with boo and hickory. Most all failed. I had success wih a very thin hickory backing, bow 1 3/4" wide and 68" long. Makes a very nice bow... when it survives.
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Cherry is notorious for sap inclusions that can spell disaster !
But if you get a piece with out any serious ones it is a beautiful bow for sure !
No way of telling just go for it till it breaks your heart , or you fall in love !
Keep your chin up !
Guy
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I've had a lot of luck with cherry, both flat bows (I have one I made 15 years ago that's still shooting fine) and semi-stacked longbows. Might not be as brilliant as ossage, but it's pretty, works well and shoots just fine.
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I wonder if geography might have different effects on cherry. Prunus serotina, or black cherry has a range that stretches from southeastern Canada all the way down to southern Mexico. I wonder if northern black cherry fares any better than southern black cherry or vice versa. Something to think about anyway.
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I loved working a cherry stave into a nice little bow. It smelled great, too. Then it broke. I'm willing to try again though!
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I have a couple large black cherry trees in my back yard that I am cutting down soon. I was wondering the same thing about if you can use it for bow wood. Both trees are mature probably at least 1 ft in diameter. I believe I will try a few pieces also
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I have a couple large black cherry trees in my back yard that I am cutting down soon. I was wondering the same thing about if you can use it for bow wood. Both trees are mature probably at least 1 ft in diameter. I believe I will try a few pieces also
Watch out for heart rot...
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The Blackfoot Indians made bows of sinew backed choke cherry. The Blackfoot Indians also made bows of sinew backed yew. That is an important fact and statement as to say the Blackfoot Indians knew how to make some seriously sweet bows. I have yet to make one as I do not have access to Choke Cherry but the bows are high on my list to make.
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I'm shooting in a sinewed choke cherry at the moment.Just got a digital camera.I'll see if I can put it up on this site in a week or so.It probably is'nt a replica type Indian bow but shoots pretty good so far.Were there other tribes that were known to use it for bow wood too?
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(http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g187/miketoth1/IMG_20130618_090338.jpg)
(http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g187/miketoth1/IMG_20130618_090441.jpg)
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The bark on the left tree in the picture looks to me to be a large choke cherry tree.Hard to tell for sure.
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(http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g187/miketoth1/IMG_20130618_090305.jpg)
That one?
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Beadman, didn't you give me a choke cherry stave at the classic? I carried the stave to my camper and my mind went completely blank..."who have I been talking to for the last hour, who just gifted me the beautiful stave." Beer, Classic excitement created a mental blur.
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Yea I did.Gave a couple other fellas some too.They were from the same tree as the one I just posted.Let me know how it goes with it.
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ohiocountryboy...Yep that's it.Scaly bark.I can even see a tiny reddish brown spot there too where the bark fell off there.
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Thanks you so much for the stave. You don't know how much that has bothered me, forgetting your name. I was pretty sure your real name was Ed. But, for the life of me I could not remember your screen name.
So now what do I do with it? Should I leave the sapwood on it? After reading some of these posts, I'll probably sinew it and make a bendy handle bow. Suggestions
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If I remember right the sapwood on that was'nt too thick.Less than a half inch.I chased a couple of rings off of mine before I sinewed mine.They're chasable.The next one I'll try is to just put rawhide on the back after heating some reflex in the limbs and flipping the tips some.Doing that I'm gonna start out at 1 and 3/4" wide then.If I remember right yours is at least 66" long.You should have length to play with bendy handle or not.
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66" sound about right. I picked it today while I was in the workshop and pondered a bit what to do with it. The sapwood is might be 3/8 thick. so reducing it to ensure I get some pretty belly wood is what I was thinking I should do. I'll probably cut it to 62 to 64". I have a '98 Tacoma. I can't get a bow inside the cab over 64" long. I hate putting my bows in the bed of the truck even though I do have a topper on it.
It'll probably be Sept. or Oct before I start on it. I have several bows I have to get made before deer season starts Sept 7. I will post my progress.
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I have tried bitter cherry (Prunus emarginata from WA state with poor results so far. Granted, the bows were only 48" long, but they chrysalled badly in the early stages of tillering. Adding a backing would certainly help.
Bitter cherry does have exquisite bark that was used for binding all sorts of things. Anyone tried backing bitter cherry with bitter cherry bark?
Dan
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No Quercus but sounds like a project to try.
hedgeapple...The rings are chasable on it.I would'nt worry if one side of limb shows thicker sapwood than the other.Just keep crown down the center of stave.I'm sure you know this but anyway someone else might not.The heartwood will kind of blend in and out into the sapwood like red cedar the closer you get to the transition line.To me it's kind of like red cedars' big brother.Too dry and it can get brittle too like red cedar.Tension failure.Takes heat bending well both ways[on belly] though as long as it is'nt repeated too many times in the bending portions of the limb like most woods.Guess I should'nt be tooting my horn too much about this wood though I've only made one bow from it,and there are so many different kinds of cherry out there it seems.Feel like I've highjacked this guys thread but maybe he's peeking in once in a while.
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Lol I'm here I don't mind. Its useful info. So I have choke cherry?
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I can't say for sure.Wish I could,but if a person looks on google in your area as to what kind of cherry trees grow around you you can narrow it down I'd say.Then it's just a matter of working with the wood to see if it makes good bow wood.I kind of went by what Tim Baker said in the bow wood section of TTB4.Then made a bow from mine and judged for myself.My choke cherry here is a bit denser than my red elm but not as dense as my hickory making bows from them too.That's about the best I can tell ya.
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im working on a bow made from cherry, it's the same cherry that i thought was yew a few months back. ill let you know how it goes.
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I hate the stuff. It is near impossible to dry correctly and needs to be pampered. You can't just seal the ends and toss it in the garage. I don't know how to dry it, but good luck.
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That's basically what I did with mine.It was well behaved during drying and I ripped my staves on the bandsaw too.Possibly was cut at a different time of year I don't know.I was able to chase a ring on it too and thought it was supposed to be diffuse porous but maybe it is semi ring porous.I really don't know.It's definitely not ring porous.You are'nt supposed to be able to see the growth rings on a diffuse porous wood I thought.