Harvesting staves

[M1982]

I have a dumb question but I guess I will ask anyway. Does a stave for a bow have to be from the trunk of the tree or can a limb also be used? We have plenty of Hickory and Osage (bowdock) as we call it is in areas of high alkaline soil pockets. However bowdock here has very few straight sections and lots of limbs.

[KenH]

No reason you can't use a limb as a bow stave.  But you'll want large diameter limbs -- 3" or more probably, to be able to "find the bow hidden in the wood".

[Mad Max]

Bodark Is correct for ussin in Miss sippi

Limbs will work but with out knots
Any place on the tree

I'm in Batesville, where are you in NE Mississippi?

The main thing with fresh staves is waitinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg for them to dry

[M1982]

Max I am in Belmont. Little town in Tishomingo county. You are over in the big deer, crappie and what used to be awesome duck territory. We have the little deer.

[Mad Max]

 

[Pat B]

Tree limbs will work fine if big enough. They will have a high crown on the back so make them a bit longer to even out the strain. I've made bows from osage shoots that were 2" in diameter with the sapwood left on. Makes a nice snappy bow. There was an article in Primitive Archer Magazine years ago called The Limbow, by Sonny Imen. I met Sonny at Friendship, Ind and got to see some of his bows made with osage limbs of about 2". They were as effective as any selfbow I've seen and looked very cool.

[M1982]

Thanks for the information. I am a long way from starting a bow, but I have Graf’s book on ASL’s and probably will start with one of those but I thought that I would start looking for some good staves to harvest while out and that way they could be drying.

[Mad Max]

Osage will be best for our high humidity climate.
The Tennessee Classic (Nashville basically ) will be 28-30 this month.
A good place to get some dry staves while you wait for your Osage to dry.

[Flem]

Thanks for the information. I am a long way from starting a bow, but I have Graf’s book on ASL’s and probably will start with one of those but I thought that I would start looking for some good staves to harvest while out and that way they could be drying.

Good choice
Living in a hardwood desert, in the past I have been forced to use limbs from residential trees, saplings, firewood, garbage...........

[Kirkll]

You guys probably would have had me horse whipped if you could have seen me cut  up a 16’ trailer load of 20 year old Osage for firewood. My son in law works for a gal that has about 60 acres out on the East side of Portland that hauled all this Osage material from California many years ago thinking she was going to mill it into usable furniture wood. It just sat out there in a covered shed for 15 years or more and finally she gave up on the idea completely and told me I could have it.

But…. This stuff wasn’t prime stave material at all. Mostly branch wood, and the big stuff was cracked and checked real bad. I didn’t harvest a single piece that was bow worthy material. But I have some shorter stock I saved to mill into riser wood or laminations….. but with that being said…. Milling 20 year old Osage is like milling concrete…. I actually got a lot of sparks just cutting it up with a chain saw.

I just purchased a new carbide tipped bandsaw blade that will handle this stuff, but I’m hesitant to ruin a perfectly good, very expensive blade on this hard yellow wood….     

Btw… makes excellent fire wood.

Kirk

[Longcruise]

Friend of mine has a huge amount of osage that was cut for fence poles and been stored for 30 years.  He's coming out to hunt in September and will bring me a couple for  analysis.  Not that I'm particularly qualified to analyze them!

[Mad Max]

What I understand is that Dead wood for Staves is no good except Osage.
I have a good bit of dead Osage on my place but I haven't found any for staves, I have made end table slabs, lamps, walking Canes, and some of it for risers and lams.