Good bow timber

[stuckinthemud]

Slightly to one side, have you learned about straightening timber with heat? Boiling water, steam and hot air from a heat gun can all warm timber up to a point it becomes elastic and can be straightened (or bent) and un-twisted - even a 90 degree twist can be removed from some timbers.  It takes some of the pressure of timber selection away when you know what can be fixed and how to fix it.  Bow building is a fascinating and rewarding craft, be warned, its also highly addictive!

[stuckinthemud]

robinia, oh don't go there, my brother helped my dad out by removing a troublesome robinia. Chopped it up into eeny teeny pieces and binned the jolly lot......................................

[Bowyer97]

46 minutes ago, stuckinthemud said:

Ok , so, Derek is passionate in his insistence that British yew is as good as imported stuff. He has worked on foreign yew and points out that you are totally at the mercy of the merchant and they are not always fussy in their stock selection. If you buy local you can sort out the best material.  I have used British yew and found it to be excellent. Witch Elm is an awesome bow wood and historically correct for the bows you want to start off with.  Have you stumbled across the Wood Lots web-site?  Most of the stuff on there is too far south for you perhaps, but its worth keeping an eye on.

Thanks very much for your response.  I'll bear it in mind. As for the website, I haven't come across it before but it's helpful to have as wide a list of options as possible so cheers once more. 

[Bowyer97]

6 minutes ago, stuckinthemud said:

Slightly to one side, have you learned about straightening timber with heat? Boiling water, steam and hot air from a heat gun can all warm timber up to a point it becomes elastic and can be straightened (or bent) and un-twisted - even a 90 degree twist can be removed from some timbers.  It takes some of the pressure of timber selection away when you know what can be fixed and how to fix it.  Bow building is a fascinating and rewarding craft, be warned, its also highly addictive!

Yes. Can it be possible to add reflexes this way or do reflexes in self bows have to be naturally occuring? It's already proving fascinating despite the limited experience I've yet had. Certainly the kind of minefield I'm happy to throw myself into, I'll put it that way.

[stuckinthemud]

Heat is usually used to put in reflex, deflex or recurves (hooks) but a deep heat soak is used to change the chemical composition of the wood resulting in a 20 to 30 % improvement in bow speed

Edited December 10, 2019 by stuckinthemud

[gobbypunk]

Hi guys reading this thread with interest and I noticed that someone said any fruit wood is good for bows I have a quite straight bit of plum if that’s any use ,I will take some pictures of it tomorrow! I would like to have a go at a bow myself but I have so many things that I already want to do so if it’s any use it would be cool to see someone do something with it 

Cheers Mark