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Good bow timber


Bowyer97
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For timber sizes, the minimum you need is 2" diameter at the narrower end but this means the timber is very high crowned and only suitable for longbows.  In yew, pin knots are inevitable but large knots must be avoided, in almost all other timbers even pin-knots are best avoided, although the very best bow-wood is blackthorn and it tolerates small knots very well indeed - its toxic though so do not breath in the saw-dust!! Really you need timber of over a 4 inch diameter.  Concerning price, check out on-line auction sites, but I have heard rumours that the best quality Italian yew can go for £200 per stave.  Got to say though that people who build their own kit are often the sort who won't/can't pay for materials....... 

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Forgot to say, apple is a fantastic bow-wood, my current favourite,  and definitely worth keeping an eye-out for.  You should also consider elm, witch-elm,  roan and elder and basically any fruit-wood except cherry which is totally not suitable for bows.  IF you want to practice splicing, then Yellow Broom is really good fun to build a short bow from and you might be lucky to find an old privet hedge with very large stems......Ash is not too hard to come by and builds a good bow, Norway maple is OK, and Sycamore works in a pinch and though its not all that great it does work as a bow-wood and is good for re-enactor's longbows 

Edited by stuckinthemud
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3 hours ago, stuckinthemud said:

Forgot to say, apple is a fantastic bow-wood, my current favourite,  and definitely worth keeping an eye-out for.  You should also consider elm, witch-elm,  roan and elder and basically any fruit-wood except cherry which is totally not suitable for bows.  IF you want to practice splicing, then Yellow Broom is really good fun to build a short bow from and you might be lucky to find an old privet hedge with very large stems......Ash is not too hard to come by and builds a good bow, Norway maple is OK, and Sycamore works in a pinch and though its not all that great it does work as a bow-wood and is good for re-enactor's longbows 

You know your stuff  Stuckin !

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Thanks! In the UK, sourcing decent bow wood is a real problem so I spent a lot of time finding out what might be useful. I keep a folding saw in the boot of my car just in case but its more useful to get to know local farmers, tree surgeons and the parks/highways guys

Edited by stuckinthemud
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Yew is the business, as is laburnum but your setting yourself up for a really long wait to get hold of any timber to use.  Hornbeam makes a great bow but is soo hard you may not want to work with it. Hazel makes a fabulous bow - its everywhere and can be force-dried if you're in a hurry; its the wood I started with and I can't recommend strongly enough that you start off with hazel.  Some species of holly can yield suitable timber, if your lucky you could also find straight sections of rhododendron or laurel but these need to be strapped down as they season or they'll twist all over the shop but they make incredible bows.
 
Derek Hutchinson is one of the very best bowyers and you really need to spend a few days reading his blog, it will be a crash-course in bow building with British timbers for you.  Also, if you need 7ft long sections, I guess you want to dive straight into building longbows?  I would work up to this as they can be really tricky to make. Maybe start off with a few bend-through-the-handle flat-bows - allow double your draw length plus 10%, so if you draw 26", then all you need is a stave 60 inches long which is much easier to come by than 94" long.  Also, you should definitely check out the Primitive Archer forum. Good Luck.

50 years ago as a kid prior to getting an air rifle Hazel was all I used for both the bow and the arrows. I still look at Hazel growth with an eye for choosing suitable bits, but nowadays for sticks.
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Forgot to say, apple is a fantastic bow-wood, my current favourite,  and definitely worth keeping an eye-out for.  You should also consider elm, witch-elm,  roan and elder and basically any fruit-wood except cherry which is totally not suitable for bows.  IF you want to practice splicing, then Yellow Broom is really good fun to build a short bow from and you might be lucky to find an old privet hedge with very large stems......Ash is not too hard to come by and builds a good bow, Norway maple is OK, and Sycamore works in a pinch and though its not all that great it does work as a bow-wood and is good for re-enactor's longbows 

Cherry is great for bows actually.
Nearly all hardwoods can be used.
There's a bowyer on tinterweb somewhere who makes a cherry bow with 30+ knots. Works really well.
I find hazel quite brittle, ash is my favourite.
English yew is a waste of time.
Get the Spanish stuff much cleaner.
[emoji106]
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Yes, you're right about some types of cherry, bird cherry (prunus padus) is the one you need, I think, but almost all other cherry has a very high failure rate so I would  not recommend it to a novice, although as I said, Blackthorn is the very best timber and is also a prunus (p. spinosa)

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