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Message started by beaverbutt8 on Sep 11th, 2005 at 10:02am

Title: Cottonwood bow
Post by beaverbutt8 on Sep 11th, 2005 at 10:02am
Hey everyone,

I need some help. I live in the middle of wyoming , and the only wood avalible is cottonwood. I've tried a few times to use this to make a bow, but they have snapped. Yesterday, the wind blew a branch off a small tree and i took the opportunity to do a little chopping. I have a green cottonwood stick. Its 2.9 feet , 15mm thick at the top and 22mm thick at the bottom.

Can somebody tell me to nessecary steps for making it a bow, the bark is still on it, so it should be a while before it dries.



Thanks,

Mike

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by Smudge on Sep 11th, 2005 at 10:18am
2.9 ft is a little short for making a bow, especially out of cottonwood. :-/

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by beaverbutt8 on Sep 11th, 2005 at 11:49am
That's the only thing i could get  :-[

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by english on Sep 11th, 2005 at 12:05pm
My advice here is:  Don't make a bow.  Make an atlatl.  Cottonwood cannot possibly make a powerful bow, or even a moderately powerful bow.
 If you can find any really long slender saplings, then you can use these as darts.  An atlatl is almost certainly the way to go.  Do some research, and if you need any help with that, don't hesitate to ask.

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by Smudge on Sep 11th, 2005 at 12:15pm
Listen to english, he knows his stuff.

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by Hellfire on Sep 11th, 2005 at 12:45pm
Mr.Beaver.  ;)

There is something you can do. You can go to Home Depot, Lowes, or any other such spot, and go buy a 1by2by6ft long red oak board. I will name other woods you can make into bows(from boards) They are as follows.

Hickory, White Ash, Green Ash, Black Cherry, Elm(somewhat rare in board form), Red Cedar(get a 1by3by6for this one), Walnut(spendy), white oak, pecan, mostly any hard wood.

Woods that wont work
Aspen, Cottonwood, Poplar, Balsa(thats a real duh), Pine, Basswood(suppose you could call it linden or lime), and Willow.


Did you get my PM? Then go to http://b16.ezboard.com/bpaleoplanet69529  You ought to get help there for board bows. Hope this helps.

You might want to go into atlatls, if so, check out my good buddy Daryls website, http://www.thudscave.com/npaa/index.htm. I met him a few years back at Jeffers, he's a great guy. He has all sorts of dimensions for all kinds of atlatls, all free! Usually, you have to send them website owners money for dimensions of stuff(paypal). Daryl's a great guy. He's also at Paleoplanet, under the name Thudling. Hope thsi helps-again.

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by beaverbutt8 on Sep 11th, 2005 at 4:14pm
Thanks hellfire, this is some really helpfull advice  :D

But what about that lemonwood stuff? Does it work?

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by english on Sep 12th, 2005 at 2:33am
If you can get lemonwood, then get it.  I've got one lemonwood bow that I bought here in England from a bowyer.  It's very smooth.

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by beaverbutt8 on Sep 12th, 2005 at 9:38pm
where can you find lemonwood?? How well does it work compared to yew or ash?

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by english on Sep 13th, 2005 at 8:29am
The best lemonwood comes from Cuba, and obviously the trade embargo in the US means you can only get inferior stuff from South and Central America.  In England, it is one of the main bow woods, adopted in the 19th century.  It compares very favourably to ash, but yew makes a more traditional bow, that is easy to make powerful.  You have to buy it, I'm afraid, from specialist archery stores.  The wood cutters ignore the grain, btw, because the wood is tropical and the grain can almost be ignored.

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by beaverbutt8 on Sep 13th, 2005 at 1:37pm
Hmm, that's interesting, i thought lemonwood was related to pine! Shows how little i know my woods  :-[
:P

Do you know where one might find ash or yew?

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by english on Sep 13th, 2005 at 3:15pm
Yew grows throughout Europe, from Norway to Spain to Estonia.  But it also grows in the north west United States, which has a climate almost exactly like north west Europe.  It is of very good quality.
 Ash grows almost anywhere.  It is closely related to the olive tree, but it is much straighter and a little less dense.  It grows well in the shade, in many different environments, from the Great Plains to Cornwall.

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by beaverbutt8 on Sep 13th, 2005 at 3:44pm

wrote on Sep 13th, 2005 at 3:15pm:
Yew grows throughout Europe, from Norway to Spain to Estonia.  But it also grows in the north west United States, which has a climate almost exactly like north west Europe.  It is of very good quality.
 Ash grows almost anywhere.  It is closely related to the olive tree, but it is much straighter and a little less dense.  It grows well in the shade, in many different environments, from the Great Plains to Cornwall.



Any idea if it grows in central wyoming?

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by english on Sep 14th, 2005 at 2:36am
Ash?  I suspect it does.  It does grow in most places across America.

Title: Re: Cottonwood bow
Post by Hellfire on Sep 14th, 2005 at 8:00pm
You might want to look into juniper, there's a bunch of it in wyoming, colorado, nevada. I really like ash, great stuff, but if I had a choice, I would pick elm, mostly because of its staying power and the ability to take a large set before breaking, always a good trait. Sure like elm longbows. I'm making one right now, it's looking decent. Left it strung for eight hours, pulled it half draw eighty times and full draw a hundred times and it settled to about forty eight pounds and some string follow. Its decent and I like it. I call it "the tackdriver" because I find it to be pretty accurate.  It's about 1 7/16" wide or so at the handle, tapering gently to 6/16" wide at the tips. I like how slim it looks, it makes all my flatbows look fat ;)

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