From your videos I have learned so much and produced some bows that have delivered much happiness. But what I really want to say is that your videos, like the bows you make, are simply works of art. Deeply grateful for them all.
I’m so glad you named Juniper. I live in Northeast Wyoming and Over 20 years or so it has become my favorite bow wood. I agree with you on the aesthetics and workability of this wood. I also think it is faster per pull weight (and carry weight) than any wood I’ve used. Finally, I have a tip for durability. I decrown the stave , taking the sapwood down to just a faint line of heartwood in the center of the bow back. I prefer a square cross section about 1 1/2 inches wide. 64-68 inches long, unbacked. Favorite weight about 45lbs at 29”. Thanks again! PS it also makes a wonderful west coast bow down to 36” in length, sinew backed of course!😁
Thanks, Dan. Once again you show off the basic credo of the primitive archery scene..."passing it on". We all stand on the shoulders of the giants that went well before us, Ishi, Saxton Pope, the Thompson brothers, etc. They shared their knowledge without reservation, and you embody that same spirit. Tjanks, brother.
I really appreciated your systematic survey of so many different bow woods and insights about their characteristics and usage. This is epcert bowyer knowledge that needs to be passed on, used and expanded upon. As a like-long archer, I've made a few decent bows but have made thosands of arrows which are my primary focus. After decades of work on making arrows, and especially natural shoot shafts, I think I have found all(?) the secrets and replicated the whole primitive process to produce very good arrows. Incidentally, one of the things that I have learned about arrows is that those with trimmed feathers fly faster, hit harder, and most important fly straighter and more accurately. The primitive arrows preserved in museums have long feathers trimmed down close to the shaft. The only arrows I have seen or used with untrimmed feathers, sometimes wrapped around the shaft, are flu-flu arrows which are designed for short range use and shooting upward because they quickly slow down and can even be caught by hand as they float downward. They're great for shooting at flying birds or squirrels in trees because you can usually recover the arrow if you miss hitting something.
Thanks terry. I make all kinds of arrows. I personally like inefficient flu flu type arrows in many situations. More control inside of my accuracy range in exchange of a loss of control outside of it is a trade off I frequently choose. I don’t typically shoot very far away
Fantastic video! I agree with much of your list. Hickory is by far my favorite as long as it's treated well and designed according to it's strengths and weaknesses, flat belly and a heat treat being the minimum there. Osage would be my second, while Elm, and by extension, Hackberry would round out my top three. Sugar maple would be my number four, followed by Black locust. Though I've only made one Locust bow and several Maples, so with more experience, those two may switch places. The bottom five, in no real particular order might have to be White Oak, Cherry, Mulberry, and Walnut. Every Ash bow I've tried to make has broken. No idea why, as I've tried several designs. I would love to try my hand at a Yew bow one day though! Great video, really love your content.
Laburnum is Britains darkest wood and will make a wonderful longbow .I kept the stringy sapwood on it and did a z splice billet in the handle. I shot a round of clout at Meriden with it. (180 yard round ) Performed very well.
I came across your channel because I was doing research on the hardest woods in my area to make a staff out of. It's nice to have with all the loose dogs and loose soil inclines I find myself walking up here in Kentucky. I made a beautiful one out of a vine-strewn Beech sapling, it just dings up a little too easily to practice any type of striking with. As it turns out, some of the same woods that interested me crossed over into some bow-making, Hickory, Hornbeam, Locust, and Osage. I love archery and you've really inspired me to move forward on picking out some staves while on my search for the perfect staff. You've done beautiful work, thank you.
Thank you, a lovely mellow presentation with alot of information. I live in central Victoria, Australia, i have access to plenty of good elm here, some ash too but not so much other species used in the US or Europe. I've played a little with making bows, mainly when I was much younger. I have however hunted with a bow since I was about 5yo, I'm now pushing 46... My father was a champion target archer back in the day, so I had a good mentor. I appreciate your teaching and will have a go with the elm available to me. I want to also try a couple of local species, black wattle and casurina,or sheoak. The latter was used extensively by gold miners here for pick and tool handles being very springy. Black wattle is also very springy. Im not sure about shipping staves or logs to the US but would be happy to do so to get your opinion. By the way, I'm a Blacksmith by trade and have a good amount of carpentry experience so I do have some clue as to woodworking... Cheers, Ben.
