# Best wood in East Texas to make self bow



## Farley (Aug 1, 2005)

Hickory and oak are some top choices for the first timer. There are many D.I.Y. pages on the net regarding a red oak board bow. buy the board at home depot for cheap and there you go.


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## MikeByrge (Jan 4, 2005)

Ryan, 
You've got osage growing all over East Texas. IMO it is the best wood for a first-bow attempt because it is tough and somewhat forgiving of mistakes. Much easier to chase a growth-ring on osage than any whitewood. You should also have plenty of hickory too and if you cut it this time of year all you need to do is peel the bark off and the back of the bow is done.

If you are interested in making a lumber (board) bow try to find a piece of hickory.
The challenge with osage is finding a clean piece long enough to make a bow.

What part of East TX are in you in? I'm in Shreveport and could help you out if you want.


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## ryanm2928 (Jul 16, 2008)

MikeByrge said:


> Ryan,
> You've got osage growing all over East Texas. IMO it is the best wood for a first-bow attempt because it is tough and somewhat forgiving of mistakes. Much easier to chase a growth-ring on osage than any whitewood. You should also have plenty of hickory too and if you cut it this time of year all you need to do is peel the bark off and the back of the bow is done.
> 
> If you are interested in making a lumber (board) bow try to find a piece of hickory.
> ...


Thanks for replying. I am in Longview. I have also been hearing good things about Hackberry. Have you heard this. Even so, I would'nt know what to look for. Have'nt heard about the lumber board bow yet. Can you really make a good shooting hunting bow from lumber? You are right, I could find some hickory pretty easy. What size limb or tree should I cut to make at least a 60# bow? Would hickory make a pretty strong bow?


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## alanraw (Feb 18, 2005)

ryanm2928 said:


> Thanks for replying. I am in Longview. I have also been hearing good things about Hackberry. Have you heard this. Even so, I would'nt know what to look for. Have'nt heard about the lumber board bow yet. Can you really make a good shooting hunting bow from lumber? You are right, I could find some hickory pretty easy. What size limb or tree should I cut to make at least a 60# bow? Would hickory make a pretty strong bow?


I think a good person to talk to might be *kegan*. Despite his relative youth, he's proven to be quite a competent young self-bowyer. Another good guy would probably be our very own *tpoof*, whose bow build-along threads have always proven informative. Rancid Crabtree recently posted a buildalong thread here which has made even a klutz like me think about building my own little stickshooter. If you can find anything online from guys like Gary Davis or Dean Torges, they might help you out as well:wink:


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## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

Any wood can make a very strong bows (I've got 80# and 100# bows made from hickory). 

Cut a tree between 4" and 8" in diameter, tall, straight, and without knots or branches (a few knots are okay though). Osage, hickory, oak, and any other hard, dense, fruit or nut bearing tree or tree with throns will work. Osage orange should have the bark left on, and the ends sealed. The others don't require it.

Cut the wood, split it inot halves (or quarters if it's large enough) and peel the bark off (unless it's Osage, black losut, or mulberry). Set these aside to dy in a wamr, dry, well ventilated area, saving one aside to rough out now.

The bow should be as long as you are tall (this will make the most accurate bow, but most people make them shorter- this is a bad idea, from more than one reason). Leave the handle area large enough to do whatever you want with it, but the limbs should be about 3/4"-1" thick right outside the handle, tapering straight to 3/8" thick tips. A slightly rounded belly is best from tillering and shaping as opposed to a flat belly.

Osage should be 1 1/2" wide out to midlimb, tapering to 5/16" wide tips.

Hickory should be 1 3/4"-2" wide out to midlimb, tapering to 3/8" wide tips.

All other woods should be 2" wide out to midlimb, tapering to 3/8" wide tips.

Leave the bow full width until the wood is dried, but roughing it out now will help sped up drying. Leave it to dry for three to twelve months. While shaping thw bow, always follow the grain to insure the strongest, most durable bow possible.

For Osage, once it's dry you should remove the bark and cream-colored sapwood, revealing one growth ring along the entire back, unviolated (shown by little rings where the ring was cut through). If a ring is cut through, bring the entire bow back down to the interior ring to prevent fracture.

Once they are dry and roughed out, bend the bow over your knee and flex the limb by bending the tip against the floor a few inches (if it is too stiff to bend it a few inches, shave the wood evenly form the belly to limber it up). The limbs should bend evenly and equally. Once they do, string the bow up to a 2" brace height and check the tiller (bend). Remove wood from the stiff spots/limb so they bend evenly and in a nice half cirlce (slightly stiff in the center for the handle). Continue until the bow bends perfectly, and raise the brace to 4". Go slowly- rushing this proicess will destroy the bow or lead to one that only pulls 20#. Rebalance and tiller the limbs so they bend perfectly. And so on until you reach a full 5 1/2"-6" brace height (no more). Then leave the bow strung for a few hours to break in to the string. 

Then slowly short draw the bow in front of a mirror, or have someone else slowly short draw it, always checking the tiller. Continue slowly and repeatedly until you reach full draw. If at any time the bow feels too strong, evenly shave down the limbs a little. Once you reach full draw, leave it strung for a few more hours (so it doesn't lose weight later). Now to shoot it. If the bow has handshock, or is slow, narrow down the tips and outter limbs. If the bow is too light, cut an inch form each tip. If still too light (and here is another reason we left it nice and long) remove another inch form each tip and recut the nocks. Shoot the bow in and round all the edges.

Finish it with Tru-Oil, flexible polyurethane, parafin, shellac, wax, or lard.

Patience and care will be your best guiding factors in building a good bow. Not the wood you choose. I personally like hickory, but it is a bear to dry. Osage requires more care in getting down to one ring, is usaly uch tougher to work, but makes a great bow. I've never used hackberry, but it should work like ash, so it should make a great bow, it will just be a little tougher to get shooting as well with marginal building as tougher, denser woods would. For your first attempt, use the wood that's pmost prevelent in your area, as you will most likely be using alot of it in the future.


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## AK in PA (Nov 30, 2002)

Man, if you've got osage, look no further. Hands down, the best wood to guarantee a long lasting, durable bow. Yes, there is more work involved in that you have to chase a ring instead of just peeling the bark. And yes, the wood is hard. That's part of what makes it so good! While others may suggest easier woods to start with, I say use osage since it is tolerant of imperfect craftsmanship and may hold together when others blow up. 

I prefer to debark and remove sapwood from osage within a month if cut in winter, and ASAP if in spring or warmer months. Less chance of wood borers ruining it, than storing with the bark on. (I don't always have the time to afford the luxury, though.) Seal the ends and back with copious amounts of shellac to prevent checking, as Kegan mentioned. Molten paraffin works very well, too. Latex paint and wood glue will serve in a pinch, but don't seal nearly as well, especially if you cut wood in the summer, which has the sap flowing.

I prefer osage bows in the 60" to 62" length for my 25" draw, simply because that is the shortest length I can shoot well before I begin to notice a decrease in accuracy. Osage can be made shorter, though, and still take the punishment. Here is a 50" Modoc-styled replica that I made (finish coats drying now) that pulls 65# @ my 25" draw.


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## MikeByrge (Jan 4, 2005)

Ryan,
I've made a few hackberry bows and they turned out good....the wood was from Oklahoma though and not local wood.

If you could get a clean piece of osage that would be my first choice, 2nd would be hickory. You should have some ironwood (hop hornbeam) growing around Longview too and it makes a good bow as does Mullberry and Black Locust.


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