osage vs. yew, rings per inch

[vanislebowyer]

HI,

I understood that yew was valuable as bow wood because of its slow growth and consequent high count of rings per inch...

But I think i've heard that osage wood with a high ring count is dangerous and needs to be backed...

any thoughts?

[bigcountry]

IMO from reading, you want to not just look at ring count but latewood vs. earlywood ratio.  The early wood is your enemy.  But a thin ring on osage as the back could break little easier due to the early wood underneath.  

But with that said, I have one osage with littl under 1/2" rings and another that is 1/8" and teh 1/8" ringed bow shoots better and faster.  Go figure.

[Pat B]

I like thin ringed osage but the early/late wood is critical like BigCountry said. I usually back thin ringed osage as it is difficult to chase a ring cleanly so I usually get a few ring violations on the back. Rawhide works well for backing as well as silk or linen. My current hunting bow is thin ringed osage and at 56#@26" it shoots a 600gr. arrow with authority and after quite a few hundred shots it still has no more set then when I started shooting it last fall.

[John Scifres]

I prefer osage with a greater than 2:1 latewood:earlywood ratio and 1/8" to 1/4" rings all the way around.  Wood that is on the downhill side of a leaning tree is less springy but has thicker rings.  Here is a tree I cut this year that has the thickest rings I have ever seen.

 

The rings are 1/4" to over 1/2" thick.  The ratio is good and it is nice dense stuff.  I'm curious how it will act when I get to making bows from it.  The tree grew straight so the fatter rings aren't truly compression wood as I would have expected.

Here she is standing.  

[Pat B]

John, that is scary wood. The trunk looks quite good but for me those rings are too thick for good bow wood. I have a few billets like that that I have stayed away from for many years. Every once in a while I pick them up, look them over and put them back in the pile again. d;^)

[dutchwarbow]

I've seen a bow with only a single ring/limb, and it still drew in the 60#'s. Should be excelent stuff.

for yew however, you want as much as rings/inch as this indicates a heavy s/g.

yew staves, with a decent length (80") and a high rpi (more than 50rings per inch)are worth a fortune. They're in high demand by warbowmakers.

Nick

[tim-flood]

John, did that grow in a pond!! ;-)

[John Scifres]

Pat, I agree.  I cut one many years ago that had similar rings but was very light in color.  It showed the lunar rings llike that too.  I don't remember what the bows turned out like though.  I guess we'll see.

This was an anomaly from my experience.  It grew right on the edge of an ag field though so maybe it was getting some extra nutrients.  It is less than 20 years old and still 10"+ wide.

[DCM]

Fat ringed wood might take a little more volume if it's not dense, but I have not found it to be a laggard in terms of the finished bow.  Kinda like mulberry, but more dense.  Just match the bow to the wood.  The bows I've made were surprisingly game, kinda like elm or hackberry in their tendancy to hold shape.

[Pat B]

The billets I refered to were from a tree in a guys lawn and I'm sure the excess nutrients is why it grew so fast.

[Roy Steele]

I once had a osage tree I got 8 staves from that had  1/4 rings from the but log.All make good bows.and I've made at least 15 osage bows many had 16th of an inch rings or less.These also made very good bows.
  I can't say ones better than the other.But I think I like the dinser(CLOSER RINGS) when it comes to ossage.I think the woods more durable.And for some no really skilled at tillering they take less set.But its a personal thing.Ideal for me is 1/8 inch.

[Roy Steele]

Use what you have is what I do.