western red cedar

[twitchstick]

I plan on killing a couple of trees this next week or so and plan on harvesting some juniper and maybe red cedar. I have read alot about eastern red cedar but how is western red cedar for a bow? It sure is a beautiful wood.

[Eric Krewson]

Too light an porous for a bow. It has a specific gravity of.32. Any wood with a specific gravity of less than .50 is not bow material.

[Don Stokes]

The problem with common names... Eastern red cedar is actually a juniper, closely related to the western juniper. Western red cedar is not really cedar either. There are no true cedars native to North America. Western red cedar is not even in the same genus as Easter red cedar (juniper). It is much lighter in density than the junipers, and probably not well suited for bow-making. I've seen a picture of Ishi with a western juniper bow, so it must be all right!

[twitchstick]

Thankyou for the advice I may try few staves of juniper.

[Bob Barnes]

if you get a few nice juniper staves I'd be interested in one of them...I always wanted to try making a sinew backed juniper bow... I guess I could try some of my own ERC but I think juniper might be better...
Bob