china berry......bowwood

[crashcastle]

i got a good hearted buddy that gave me a nice straight log of a wood he called chine berry have no idea what it is but i knifed it down to a pretty hard white colored wood any ideas would be helpful

[the Ferret]

Jason, I'm not familiar with china berry, but whenever you have some staves of a wood f unknown qualities as a bow,(especially a whitewood) build a bow 68" long 4" handle 2" fades 2" wide at the fades tapering to 1/2" tips. Go for 50# @ 28". If it makes a bow at that size that shoots well and shows little tendency to follow the string,  make the next one 1 3/4" wide and 66" long.Again if it holds up well go for 1 1/2" wide and 64" long. Eventually you will find the limits of that wood which will show up in excessive string follow.

[wingnut]

Rusty built a China Berry bow a few years ago.  If I remember right it followed the string a bunch.

Mike

[trashwood]

china berry makes GREAT wood carving for carving figures out of.  

I built a 35#@26" with a twisted cable back.  the wood didn't have enough strength and the twisted cable cut badly into the wood.

china berry is not bow wood  

rusty

[crashcastle]

WELL rusty need any carving wood