Slinging.org Forum - Trees/Staves/Bow Wood

Morphy

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Trees/Staves/Bow Wood
May 16^th, 2020 at 11:27am

I thought I would make a thread discussing trees/wood for various primitive weapons and technology, their differing properties and your experiences with them. Seems like we have a group here that enjoys this subject and of course selfishly I’m hoping someone here can ID these two trees for me while I’m at it. Wink

So the top I’m thinking “might” be white cedar? But I don’t know cedars all that well.
The bottom I don’t know because I’m not sure that the leaves you see in that pic are from that particular tree. If you can guess just by it’s distinctive bark that’s probably the best I can do picture-wise at the moment.

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Bill Skinner Forum Moderation Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 3292	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #1 - May 17^th, 2020 at 3:55pm The top tree may be hemlock. Need to see a close up of the needles/leaves, or cones, fruit or nuts. May also be a cypress or juniper. Bottom looks like some flavor of juniper, too. But again, I'd need to see leaves or fruit/cones if it has any. Keep in mind that Eastern Red Cedar is actually a juniper.
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Morphy Slinging.org Moderator Offline Checkmate Posts: 7933	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #2 - May 17^th, 2020 at 4:19pm Much appreciated Bill. The bottom pic does look like Juniper I’ve seen out West but didn’t think we had it out here. I would love to get a nice juniper stave to work with out here.
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Bill Skinner Forum Moderation Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 3292	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #3 - May 18^th, 2020 at 10:42pm Are there any hulls, shells, nuts on the ground?
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Mersa Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Druid Posts: 2500 Australia Gender:	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #4 - May 18^th, 2020 at 11:13pm Can’t say I know either of the top of my head but definitely look like some type of conifer. More pictures of leaves (needles),twigs ,fruit (cones) will probably help get a positive ID.
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Morphy

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Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood
Reply #5 - May 19^th, 2020 at 9:21am

@Bill- No nuts or any sign like that. But the cedar looking one does seem to have juniper like berries. Wasn’t sure if cedar has something similar or not.

@Mersa-The cedar one definitely has needles and the “juniper” berries. When I go back I will see about getting pics of the needles close up. The bottom tree had no leaves lower down and everything was so intertwined it was hard to tell what were it’s leaves vs something else.

My original fascination with the cedar was that beautiful , perfect stave er... branch on the left. I got out of my car and looked at it up close just to make sure it wasn’t a mirage. Grin

Judging from the bark the grain was near perfect. If I owned that land it would’ve been pruned a long time ago.

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AncientCraftwork Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Posts: 2402	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #6 - May 19^th, 2020 at 11:52am I am building a bow right now from a stave of hawthorn and so far I am really liking the properties of this wood
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AncientCraftwork

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Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood
Reply #7 - May 19^th, 2020 at 12:35pm

I am kinda blown away by the performance of this piece of hawthorn. It draws near 35 pounds and that's for a few hours of work, yesterday. It shoots way faster than my 26 pound rolan snake. I tried to imitate the longbow shape. It's my best work so far. I am using a paracord bowstring because the hemp one snapped.

The stave I cut it from has only cured for a week. So far no cracks in the bow and not a lot of set. the woods feels dry but of course it isn't. I am just gonna let it dry more. We will see what happens to it. The hardest part of bow making is really waiting for the wood to age. I will see if I can post a picture of it. On to the next.

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AncientCraftwork Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Posts: 2402	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #8 - May 19^th, 2020 at 12:48pm no sanding, no filing, just carving and chopping
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joe_meadmaker

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Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood
Reply #9 - May 19^th, 2020 at 7:14pm

Nice work there Jauke. That looks like it's coming along nicely.

I've got one to throw out here. I was going through all the staves I have on hand. Some I've had for more time than I would like to admit. I have them all identified except for one. This was likely an eBay purchase but I no longer have any order information on what it was. Unfortunately there are only a couple things to go on. The first thing is bark. The second is that this would have been purchased as a bow stave. So it's likely to be a wood that would commonly be sold for bow making.

I was thinking hickory but I'm not sure. I've looked at pictures of different tree bark online, but nothing seems to match exactly. If anyone has any thoughts, I would be glad to hear them.

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Morphy Slinging.org Moderator Offline Checkmate Posts: 7933	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #10 - May 19^th, 2020 at 8:32pm Ahh very interesting. My first thought was also hickory. Is it ring porous? There’s a simple-ish test for determining specific gravity I believe in the TBB 4. Might help. Does look like hickory I’ve used in the past though.
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joe_meadmaker Slinging.org Administrator Offline Slinging Ice is Cool! Posts: 2498 PA, USA	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #11 - May 19^th, 2020 at 10:03pm I would say yes, that it is ring porous. The early wood rings are very narrow, but it does look to be the case. I'll make a note to look for that SG test when this stave comes up in line. That completely slipped my mind. Thanks!
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AncientCraftwork

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Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood
Reply #12 - May 21^st, 2020 at 3:04pm

I know this is slightly offtopic but Ligustrum also makes amazing atlatl darts, it grows straight in the perfect size and the wood is very tough but flexible. My practice atlatl darts just have fire hardened tips and they have bounced off rock, wood, metal and richocheted into all directions hitting all kinds of objects and the majority of them are still fine.

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Morphy

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Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood
Reply #13 - May 21^st, 2020 at 4:04pm

AncientCraftwork wrote on May 21^st, 2020 at 3:04pm:

I know this is slightly offtopic but Ligustrum also makes amazing atlatl darts, it grows straight in the perfect size and the wood is very tough but flexible. My practice atlatl darts just have fire hardened tips and they have bounced off rock, wood, metal and richocheted into all directions hitting all kinds of objects and the majority of them are still fine.

Not off topic at all. This thread is for discussing any wood(s) and it’s properties. I had to look up that tree. Wasn’t familiar with it.

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Bill Skinner Forum Moderation Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 3292	Re: Trees/Staves/Bow Wood Reply #14 - May 21^st, 2020 at 9:33pm Hawthorne is in the apple family. Apple will make a good bow. Although most would rather have the fruit.
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