Sweetgum Selfbow Disaster

[Broke another one]

Hello all,

My sweetgum self bow snapped (I know, how unexpected) I know Why and all but I was wodering is there an easier way to chase a ring than just scarping witha draw knife (I dont have a draw knife but I sharpened a file down and am using that as a substatue which works great)? How far down into a stave should I go for the ring,? Or does it really matter? Is there a really nice build alongfor selfbows that I could draw knowledge from? I post pictures of the failed sweetgum soon.
                              Thanks,
                            Broke Another One

[Bob Barnes]

who would know about sweetgum?    :confused:   ...but I'd have to guess that since it's a white wood you would not have to chase a ring at all...remove the bark (pop it off in the late summer/early fall) and use what's under it as your back.  You could use a rasp to do the profile/belly rough shape and then a scraper...I make scrapers out of old stanley handsaws...
good luck.
Bob

[sulphur]

Sweet gum is a white wood and all you need is to remove the bark.  I can imagine it was hard chasing a ring on that wood. It has interlocking grain worse than elm.  I bet it was a booger to split too!  You probably had several ring violations on the back, its very hard to see between the rings on most white woods.

[barley40]

Sweetgum! Now I've always wondered about that. Since it's impossible to split I figured it would make one tough bow. Of course as they said just remove the bark and you've got the back right there. Looks like it would have to be sawed instead of split

[Broke another one]

Im not sure that sweet gum is so hard to split. It was pretty easy for me, in fact it practically split itself. Good to know I dont have to chase the rings anymore, I cant tell you how hard it was to not miss the 1/32" dark rings.

[Eric Krewson]

You may be calling some other wood sweet gum.
The real stuff is almost impossible to split.

One "Friend" dropped off a bunch of sweet gum logs for me to cut and split to supply firewood for a disabled relative. It took me 30 minutes of bashing wedges with a sledge hammer to get one 24" long piece split. I split the rest of the pile with a chainsaw.

I have cut a lot on my place while thinning the woods but consign it all to a burn pile rather than try to split it.

[Broke another one]

   
 

Im sure its sweet gum

[Eric Krewson]

Yep, definately sweet gum in your pictures.

[sulphur]

perhaps the tree was diseased or had some rot.  that would explain the easy splitting and your bow blowing up.

[Broke another one]

Couldnt see any rot on any of the wood and the tree was healthy and happy till I cut it down.