Hey Ben, the Traditional Bowyers Bible has both eucalyptus and wattle in there ( yeah I know that non specific as they don't give species) with both of them they recommend wider staves than standard. I completed a bow makers course down here but all the woods the instructor had were those European/American ones that grow as settler plantings or weed species Elm, Hazel, Oak, Hawthorn (I made a Hawthorn 30lb at 28" long bow that is nice and fast for the weight) You can also get Osage it grows as a weed up in NSW but be hard to find a decent stave. Hope that is some help. Darren
Juniper "bow stave" trees can be found along the eastern flanks of the SIerra Nevada. The Paiute, Mono, Washo, and other indigenous peoples would chop a stave out of the living tree, leaving a long, narrow, vertical scar on the trunk typical scars are from three to four feet long. Stone tools are sometimes found around the base of such trees. The bows would be flat(ish), wide above and below the grip, usually backed with sinew applied to the back.
@@mtman2 I have only seen one. It had three scars, long, narrow, vertical furroughs. The bark had closed over the scar left by splitting out the wood. They were spaced out around the trunk. This was in eastern Mono County.
@@mtman2 Yep. I've spoken with Paiute and Mono people who were surprised that such trees existed. I suspect that individual bow makers had their own trees, and these were secret, or at least private, property, possibly only passed on to a single successor. One trouble with using the tree too much is the convergence of scars in the wood. You would need to leave the tree alone for a generation or more if it was used too often.
Thank you, I enjoyed that video. Living in the UK the available woods are a little different, but bearing in mind our damp climate (& that of Northern France), it can be seen why Yew was the tree of choice for war (self) bows, as some of the more moisture sensitive timbers wouldn’t have been very resilient to the local climate. Also why composite horn / sinew / timber laminate bows with water soluble animal products based glues didn’t catch on unlike say the Steppes of Mongolia which have a very dry climate.
Interesting. Here in Sweden the Sami made bows from two woods glued together with fishglue. The wood used was birch and ”tough pine” (pine rich in resin). Bows were approx 170-180 cm and with a light recurve with stiff static ears. The limbs were also covered in birch bark.
As someone who lives in Brazil, I would like to point some woods that can be useful for people in tropical regions of South America. Firstly we have “Ipê” it’s known as the bow wood of our indigenous people. Additionally, there is “Jatobá” that can be considered as a hard wood, and very useful for bow making.
I live in Australia and the native people had no bow and some say it is because there are no good bow woods in Australia but I am going to keep experimenting until I find one even if it ends up being palm tree which the natives in the adjoining land use for bows
I've wondered about Jatoba. Here in the US it is commonly called Brazilian Cherry. Marketed as flooring primarily. I put it in my house and it is pretty hard. A flooring nailer just wanted to split it. Wound up pre-drilling and hand nailing.
@@mpetersen6 Good belly wood. As with any tropical wood it can be hard to see the growth rings, making it difficult to tell if you’re buying a violated board or not
Where i live Malaga- Spain theres a mountains called Sierra Tejeda (Yells Ridge) i know centuries ago english people came here to buy and cut trees to craftmaking long bows They tell the Tejo or Yell in english was one of the best wood to create magnificient bows....... I like to see and walk throught this mountains and beautiful trees yet... Good video. Thanks for sharing
Gracias para la historia. Soy hombre de sangre Espanol, viviendo en US, en el estado de Minnesota. Quiero saber specificamente que es El tipo de Madera que deciste? Tejo? Buscando El mejor tipo de Madera en mi area para hacer arcos. Pero no se El tipo de "Tejo". Saludos de Minnesota, USA.
