Wyoming Bowyers, where ya get your wood

[WyomingWhitetail]

So I'm finally getting back around to archery and Ive wanted to build some selfbows for several years but haven't got around to it till now. I have a couple of pieces of Osage and a couple of hickory to start with but after i run out what then? I want to try Russian olive as it grows as a weed around here so it will be easy to obtain but I'm lost as to other possible sources of local bow wood. I know mountain maple and chokecherry can make bows but most mountain maple is pretty crooked and small and i don't think Ive ever seen a choke cherry bigger than 1.5in diameter. There is the occasional ash tree (used to have two huge one in the front yard but then i moved) and maybe an elm or two but those are few and far between. So Wyoming selfbowyers is there some common wood around here that I'm not thinking of or am i going to have to make do until i make a voyage to the land where Osage grows?

[kpete]

I have purchased most of my stuff on ****.  Sometimes good, sometimes not.  I have used Ipe, bamboo, mulberry.
I have a piece of chokecherry cut and drying.  Serviceberry is supposed to grown in my area, but even the foresters don't know of any.
I lived in Kentucky for a year and cut some hickory within 40 yds of my house and made bows.
A friend tried to find a Russian Olive stave and worked hard and never found one suitable.  I have seen bows made from it and they have a lot of wood and little poundage.
I have Lilac bushes around and a few inpeoples yards have shoots big enough for sapling bows.
Keep in touch and maybe we can find some sources.
Kirk

[WyomingWhitetail]

I see you are in Buffalo i grew up on a ranch in Sheridan. There was quite a bit of rocky mountian maple in the creek bottoms on that ranch and i was going to try to find a few pieces to make bows but never got around to it. Most of it was smaller (4-8in max) and pretty crooked. I would think it would be growing on the face of the bighorns where your at too. Im going to do some experimenting with russian olive when i get a chance, if it don't work im out a few hours but if it does it will open up a whole lot more choices given that you can find one straight enough.

[twitchstick]

Juniper can make a great bow,thats the most common bow wood in my area.

[WyomingWhitetail]

I kept hearing about juniper making bows but it didn't dawn on me exactly what the heck a juniper was. According to what I found we should have rocky mountain juniper here. Any body know if the "cedar" trees that come from Montana are the juniper kind or cypress. Ive cutting truck loads of what we call cedar for years to turn into boards and build stuff out of them.

[Mark Baker]

The "juniper" is actually a western red cedar, I think....but it has juniper berries.  That's the easiest way I know to Identify it.   Ours is a pretty "scrubby" tree, not at all like the tall straight cedar trees that grow in the western part of the state.   Make your bows wide and flat profiles....and they take sinew very well.   Probably will work best with sinew.

[gringol]

Mark is right.  Western red cedar is the stuff that grows huge in western Washington, Oregon, and BC.  Juniper is a short, scrubby, relative of cedar that thrives in dry climates (all along the rockies).  As I understand it, the lack of good bow woods in the arid west is the primary reason the natives used sinew.

[WyomingWhitetail]

Been doing lots of looking at the juniper bows, and i think im definitely going to have to try it out. First of all from what i have found the Rocky mountain juniper has the coloration of what i always called cedar and i have always been fond of cedar. And it should be easy to find, now finding a piece big enough, straight enough, and clear enough to make a bow might be another story. Ive cut truck loads of "cedar" logs (from right outside biddle MT, only people who live there will know where that at) which now im pretty sure was rocky mountain juniper to build furniture and such out of never thought to try and build a bow out of it. I need to get over to my dads house so i re read his TBBs and see what can be found for design consideration for juniper.

[twitchstick]

Yes the common name is cedar for juniper. You should have Utah Juniper and Rocky Mountian Juniper up there. It is hard to find good staight peace I have found but I haven't put in the time I should have either. Also chokecherry,any friut tree or nut tree,russian oilve,oak,maple. I am not a great bowyer but you might want to look at some of bows Keenan has made from juniper. Good luck.