Locust woods in a bow ?

[Nathan Killen]

I was cutting a load of locust fire wood today and was noticing the pretty color and grain and was wondering how it would look in a bow. I think its black locust but not sure. Its yellow with brownish black color in it. Anyone have any pictures of any bows that have locust in the handle or pretty limb veneers ? Might have South build me a 3 PC longbow in the future with it. I cut around a 48" log out of the tree and plan to take it to the local saw mill to see what I have.

[Bob B.]

That sounds like honey locust to me, but I sure coud be mistaken.  Honey locust can be a good lam for a bow core, I am not sure how it would be for a self bow.  Black locust has considerable snap and makes an excellent core wood as well as a self bow.

I hope others more familiar with locust will reply.

Bob.

[subsonic]

I have a longbow with a locust riser and really like it.

[ddauler]

I have built self bows from black locust. It has long compound leaves and few small thorns. Honey locust trees are usually shorter scrubbier and have big thorns with long pods for fruit. Black Locust makes good bows but tiller has to be perfect to prevent fretting "crysals". Pretty wood.

[nineworlds9]

yeah black locust is considered one of the 'bow' woods.  cool stuff.

[Bow man]

We love both Black and Honey Locust in bows.

Here is one we did with black Locust and Wenge.
 

[stillhunter]

Back in the 80's black locust was used alot in custom bows but seemed to trade places with red elm. Thinking red elm had less waste due to knots and could be cut edge or flat grain which made a striking look. Most stained the locust with anniline dye and was a good strong shooter. I used GOLDEN OAK stain on my bows and it's still my go to bow preference for my longbow. Bought a recurve at the 1986 pbs banquet in Ohio made totally of b. locust. 80 lbs at 27 inches. My hunting buddys deemed it the "ELEPHANT BOW". It was one "BAD" bow. Strong enough to shoot a log.

[MnFn]

Shedua  riser with black locust limbs.

[JamesKerr]

I have a mild d/r longbow that a friend of mine made for me. It has black glass on the limbs so you can't really see the grain but it shoots a 12gpp arrow at 154 fps.

[Bill Turner]

The only thing I know about "Honey Locust" is that I do not want to get tangled up is there thorns. That would make for a bad day for sure.  

[larry]

honey locust has a very nice grain, I had one once that had it for veneers

[MnFn]

I meant to post this earlier but had some problems with it.

Shedua with black Locust limbs
 

[chanumpa]

Helped a friend mill up a large honey locust log that we used in furniture.It absolutely danced when finished,and really reminded me of osage orange.Very bright gold colored.I think it is gorgeous,and too good for firewood.Worth a try on milling it up.

[chanumpa]

Helped a friend mill up a large honey locust log that we used in furniture.It absolutely danced when finished,and really reminded me of osage orange.Very bright gold colored.I think it is gorgeous,and too good for firewood.Worth a try on milling it up.

[Knawbone]

Howard Hill archery offers honey locust in their long bows. The Rhino model has all honey locust limbs. The Cougar model limbs are honey locust and bamboo.