@@huskiefan8950 Hola. Bueno el tejo es un arbol relativamente abundante en el sur de España. Es una madera flexible y que no pierde su rigidez cuando esta bien tratada y seca. Tambien es ligera y era muy usada en epocas antiguas para arcos longbows de guerra. Aun se sigue usando en arqueria. Su nombre en ingles es Yell. Si pones Tejo o Yell en google podras ver fotos de este preciado arbol. Saludos amigo
Be grateful the Lord didn't make Frogs N Toads 100-200lbs or WE'd on the menue esp children = they'll stuff anything they can down their gullets including live mice in South America on video...lol
Hickory was my favorite until found a stave appropriate for a Dogwood bow , it is 62 # @ 28" Shoots faster than a more robust Hickory bow I built , wish I could find more of this , I have enough to make two two piece composite bows , all I need are the sleeves to do so.
Great information Dan, hickory is my go-to wood as well due to availability and juniper is my second. I’m curious why you said sinew backing requires months of patience? I sinew backed a juniper and was shocked at how fast the sinew dried using gelatin as hide glue and sealing with truoil. The sinew was translucent in less than 48 hours and rock hard,however, I left to sit for a week before finish tillering. Thanks, Ant 🐜
I really appreciate your good work. Thank you for feeling your heart when you choose not to harm the spirits of trees. Tobacco is a beautiful offering to give to the spirits of the trees when cutting them down. My people know and understand the circle of life coincides with the circle of spirit, giving thanks and offering to the spirit of these great trees helps their journey after that sacrifice and suffer for you
Excellent video and information on bow woods. The background music is nice too. Seems like you and your brother are very skilled at what you do. I have always wanted to build a Osage Orange longbow and this video gets me closer to doing that. I've had a stave of Yew since 2007, waiting for me to work it. Thank You for the information! Skal
I am also very fond of Juniper. While it might deserve its reputation as 'heartbreaker' bow wood, its just so beautiful to both work and see finished that I can't resist working it. Supremely light in the hand as well. However, you find so much contradictory guidance of sapwood to heartwood ratio that it can be very difficult to know how to treat the wood for a bow. What has your personal experience told you when it comes to sap v. heart? As a bonus, the scrap makes excellent firestarter/good smoking material for grilling too.
Either will make a good bow. I don’t worry so much about the ratio (other than it looking good) and just try to chase a good g ring instead of leaving a violated back
@DanSantanaBows That was pretty much the conclusion I came to as well. Though I haven't tried chasing a ring on the sapwood, seems like it would be pretty difficult compared to the heartwood. 😅
I decrown the stave until there is a thin line of heartwood down the center of the back. This has worked well for me with both flatbow and longbow cross sections. Flat bow 64+ inches. Long bow 72”
Sorry if this has been mentioned before or elsewhere, I'm new here and don't know much about bowmaking. You mentioned one reason not to use ash was because of the potential for an ash borer hole to ruin a bow - just fyi EAB is just in the bark layers, they do not bore in past that point. They stop once they hit sapwood.
Great info, thank you! Excellent guitar! :) ..I'm building bows wirh wood, (oak, poplar, maple), from Rona and Home Depot so far.. working on my 8th, 9th and 10th bows now.. its a little hit or miss.. lol I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Thank you again!
Check out the board selection diagram in the board staves chapter in my video “the back of the bow 6 ways” If you’re buying boards this will help you pick out unviolated wood for a staff. I really the beech wood I used for mine
Excellent presentation! I'm in Central Maryland (between Baltimore and Annapolis) and I generally use Osage Orange, Hickory and (I'm disappointed they weren't mentioned) Mulberry and Black Locust. I have a lifetime supply of Osage available to me, but I really do enjoy working with the others, also. I treat Black locust as a cross between Osage and hickory. I clear the sapwood and chase a ring like Osage. But I heat treat the belly like I do hickory. Mulberry, I treat similar to Osage except that I will occasionally leave a ring of sapwood if I use it to make an English Longbow. If I use it to make a flatbow, I just make it a little wider than an Osage bow.
I've made 3-4 bows from trifoliate orange. It's very white, a little stringy and twisted but very strong. Finding a clean stave is almost impossible; you have to maneuver around knots and curves, but it rewards with a very fast bow.
this is a great video. I have tried making walking staffs for about 30 years. I'm in Nova Scotia , Canada and although our ash and oak are good Rock/sugar maple takes the cake so far for me .
