Russian Olive???

[ZSL]

Anyone have any Russian Olive tips? I saw a post from 2009 or so of a really cool looking russian olive selfbow with the sap wood left on and the tips flipped.  Should I leave the sapwood on? and dry heat or steam to take twist out of one of the limb? It's 70" nock to nock but I think i'm going to shorten it to 68" and shoot for a #55 @ 29"

[die_dunkelheit]

Steam, always steam rather than dry heat.

[Eric Krewson]

Nope, dry heat on dry wood is the best for removing twist. I have untwisted a bunch of them.

 

[die_dunkelheit]

:rolleyes:  

All of you guys who keep saying dry heat need to go read TBB again.

[Eric Krewson]

TBB is full of questionable information. I speak from experience, I have 154 bows under my belt that I know of and a bunch more that I long since forgotten. Almost all from osage and every stave needed correction to some degree.

There is a time to steam but dry heat gets the job done most of the time with a lot less effort.

[Roy from Pa]

TBB is full of questionable information.

X's 2...

[Mad Max]

Originally posted by ZSL:
Anyone have any Russian Olive tips? I saw a post from 2009 or so of a really cool looking russian olive selfbow with the sap wood left on and the tips flipped.  Should I leave the sapwood on? and dry heat or steam to take twist out of one of the limb? It's 70" nock to nock but I think i'm going to shorten it to 68" and shoot for a #55 @ 29"

Can you post a Link of the 2009 bow?
Thanks

[Walt Francis]

Originally posted by Roy from Pa:
TBB is full of questionable information.

X's 2...

X'S 3

[mwosborn]

Lots of ways to skin a cat.    :D  

I use dry heat unless I am putting in big bends for a recurve.  Dry heat is just easier in my opinion.

[ZSL]

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=006824

Oops, it was a 2011 post. It looks like it turned out great though. I saw another russian olive Mojave bow on here too.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=007046

[Mad Max]

Pretty cool.

[LittleBen]

Originally posted by Walt Francis:
 

Originally posted by Roy from Pa:
TBB is full of questionable information.

X's 2...

X'S 3 [/b]

x4

but also consider that osage is a rare bird. Not every wood is going to turn into a wet noodle with dry heat.

I had a bear of a time trying to get some twist out of yew with dry heat, and steamed it out without incident. Same with ERC.

Mulberry i've found also just turns into butter if you heat it.

That russian olive bow is sweet BTW

[WyomingWhitetail]

I've been wanting to try a Russian olive bow since I seen that post as well. Living in wyoming means there isn't a ton of good bow woods around and Russian olive is basically considered a noxious weed. Now finding a piece straight enough that's another story. I have done some general woodworking with russian olive and I can say that the stuff I had was very hard and seemed to be on the brittle side. That maybe the reason for leaving the sap wood on? Post pictures of your progress as I would be really interested in your results.