alternative materials & new methods... etc

[Mad Max]

Cedar grows wild on my place 160 acres, no telling how many I have, most are full of limbs to the ground but some in thick places that could be limb free.
Mine should look like this, scalloped at the base only and milk sap wood.
I have 3 or 4 boards in the barn.
Vertical or flat grain?

[Roy from Pa]

Pretty...

[Mad Max]

I think they are Juniper
Google
We go with the common name of Eastern Red Cedar, but they actually are junipers, Juniperus virginiana to be precise. There are indeed true cedar trees in other parts of the world, but the only true cedars in Mississippi are Asian imports grown as landscape trees.Oct 20, 2018

[Bowjunkie]

I used flat grain juniper in a d/r longbow many years ago for a buddy of mine. It had those blonde streaks all through it like juniper has sometimes. I put deer antler overlays on it. Probably the prettiest glass bow I ever made. Twenty years later and he still tells me how pretty it is when I see him.

I made a juniper d/r longbow for myself. It's 90# @ 28" and has a Kingwood handle. Pretty, but I don't shoot bows that heavy nowadays.

[Roy from Pa]

Give it to me Jeff, I can pull 90#...

How bout a picture?

[Flem]

Damn! thats a nice stack of logs. You could mill that into some useful lumber. I wish our Rocky Mt. Juniper got that big. Apparently ERC and RMJ have similar qualities.

[Longcruise]

Give it to me Jeff, I can pull 90#...

How bout a picture?

Probably only if it's on a dinner plate!   

I have an 83# R/D that I can't figure out what to do with. 

[Roy from Pa]

There is a thread in powwow about heavy weight bows, couple guys wanting to buy them.

[Longcruise]

Hmmmmm...

Haven't visited there in a while.

[williwaw]

You want a lighter core wood try eastern red cedar.

Eastern red cedar has a strong following in ASLs built by a fellow named Johnson I believe.

ERC is up there in elasticity with some of the best bow woods. curious if the ASL usage is to reduce set or mass.

yew of course has been used as a core also. Are there claims made for increased performance or is mainly a cosmetic usage?

[Crooked Stic]

My guess is good edge grain Yew would be hard to beat for core material

[Buemaker]

Some pretty wood.

[Longcruise]

You want a lighter core wood try eastern red cedar.

Eastern red cedar has a strong following in ASLs built by a fellow named Johnson I believe.

ERC is up there in elasticity with some of the best bow woods. curious if the ASL usage is to reduce set or mass.

yew of course has been used as a core also. Are there claims made for increased performance or is mainly a cosmetic usage?

Every ASL bowyer has a special claim about their bows and all have a following that appreciate those bows.  Dave Johnson uses the red cedar and builds beautiful bows. 

http://davejohnsonlongbows.com/2011/08/bows/

Yew is forever a desirable bow wood.  It's self bow legacy alone guarantees it. 

I can't imagine the cost in time and materials that you could invest in exploring the facts of the matter.  When you are done you will be both praised and damned regardless of the facts.   

[Tim Finley]

Yew makes a great bow its one of my favorites and one other
 very light and fast core materials is Russian Olive but you have to find it with out knots or you will end up with small fractures in the glass at every knot. Ive used a lot of different things for core including doug fir but the best is laminated bamboo and its not action boo thats something old mater crafter came out with and it was not good .

[williwaw]

thanks guys, no yew here either, but i have a very dense and extremely fine grained piece of doug fir that is worth trying. i think shredd mentioned it earlier, and got me to considering it.

[Flem]

Willie, do you have Serviceberry up where you are? If you can find some large enough, it is one of the finest, unlikely and unknown bow woods.

[williwaw]

not of any diameter to get a bow from a stave.  the woods available in any size large enough to cut a lam from are aspen, alder, birch, willow, spruce and hemlock

[Flem]

Stave would be nice, but you don't need one. You can make nice bow from a shrub if you decrown it.

[Longcruise]

Stave would be nice, but you don't need one. You can make nice bow from a shrub if you decrown it.

I've seen some that would make a stave. It's similar to the fruitwoods in character.

[williwaw]

Stave would be nice, but you don't need one. You can make nice bow from a shrub if you decrown it.

if I could find a piece an inch in diameter and long enough to make a billet I would be calling it a "stave".
not very easy to find either. there are some ornamentals in other peoples yards......
I have been up and down mountains, and what i have found is that there are occasional birch and alder that have very high density. growing conditions that yield a good stave are more of a determinant than species alone. some fast growing trees from protected areas are actually quite soft and weak.