Author Topic: birch war bow for hunting  (Read 4956 times)

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Offline willie

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birch war bow for hunting
« on: March 11, 2019, 05:33:26 pm »
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?

Offline peacefullymadewarbows

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Re: birch war bow for hunting
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2019, 06:20:08 pm »
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.

Offline JNystrom

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Re: birch war bow for hunting
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2019, 05:56:53 am »
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.

Offline willie

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Re: birch war bow for hunting
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2019, 01:26:49 pm »
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.


Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: birch war bow for hunting
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2019, 01:33:33 pm »
I wanna see photos! Keep us up to date on the progress, too.
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline Del the cat

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    • Derek Hutchison Native Wood Self Bows
Re: birch war bow for hunting
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2019, 03:58:40 pm »
Probably be fine at 80# but it depends on the actual bit of wood of course.
Del
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