Black Locust

[Lee Lobbestael]

Hey guys, I cut a big black locust tree yesterday and got seven quality staves from it! I sealed em and stuck them in my shed bark on to cure. I have never used BL before and i'm plannin on making some self bows. Being a newbie with this wood, is there anything I need to know about it?
How long should I give it to cure(split into staves with bark on)?

With BL do you make the back of your bow out of the yellowish heart wood or the white sap wood?

Also I heard BL frets easy, For a long time now I thought fretting was compression cracks in belly, but now I hear fretting is splinters popping up on the back of the bow. Is this true?

Sorry for all the questions! Thanks for lookin

[Mark Smeltzer]

BL is one of my favorite woods, some of my best self bows have been BL.  Treat it just like Osage, remove the sapwood down to the first good Latewood ring. Boring bugs love BL I have always sprayed mine with something to keep the bugs out of it. They will ruin good staves very quickly.

Mark

[Stiks-n-Strings]

What Mark said is spot on. Might make it a ittle wider than osage from everything I've read but not by much.

 Frets or chrysals are compression fractures on the belly side of the bow not splinters on the back of the bow.

 George Tsoukalas ought to be along with some great advice on BL


 Stiks

[George Tsoukalas]

Mark and Stiks gave good advice. Typically it takes 1 year/ inch to dry. You might try removing the bark on one of the staves and chasing down to a heartwood ring.  You can get the llimbs moving a little bit (may be an inch) at floor tillering stage. and letting it dry. Remove all the nicks from the back and sand with 100 and 220 grit.  But you have to seal the back right away with poly or it will check  big time. I can't remember if I've ever done this with BL but it should work. But it will dry faster. If you can wait just leave the bark on and let it dry. Have fun. Jawge

[ALW]

Whether you take the bark off or not, seal the ends and 4-5 inches down the belly side of the stave.  I've noticed that some of the staves I've had tend to want to split out on the belly side near the ends if not sealed.  

Aaron

[Roy Steele]

My very first bows were out6 of BL fence posts 20 years ago.

[Roy Steele]

Sorry about that that.Treat it just like Osage.

[Lee Lobbestael]

Thanks guys! Looks like it will be a little while before I can turn it into arrow flingers! What do you guys use to keep the insects off? and where do I get it?

[Mark Smeltzer]

I have had good success quick drying BL that was just cut a week or two ago. Rough the bow out almost to floor tiller and seal the entire bow with shellac. Let it sit for a few days to begin drying and let the shellac dry.
I then put it on the straight 2X4 and and put it in the hot box at around 85-90 deg. Every day I add some wood under the tips and induce reflex, when the wood is green and warm it bends very easy. Over a period of a few days I get to around 3-4" of reflex. Every time you open the lid to the hot box you can feel the humid air escape the box. I leave it in the box for a round ten days and open the box once or twice a day to let the air circulate.
I then take it out and let it sit for a few more days on the caul, (reflexed).
The danger is, dry it too fast and you will get cracks.  I had a bunch green Osage and BL to play with and that ALMOST always work perfectly.  Notice I said always, I did have one or two that developed small cracks in the handle from going too fast.