Woods for Bowmaking - My TOP 7 

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Thanks for sharing! l love Juniper.Very elastic and beautiful.

Very nice video man, i'm getting into bow making and i'm training on some Hazel and other random woods, but i'm "lucky" to have a a medium size trunk of Yew which is slowly drying in my shed, so that i hope one day i will be ready to make a great bow out of it. This Yew was cut by my grandpa on his property. I will not reveal the place but i'm from the south of france and i grew up in a village with a protected forest, with a lot of Yew trees. Even a small part of it , maybe one kilometer square is almost 100% Yew only ! such a magical place, feels like a fantasy book. Cheers man, your videos are very helped, and sorry for bad English.

Thankyou for the video, it is very informative, I only really have access to boards but I can get ash, maple, black walnut and I am experimenting with wood called Tasmanian Blackwood, quite common here in New Zealand, it is acacia melonoxylyn, in same family as black locust, quite beautiful wood, is often used for instrument making, enjoy your videos, keep up the good work!

The best bow i have made so far has been woth Hickory. Its a really beautiful wood that is a pleasure to work with. Going to try Hard Maple soon.

I've worked with a little Osage orange I've collected here in Missouri. It's impressive but a little more labor intensive then maple or hickory. I've also used a local iron wood or hornbeam...it's a unique wood not found other places. Hickory is my personal go to for strength and availably

I aspire to make a bow one day, and in Alberta Canada, the most common wood that I could see to make a bow with is poplar. I would also like to experiment with pine, evergreen, spruce or cedar. Then, I would like to use yew to make a bow that I intend to use for hunting a lot. The only thing that sucks about trying to make a bow, is that I do not have enough money to buy wood from someone with woods and would like to search for my own. But I would not like to wait 1-3 years or buy some from a hardware store, so it will be challenging. I am thinking about getting poplar sometime either this winter or another winter, because it will be mostly dry, and then I can try to de-humidify it, but not too fast so that it is suitable for bow making. But thanks for some tips if I ever move to Europe for some reason and can make a bow there.

i would add Laburnum too which is planted as an ornamental tree in Europe, it has a light sapwood and dark heartwood and can be used in the same way as European Yew..

Hazel seems to be very easy to work with, for both bow and arrows

I don't have any Yew here in Tennessee but there is Ash, Hickory, Oak, Tulip Poplar, Maple and even some Osage that grow wild here. I don't have any Osage on my property but there is some in my area. I need to find out who owns the land so I can ask permission to cut a stave.

I have only made bows so far out of ash, maple, black locust. My favorite out of those three is ash because its a little easier to work, and is a bit more guilt free (becuse of the ash bore).

Me gustaria saber que caracteristicas se debe buscar en las maderas de los árboles para compararlos con los que hay en Costa Rica. Tenemos miles de especies pero no sé de cual de los que tenemos son ideales para hacer arcos. Con respecto a este video, es muy útil e ilustrativo. ❤❤ muchas gracias por compartir tu conocimiento

Interesting you recommend sycamore maple. It's very common in the UK, but I've heard people say it's too brittle and recommend ash or hazel instead which are also common. Maybe I'll give it a try.

Nice

It should be noted that most (virtually all traditional bows) never came from trees larger than about 100 to 150 mm at the most in circumference...Riving stave blanks from larger wood is much more a "modern practice" and not a traditional one in most styles of vernacular or indigenous bows...

Great Video man. Watching this like meditations. Have you ever build a bow from hornbeam (capinus betulus). If yes, you think its good bow Wood?

Hazel because it is so easy to come by, verry easy to work and grows straight and fast.

Try field maple (Acer Campestre), it is even harder than sycamore maple and more flexible. Rowan(Sorbus Aucuparia) is also great. By some master bowyers, it is one of the best woods for selfbows. Only thing is, it has also become rare in Europe because of exceptional quality wood that was very sought after. Birch could also be good, it is quite hard when dry and very flexible, I will try it soon. There's also a species called iron birch (betula Schmidtii) from Asia which could make exceptional bow wood because it's very hard and flexible. Allegedly, it doesn't float because of great density (which also implies great hardness).

About yew being natural laminate... Not really, sure kinda in a way, but for a laminate it's very poor. Laminated bows can reach over 200 fps speeds, even with quite common woods, like birch backed compression pine, where yew at its very best shoots bit oven 180 fps. Its a top self bow wood for sure, but i wouldn't say its a laminate, cus it still performs the same as other good self bow woods. Btw, service berry makes awesome bows, but very difficult to find suitable stave out of it. Its also quite small diameter tree, so most of the time its limited to narrow longbows, but performance is excellent, especially when fire hardened, and usually grows with nice character in it. Absolutely not a beginner wood, since it likes to grow with twists, and twists even more and bends while drying. With steam i did straighten 270° twist out of it tough, so it is doable, but require extra work, but results in a beautiful very well performing bow.

What are your thought on fruit wood such as apricot plum apple and cherry? Here in Central asia these are easy available from houses yards as we are not having much trees on the steppe

Irish Yew. It is a mutation of European Yew, it tends to grow straighter and with fewer knots.

Great Video, but what about Elm? In my opinion the second best european wood for bow making after yew

i think i underestemated Hasel. i did 2 flatbows from hazel as my first ever trys and now i thought "lets go ash trees". but i think i have to revisit hasel

I like dogwood that is good accessible in my region

excellent - thank you....sent you an email with the Penobscot picture

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Cool! But why no elm?

I like bamboo

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3:43 no homo your hair flows gorgeous.

Elm👶🍼