I live in Maine (close by) and you should be able to find plenty of suitable Amelanchier (shadbush, Juneberry, etc) where you are. Very hard wood. It made his honorable mention list along with lilac (even harder) if you can find an old one.
I live in Pontotoc Mississippi, it's kind of wet here but we get a lot of Osage Orange, also known as Bodark and there is some large bamboo growing in the area, like 3.5 inches in diameter and I know it can be used for a bow or bow backing or center laminate if you get it processed. For a kids bow a 2.5 to 3 inch diameter can be split into six even staves and a wooden handle fitted into the middle, then taper and tiller the ends to fit your needs, without any extra work can manage around 20 lbs for a couple of hours work. The handle allows for either a long bow grip or a cut out throat shelf arrow rest. By pre drilling the bamboo and making a counter sink with a leather washer glued into it a screw can be used without splitting the bamboo. Good job .
This was absolutely spot-on! and an excellent review I liked what you had to say about Hickory,.Ash is similar. Even though it's going extinct .people were designing these Woods the wrong way because of the English warbow. This was definitely spot on and with the right design white Woods can perform well
I've been drying out an ash stave for about 18 months, I was planning on using it to make an English longbow. I have never made a bow before so I'm not sure if a longbow is the way to go. My stave is really nice and straight with no obvious knots and is about 8ft long.
I'm gonna be making my first bow soon out of maple!! I'm going for a simple recurve and have everything planned out. Just cut my stave yesterday. Happy to hear it's a good choice for a beginner
I would suggest trying a simple straight stave design first. From what I’ve seen of first time recurve builds about 50-60% fail or quit, maybe 20-30% succeed, and of those only a small handful make a bow that I would consider nice. Compared to a straight stave bow, about 60-70%of first timers finish the bow, with a massive 10-20% actually making very nice bows I would be happy to have. It’s tempting to choose recurves for performance and looks, but the reality is that only a very well made recurve will shoot better than a straight stave bow, and unless you get all the details right it won’t look right. A decent straight bow will outshoot a recurve that is so so. Most bowyers will tell you that the first step to making a recurve is to make a straight bow first. You need to have good command of the abc’s, and a lot of experience troubleshooting to have a good shot at a recurve. Something will go wrong, and unless you have good experience dealing with random problems then you’ll get thrown off.
@DanSantanaBows I appreciate the feedback!! I am happy to report that my project is staged for this reason. My goal is to get the nice standard straight staved bow that'll shoot. Then steam bend it into a recurve. Then, make it into a penobscope. I say I'm jumping straight into a recurve because I want to personally keep that fact in mind so as not to remove too much material when tillering or shaping. I may be new to bow making, but I've been sculpting wood all my life, so my goal really isn't to "make *A* bow" but rather to learn the techniques used in bow (and arrow) making so I have them. Part of that is knowing the progression of a bow. That said, I actually wasn't aware how small the improvement from straight staved to recurve is. In truth, I just liked having three stages in my plan, so I might end up skipping it for my first attempt. I do want to learn steam bending, but I can always learn it on a pipe build or something
@@Absurdtheistic I’d recommend using different staves for each project. A layout that would make a great recurve could be lousy in a longbow, and vice versa. If you’re going to make a recurve it’s much easier to design for it from the start, and do the bending much earlier so you have more stave left to fix mistakes
Awesome video. I build board bows and usually back them. My favorite is hickory/bamboo and Brazilian walnut/ bamboo. The most beautiful Bo I made was purple heart/ bamboo. All soot well but the Brazilian walnut/ bamboo was the best performance due to how light the limbe were tillerd to draw weight, lots of hand shock. Hickory/ bamboo was the smoothest, like silk to shoot
I believe some of the natives in northern Canada would search for Black Spruce that leaned out over a river. The lean would create compression wood on the water side and they would work that up to make the bow.
Love your Videos and have learned allot from them. Wanted to ask if you have ever done or thought of doing a Video on your work Tools, axes, hatchets, draw knives. Particularly sharpening and maintenance. Would Love some Tips.
