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Question: bow wood tension or compression? (Read 1761 times)
johan
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Question: bow wood tension or compression?
Dec 25th, 2015 at 2:13pm
 
Please name any woods/trees you know is good for the back and what is good for the belly of the bow.

The only thing i know is that bamboo is good for the back(tension).

For example where would you put : black locust, cypress, mulberry,cedar, european beech, maple ,ash,chestnut,Buxus sempervirens,Quercus coccifera,Ailanthus altissima,Juglans regia.

back or belly? tension or compression? Huh

Last 4 have scientific name because i don't know how you call them in your region.

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Dan
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Re: Question: bow wood tension or compression?
Reply #1 - Dec 25th, 2015 at 10:35pm
 
Those woods are all over the place honestly. Fortunately, barring any really bad injuries to the wood, most weaknesses can be overcome in design. I believe one of the Traditional Bowyer's Bible (check the table of contents before you buy it I guess, or just buy all 4!) has a chapter on bow wood that could answer all of those questions.

For example, I know BL can be weak in compression (it chryssals), but I've made a bow from it and I've seen many others and as long as it has wide belly and an even tiller. Cedar can also be weak in tension so it is often sinew backed. However, if you look around Primitive Archer forums, you can almost always find one bowyer "breaking the rules" of bow making with a design that "shouldn't work" but does because of proper handling of the wood and perfect tiller.

Regardless, if you are new to bow making, I would recommend picking up the TBB series before you get started on a new staves, it'll save a lot of breaking and you can learn a lot more. I know I didn't directly answer your question but I think that'll be better in the long run, hope it helps.
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I was pretty good at slinging like 10 years ago.
 
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Bill Skinner
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Re: Question: bow wood tension or compression?
Reply #2 - Dec 31st, 2015 at 11:10am
 
Most of those woods will make a bow.

However, they won't make the same kind of bow.  Some will make "D" cross section bows, some will make flatbows, and some will make good "English longbow" style bows.

But a lot will do poorly if you make the wrong kind of bow for the type of wood you are using.

As Dan suggests, check out the Bowyers' Bible series, there are lots of discussions of what wood to use for what design bow that you are making.
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Morphy
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Re: Question: bow wood tension or compression?
Reply #3 - Jan 1st, 2016 at 2:57pm
 
Not too sure about Cypress or the scientific named ones but the others are well known bow woods. There are two ways given in the bowyer's bible series for understanding a given woods properties enough to help you design a bow from it. The first is in part one and I believe is called A Standard Bending Test or something. The second is in part 4 and uses specific gravity to give you a general ballpark on how to design a bow from any given wood. Both are probably not for the casual bowmaker but if you're inclined, they are options.
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Bill Skinner
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Re: Question: bow wood tension or compression?
Reply #4 - Jan 2nd, 2016 at 11:19am
 
Pretty sure that Seminoles and southern Creeks used cypress for bows.

I'm guessing that they used 100+ year old trees  with clean wood.  Most cypress that I have seen is very knotty.  Or they could have been made from the underside of a large limb.

Jim Hamm's book, "Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans, Vol. 1", has some pictures of cypress bows.  Even though they are suspected to be made for tourists, the design looks like it will work for that wood.

Cypress is a ring diffuse connifer just like cedar or juniper.  So, a design that works for those might work for cypress with a little tweaking.
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