Looking for yew or hazel timber in the Cheltenham area

[chuck norris]

I am looking for some yew or hazel timber in the Cheltenham area.

 

It will be for bow making so only really need a 1x2, probably about 2m ish.

 

Willing to pay a reasonable price, but it would need to be someone who can deliver, cause I only have a bike.

[agg221]

Have you done this before? If not, I suggest buying a lemonwood stave for starters. Hazel is unlikely to be found seasoned so you would need to wait. Yew is quite tricky to pick out the right bits with suitable heartwood/sapwood, the right rate of growth and also understanding which defects are OK, which can be worked around and which are critical to remove or avoid. When a bow breaks it is quite spectacular with a lot of stored energy and it is far more likely to happen (after an enormous amount of work) if you start with something difficult. Lemonwood is even grained, available in fully seasoned staves and ready for you to start working on. Getting hold of some decent lengths of Lawson's cypress is a good option for making arrows out of - it's known as Port Orford Cedar which is the preferred wood for the purpose.

 

Alec

[chuck norris]

Yeah this would be my first time making a bow, I just figured hazel since my previous bow was. Thanks for the advice though

[stuckinthemud]

Lemonwood is seriously difficult to come buy and really expensive. Hazel is an awesome bow-wood and you can force-dry it - rough out the bow shape and put it inside somewhere warm for a fortnight - usually you can source it for free too.... They aren't the only woods - maple (even sycamore), any fruitwood except cherry, holly even.

[agg221]

Lemonwood is seriously difficult to come buy and really expensive. Hazel is an awesome bow-wood and you can force-dry it - rough out the bow shape and put it inside somewhere warm for a fortnight - usually you can source it for free too.... They aren't the only woods - maple (even sycamore), any fruitwood except cherry, holly even.

 

Lemonwood is very easy to come by - try a Google search for lemonwood bow stave and the top result is Bow Supplies - Barebow Archery (hickory isn't bad either but is slightly harder to work).

 

Whether you regard £40 as expensive or not depends on your point of view. For a clean, even stave without defects which has been properly seasoned and will last a long time as a bow before following the string excessively I would regard it as a reasonable price. If however you enjoy the process of making bows enough to not worry about making replacements fairly frequently and don't mind the odd failure when tillering then certainly hazel will give you a cheaper option.

 

'The Archer's Craft' by A.E.Hodgkin is a useful read when setting out on this for the first time.

 

Alec

Edited June 2, 2017 by agg221

[stuckinthemud]

Mmm, well, I stand corrected re getting hold of lemonwood but, the price of the wood plus the postage plus the vat doesn't leave much change from £100 and that's a lot more than the free cost I usually pay for my staves. Nothing wrong with ash, though, while we're at it. The last ash staves I came by I got by intercepting some as it literally was going into a chipper at the roadside

[se7enthdevil]

get a nice straight bit of robinia and use that.

[timbernut]

Ash, easy to find a nice straight bit and easy to work up

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

[chuck norris]

I was under the impression that ash is not good bow making wood

[stuckinthemud]

I was under the impression that ash is not good bow making wood

 

Ash is a very good bow wood not quite as good as hazel or yew but still makes an excellent bow, just go about 10 per cent wider than hazel when roughing out and then refine it to suit you