Douglas fir for bow wood?

[tah-gah-jute]

might have access to some douglas fir trees taken down.i know they make good arrows.not sure if any good for bows.anyone ever make any bows from it.looked it up it bowyers bible saw where they mention douglas fir but doesn't say a whole lot about it.

[tah-gah-jute]

the trees are 2 foot around at base,making them older growth if that makes them better.

[Broke another one]

Typically anything over .50 sg is considered a "bow wood" Douglas fir has .51sg which would qualify it as such, but I don't know the firs to much. In Ohio you should have some osage (I believe it can be found there). Osage makes much better bows.

[tah-gah-jute]

yes osage is all over the place up here,i have a good stash of osage staves,and other more commonly used bow woods,like trying different woods just wasn't sure on this one.was wanting to see if any of you bowyers have any experience with it.

[Jeremy]

All the wood data I've seen list the average sg of doug fir at .48

Didn't TBB v.1 include a fir test bow?  My copies are buried in boxes since I moved everything into my shop.

[George Tsoukalas]

There are much better choices. Time Baker says, in TBB#4, that if you use the denser heartwood it will make a bow and perform like white ash. LOL. I don't like ash. I'd make arrows from the d fir. It's a great arrow wood. Jawge

[Jeremy]

yeah Jawge, I love it as an arrow wood!

[Pat B]

Seems to me that some of the guys from Northern Europe have built bows from fir and spruce. I believe they used compression wood from limbs for their bows and made the bows longer than an average bow. The only way to really know is to try. I think I'd add a backing(maple, ash, elm) for tension safety and use wood with very tight growth rings.

[Tom Leemans]

I know that fir gets harder and harder as it ages. I'd be worried that it would be brittle.

[tah-gah-jute]

just got back from checking wood out.the guy had like 50 trees down but they were spruce not douglas fir.maybe not complete waste,he does excavating and clearing.left# told him to contact me when taking down other wood types for bow wood.

[mater]

It would make good arrows!

[PapaB]

A two foot diameter Douglas-fir tree is not old growth.  That tree is probably only 50-60 years old.  Old growth Douglas-fir is 150 years plus and will be at least twice the size of the tree that you have.