Cut down a locust tree yesterday-help!

[Don Armstrong]

Me and my boy cut a locust tree about 12" in diameter yesterday. I don't have a chain saw so this was farily tough with a hand saw. It was cutting the sun to a small garden and looked like it needed to be made into bows  :D   . He had decided to kill it earlier by stripping the bark on some of the best part of the tree. After splitting, I took one of the staves that had the bark stripped, which had a couple of good checks, and took it all the way to the heart wood. The rings are REALLY large, about 1/4". Will bows made from the heart wood be better than using the sapwood. I coated the back with 2 coats of deft and will reduce the stave to almost bow deminsions today and then put it in my building to dry for a couple of weeks. It is about a 100 degrees in the building during the day. Will a couple of weeks be enough. Thanks, Don

[formerbutcher]

Don, You might think twice before putting in you'r building, with it being that hot it will most likely check bad ! Out of the sun and in the wind is the best place for it, for about a month. Then you could probably get by with putting it in you'r building.

If it was me, i would bring it in the house to dry  

[bigcountry]

I was under the idea that you don't want to use sapwood at all on black locust.  I cut down one last year myself and removed the sapwood on most staves.  I figured they should be good and dry by winter time for me.

[Jesse Peltan]

Yes you don't want the sapwood on locust. You have to take it off like on osage. Chasing a ring should be pretty easy with those rings.

[Don Armstrong]

OK, bare with me here as I am a little dense at times. I should take all locust down to the brown heartwood. I will be removing 2 to 3 white rings from 1/4" to 1/2" each, 3/4" of wood the full length of a stave. This was a JOB on the one I have done, due to the damage in the top rings. If this is correct I may give up on locust as you will need trees about 16" in diameter min. I don't have access to many this size. I was looking for an option for osage as it doesn't grow around here but I'm not willing to expend 3 times the work of osage. Thanks, Don

[Jesse Peltan]

You could try using a chisel to split off the sapwood.

[George Tsoukalas]

Yes you should but you can wait. Just don't take off the bark. Jawge

[Don Armstrong]

Thanks guys, I am not going to fool with these staves. My boy said he would work them. I thought locust would be as easy to work as osage. I read you could make a locust bow in the bowyers bible but didn't realize it had to be all heartwood. This would completely rule out making a sapling bow. We were going to make a few of these, as there are small trees everywhere around me. If I can find a couple of trees in the 20 - 30 inch range, I might try to try again. Don

[Pat B]

Don, if you know the sapwood is sound you can make a bow using the sapwood. try a sapling bow and see how it does. I'd bet you will be successful.

[Don Armstrong]

Thanks Pat, my boy cut a sapling yesterday. He is going to try a bow out of it. The sapwood on this tree has thick rings and looks healthy. I may give it a try.Don

[Springbuck]

Is it black locusy or honey locust?  I would chase a ring on BL, but I have made a couple bows of mixed sapwood/heartwood from yellow locust.  They like a wider, thinner design, but act kinda like other medium weight white woods, say hard maple....

  You could easily make all heartwood bows out of either, but I pity the fool who tries to chase a ring on that zig-zaggy honey locust.

[Don Armstrong]

I am fairly sure it is black locust. Don

[ALW]

Don, I've cut several black locust trees in the 12" range and got a number of good staves.  I made all heartwood bows out of them.  The sapwood on these was maybe 3/8" thick total and I still had quite a bit of wood left in each stave.  You should be able to get some good wood from a tree that size.  Good luck.

Aaron

[4runr]

I shot Aaron's Locust bow on Saturday evening at ATAR. What a nice shooter. Go for it!

[bigcountry]

I have a pile of Black locust that I debarked last year and sealed real well.  It took me litterly 2.5 hours to get down to one good heartwood ring.  But I had to go down 4 heart wood rings.  

Black locust IMO (and a very novice opinion at that) is just as easy as osage if you let it dry for a year.

[George Tsoukalas]

BL sapling bows can still be made. Take your time and tiller well. One more thing. The closer you get to the heartwood the stringer is the sapwood so if you can chase a ring or 2 of sapwood so much the better. Jawge

[Hermann From Bavaria]

hi there,

i`ve built a locust bow this year and i only used the heartwood, cause the sapwood got dark spots all over the stave. the heartwood seems like osage to me. its very flexible and hard. i think its also good for short bows. mine is 60" 50# @28 and shoots fine with nearly no set!

have fun with it.