Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: IrishJay on November 02, 2019, 01:22:26 pm
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Any thoughts on these 2 pieces? My first thought was locust, but I'm not too sure.
(https://i.imgur.com/j03qyXO.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/d6zJY0V.jpg)
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some will say Elm ,but it is Walnut.
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Both of those are decent bow wood right?
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This is fresh cut end-grain from the piece on the left in the above photos. Very little difference in coloration from sap wood to heart wood. Based on color and the ring pourous nature of the grain, as well as the smell produced when cutting I'm leaning toward White Ash. Thoughts?
(https://i.imgur.com/LGeJLod.jpg)
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Also I'm pretty sure Bass nailed the right hand piece as walnut. The slab doesn't contain any heartwood, which is a dead give away with walnut, but when cut it that distinct sweet/nutty/fruity smell of walnut.
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Sassafras
Walnut wil be a bit green looking when you first cut it but will turn dark in short order, I have slabbed off a lot of walnut for gunstocks, that isn't walnut.
Walnut,notice the sapwood.
(https://i.imgur.com/tCPh88G.jpg)
Still has the fresh cut look, the blank is very dark now after drying for a couple of years.
(https://i.imgur.com/l1jKZE7.jpg)
The same blank dry.
(https://i.imgur.com/zJJWeOQ.jpg)
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Was that a fresh cut live tree? Doesn't look like it.
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I agree with Eric, it looks like sassafras to me as well. The outer bark looks exactly like sassafras. The reddish inner bark too. The end cut as well, see how the early wood fuzzed up like that? Yep, sassafras does that more than most. How does it smell when cut or sanded into dust. Sassafras will give off that spicy smell.... unless it's dry or old wood that has begun to decay, then it can be hard to pick up the smell.
One thing that makes me suspect though.... freshly cut or split sassafras will show a clear difference between the sapwood and heartwood... with the sapwood being white, and less than an inch thick.... a lot like osage, mulberry, locust, in that regard.
How old is this wood? It looks kind of grey-ish and washed out for sassafras. But maybe that's just how it looks in the picture. Was it recently cut from a live tree? Or has it been dead for a while? If so, standing? Or down on the ground?
I peeled the bark off of a bunch of small sassafras logs today that will be used in the smoker.
I also have a few big sassafras staves with the bark still on. If it'll help, I could dig one out and post a picture of it here.
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Its not walnut, which is diffuse porous. End grain shot shows it to be ring porous. My first guess was ash, as the grain really looks like ash. I don't know what sassafras looks like but I hear it looks like ash timber so it could well be sassafras as suggested earlier.
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pics.
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Which one of these 3 woods most resemble his wood judging by the bark, and what are these 3 woods ?
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The storm downed walnut had been on the ground about a year, walnut is very rot resistant. 5 or 10 years from now the heartwood will be sound.
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Both of these pieces came out of the slab pile at an amish logging/mill site. Based on the locaations of the piles they came out of and knowing the order they cut the property in I'd say the one on the left was cut 2 months ago, the other about 3.
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I'm pretty sure the piece on the left, and inthe previous end grain pic is ash.
Heres an end grain of the other (also shown my bandaged up thumb from when I cut myself with my draw knife requiring 4 stitches earlier today.
If it is sassafras is it usable bow wood?
(https://i.imgur.com/YKGuHGB.jpg)
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Definitely not Black Walnut......
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This is the entry one Sassafras from the Bow Woods List over at American Native Seeds.
(https://i.imgur.com/xqJQRKW.png)
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It's is ash.
Walnut is diffuse porous - look at the end grain
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It doesn't look like ash bark to me.
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Still, some Ash looks like that.
I'd lean towards that as a likely wood to actually be at a mill being slabbed like that.
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I missed this one. The pic I posted with the 3 staves are as follows. Elm on the left, Walnut in the middle, and sassafras on the right. The ropy bark that comes to v's here ,and their is indicative of Walnut bark, but his cross section shows it is not walnut. I have never cut an Ash tree to make a bow, but have made bows from Ash from Amish wagon wheel staves. Ignorance is bliss. My bad.Jay is trying to find a suitable wood to make a bow, and Ash will do that.
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No worries Bass. I'm pretty sure on piece is ash and the other is Sass. I'm going to attempt a 60" gull out of the ash, and a long, wide meare heath from the better of the 2 sass staves.
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My thought was white ash. I don't have Sassafras. Been awhile since I've seen ash bark without bore holes in it. White Ash is pretty hard. I don't know about Sassafras.
Bjrogg
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Round 2: Pecan or some other member of the hickory family, or something else entirely?
(https://i.imgur.com/TPZJUdO.jpg)
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Pignut possibly?
(http://www.carolinanature.com/trees/cagl110694.jpg)
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Bark is only one fallible method of ID. :)
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Finally cut a piece of the above wood, here are a couple endgrain pics. Tiny, densely packed pore in early growth. No pores in late growth. And the late growth rings are multiple times thicker than the early.
(https://i.imgur.com/AfUsVJt.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/g00QJQp.jpg)
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Heres a better endgrain view from another cut. This stuff is considerably harder than ash. I'm thinking some species of hickory or possibly american hornbeam. Anyone have any thoughts?
(https://i.imgur.com/EMXHhp2.jpg)
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I've started working out a limb with draw knife on this wood, as I shave it down the layers of wood newly exposed are turning a distinct yellow. The longer theyre exposed to air the more yellow they get. I tried to get a pic but the combination of lighting in my garage and the poor camera on my phone the yellow really doesnt show up in the pics.
Is this yellowing indicative of any particular wood?
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Just a guess but it looks like poplar to me.
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Eric, I appreciate the input, but based on the hardness I don't think its poplar. Its one of, if not the hardest woods I've worked with. Poplar is fairly soft isnt it?
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It's certainly not American Hornbeam. How long has this been drying? Many woods get apparently much harder with time. Try whittling any random piece of firewood that's sat for 5 years or so.
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Pat, it was cut about 3 months ago. It came from the slab pile of a lumber mill site. I pulled it from the pile and brought it inside about 8 days ago. End grain pics don't really show the late growth pores that are visible to the naked eye. They're definitely arranged in rings. I'm still thinking some species of hickory.
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Heres a pic of the belly grain where I done some reduction with the draw knife. (https://i.imgur.com/gFmoDeP.jpg)
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Tried my best to get the camera to capture the yellow hue the wood is taking on as I reduce it.
(https://i.imgur.com/y58swTn.jpg)
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Heres the rough cut side of the slab that the lumber mill left on it. This surface seasoned outside for about 3 months.
(https://i.imgur.com/2O8ZfDD.jpg)
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It isn't poplar. :)
Hickory.
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Ask the people that piled the slabs.
Just the fact that you took these from a pile of slabs would keep me from using them for bows. Mighe work fine for siding but I'm doubtful it is appropriate for bows.