Working/Seasoning Juniper

[TheUnatural]

I'm going out to harvest some local juniper this Saturday for a sinew backed bow. I was wondering, since I've made nothing but board bows till now, about seasoning juniper. I live in Tucson, AZ and it has been about 70-80 degrees out lately, with less than 10% humidity. Also, does anyone have experience with working with juniper? I hear it has a tendency to chrysal if you're not careful. I understand that most of this info is in the TBB vol. 1, but unfortunately, I only have vols. 2 and 3 (and I won't be able to get vol. 1 by Saturday). Thanks in advance!

[red hill]

You need to get in touch with Keenan Howard. He makes fantastic sinew backed juniper bows. Maybe he'll respond to your post.
You can probably send him an e-mail on here, now that I think about it.

[TheUnatural]

Wow, I sent an e-mail to Mr. Howard and he got back to me the very next day with some great information! Seems like a great guy, especially in that interview that's up on YouTube. Can't wait to get out and get started tomorrow.

[macbow]

Ok if you got your juniper how bout some pics and also what Keenan told you?

[snakewood3]

Alligator juniper ?

[TheUnatural]

Originally posted by macbow:
Ok if you got your juniper how bout some pics and also what Keenan told you?

Sorry about the wait, been out for a few days. He sent me this information.
"Juniper is a great wood for sinew backed bows. I generally use the top side of a branch, becauseit it deser tension wood, but finding something large enough and straight without knots can be a challenge. The main truck will often be easier for striaght and clean and will work good as well.
 Cutting this time of year, requires a little more care to keep the wood from checking while it dries. And you will need to remove the bark fairly soon as wood wasp love to lay their larva in the bark. Cut, remove bark, split (with bandsaw if possible) and seal. You can split with wedges but will often tear out the side and Juniper is not critical to split with the longitude grain as some other woods are. Juniper can be heat formed with either dry heat or steam. I use dry heat for dry wood."

[TheUnatural]

Originally posted by snakewood3:
Alligator juniper ?

The area I went to had two species of Juniperus, osteospema (utah) and deppeana (alligator). Took the alligator since I was told it made better bows (easier to find a workable piece to boot). Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of heartwood in the trees in this area (probably due to the smaller size), so my design is going to incorporate some setback.

End of the wood (sealed the ends in TBII, added a bit more)
  web page  

Clamps to prevent twisting (you can see some of the knots in this pic)
  web page  

Clamped to a 2x4 (total length is 77")
  web page

I'm going to do some more splitting/shaping this weekend.

[snakewood3]

Looks to be some fairly nice Alligator. I like a little heartwood on the belly.

[TheUnatural]

Yeah, I'm going to try to keep as much of the heartwood in as possible.

[Dave Bowers]

Juniper is some sharp looking wood...good luck