birch war bow for hunting

[willie]

I have a birch stave that will go 75" ntn to use for a warbow, really nice clear piece of wood with a pristine back, but it is only 1.4 inches wide, and a big guy wants to draw 30"
for slinging big arrows at big game. what do you think would be a doable tiller goal?

[peacefullymadewarbows]

I've heard birch is finicky in compression and will fret and chrysal quite badly. 1.4 inches is a little narrow for a white wood war bow but I bet you could safely get 80-90bs ish from that dimension of stave. I also don't know how birch responds to heat treating. That could transform it into something able to hold more weight. Hopefully someone with birch experience chimes in.

[JNystrom]

I agree with Peace, birch is pretty soft stuff. We have a lot of this Betula Pendula here in Finland, but its so light i haven't even bothered to try it.

Heat treatment, length and lowest poundage you can go with will help. On the tiller i would say round compass tiller is the best at distributing stress in my opinion.

[willie]

jere, I have heard from other finnish bowyers that pendula is not the best. here in america there are a few different varieties. some have S.G.s more like like oak. thanks for the tips
not sure where  peacefullymadewarbows is posting from, maybe somewhere in america,  80# is what the guy was hoping for so.... thanks, that is where I will start.

[JW_Halverson]

I wanna see photos! Keep us up to date on the progress, too.

[Del the cat]

Probably be fine at 80# but it depends on the actual bit of wood of course.
Del