Tree identification isn't one of my fortes, so I can't tell you if the trees are poplar.  But I can tell you that if they are poplar, then yes, that is a good wood for arrows.  Not sure about atlatl darts.  I never made one of those.  But being that they work similarly to arrows, I would imagine it would be fine.

I’m not familiar with the trees in your area but I would agree that they look very much like poplars I’ve worked on.
Photos of the leaves buds flowers and fruit(seed barring part of the plant) will give me enough info for can probably find out what they are but if your happy with just knowing the genus I’d say you’re pretty much onto it being poplar

For a bow it’s definitely a no if it’s poplar.
Arrows and darts I can see working

If you really want to you can try to make a bow from it if you have a long enough piece. The one good thing about using softer woods is they work very fast even under hand tools. It gives you a good opportunity to work on shaping and tillering. Consider leaving the limbs extra wide though 2 inches would be a starting point. Obviously taper towards the tips. I’ve made some decent bows from soft woods. They can be fun. If the grain is good enough get a spokeshave and go to town.

Well i have some ash staves cut up,  and drying right now for bows. I have read that poplar can be made from poplar but its gotta be 4 in wide. Which when i make a bow, it will be my 1st ever made, so i would rather start easy.  I would like to attempt to make some arrows since it grows like a weed. I would perfer to find a use for it, and go traditional uses. I been playing with the saplings, pretty springy. So it seems if might work for both
Thanks

I had read that with poplar, the limbs are gonna be wide, due to being relatively weak wood. I read on an archery forum, someone needed almost 4in limbs for poplar. I had purchased a bow building kit from 3 rivers archery. Came with the tillering stick, dvd, scrapers, rasp. I picked up a spokeshave. I own a drawknife . I have been skimming through the whole bowyers bible set, i also picked up a few more books written by Jim Hamm. I just havent had time to read, but i have 16 ash staves drying right now from last year. Which are just quarters of the tree i cut down. But i do understand what you are saying, and it makes sense. Now is it possible to use a green stave to make a bow, or does it have to dry? Or can i just make out of green for practice, and not expect much? In regards to performance

vetryan15 wrote on Apr 27^th, 2020 at 8:27pm:



Sure you can make it green. But Poplar being such a light wood will dry very quickly especially when it’s in a near finished form. If you are worried about it breaking, I wouldn’t be.

Guess what? Your first couple Ash bows will likely break as well. Hell, your first ten might. It’s not a big deal and there’s no getting around it! Even if it doesn’t break it will be a sorry finished product compared to what you will make in years to come.  I would definitely consider a strong but elastic backing for the poplar if you want your best chances of success.

Rough out the front view profile. Round the edges of the back, sand to perfect smoothness, clean it well with hot soapy water, sand lightly to polish the raised grain, burnish it and then put on one, or maybe two layers of the fiberglass reinforced packing tape. Make sure there’s no bubbles or loose spots. Sinew or rawhide would be better but take much longer. Enough sinew will virtually guarantee success and would probably make a really cool little bow but I wouldn’t recommend doing all that work on your first couple bows.

I can’t say for sure what the bow design the other people were using that necessitated 4 inch limbs but I suspect they were trying to make a fairly hefty bow, or perhaps that’s just what their particular piece would accommodate. I would stick to no more than 40# and make it longer than you think it needs to be. 72 inches at least for a 28 inch draw. And, of course, back it well. If it breaks it’s no problem But it’s easily possible. In fact, when I’m done with school soon I’ll go to one of the hardware stores assuming their open and pick up a poplar board and see how heavy a bow I can make. Sounds like a really fun challenge. 

EDIT: I like to let the tape backing sit for several days before flexing the bow so the glue in it can set a bit. Not sure if that’s necessary but it’s what I do.