Persimmon was almost the exclusive wood used to make wooden golf club heads before modern materials, when Taylor Made moved to steel, they called it Pittsburgh Persimmon.
@@gaswamper1479 There are two persimmons about 50 yds from my property, very straight and about 15 yrs old. Unfortunately, they're not on my property. :)
@@DanSantanaBows I don't know anything about bows,but I know wood. The heart of a big persimmon is black, sometimes called ebony. They used to be used in golf club heads when they were actually wood. Dogwood is very similar, very hard and stable, and wears smooth, persimmon and dogwood were used as shuttles in the textile industry. Live oak is tough as hell, you can't hardly split it, with a big hydraulic splitter. Used to be the preferred wood for certain components in wooden ships, but is probably too twisty to make a bow.
I've been making some from a big mull berry I had to cut down and I'm really impressed with it. I've been an Osage snob for so long, I'd never tried it lol. There's a bunch of black locust around me, I'm going to cut some staves from that next to try.
I just made my first real bow with hickory I got from Windsor plywood and I am extremely impressed it's only about 40 ish pounds but shoots so fast and quiet compared to my (bought) laminated recurve
Hi. About twenty years ago, I cut down a Hedge Apple and found a really nice straight knot free section of it about six inches diameter and six foot long. I quartered it into four staves.and discovered that they have a slight twist. I threw them in the garage and forgot about them. Now that I've retired, I can put a little more time into bowery. And suggestions how I can remove the twist from these staves? I had thought about jamming them into the fork of a tree, supporting the opposite end in a forked stick and building a fire below it and hanging a weighted pipe wrench from the other end so that the weight would counter the twist in the wood. Think that might work? Do you have any suggestions, tips?
I am just starting out and live in Australia where they say there is no good bow wood but I believe different and am going to experiment with various local tree species.Just by bending saplings to the point of near destruction I have already found so amazing wood so strong and flexible,I can hardly wait.Thanks for the valuable teaching it is all new to me but soaking it up like a sponge.I hope the addiction will subside soon as my life is becoming a little dysfunctional but some passions are worth it.
Don’t worry there’s plenty of good wood in australia. Look up Colin Gair, he’s active on the facebook primitive bowmaking group and works with several native australian species
Love the opinion of the types of wood and your explanations. I would enjoy seeing you use some bogwood. Specifically bog Cypress. This is wood that has been submerged in a bog for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It has been protected from decay by its lack of access to oxygen. Some of these bogwoods have even started partial petrification, with little stone flecks visible when cut. After drying, these woods can be comparable to tropical hardwoods. At any rate, I would like to see a bow made from bogwood. There are several species to choose from, but if beggars can be choosers, bogwood Cypress would have my vote.
i made a recent English selfbow using hazel and i left the bark on as a backing hazel grows like wildfire here in east of England and it is holding up well i hade to chase the knots and heat bend the top limb to behave but sollid bow at 50/60lbs
I don't have much to pick from here in Alaska. I want to make a bow and will experiment with Alder, willow, birch, and black spruce. Some kind of composite may work well using sinew as a backing. We shall see...
Agreed on hickory as a bow wood. I fire-hardened a hickory English longbow, backed it with bamboo, and it retains its initial backset and is quick and stable. Not a selfbow, but as a backed bow, hickory makes a great English longbow if fire-hardened.
Planning some board Bows, and some Bow projects... I should also have a maple. Tree to find. Some staves from... Curious about advice to compliment maple. You've described Maple as Strong vs tension (bow back) Weaker vs compression (set) (belly)
Maple is a great classic example of a whitewood. They’ll all tend to do better in flatter bows with a good heat treat. You can still make a longbow but don’t round the belly too much. See both of my maple build alongs for more details
@@DanSantanaBows I'm absolutely watching those on repeat. My plan is to make some simple. Board Bows first, so I CNA test and learn and practice. Then I should be able to plan the maple staves.
I once read an article with an accompanying data sheet that ranked Golden Birch (yellow birch, silver birch) as one of the woods with the highest tortion strengths, just behind hickory, but well above maples and oaks. This was in the context of use for axe handles, but I'm curious about it's application to bows. Again, golden birch happened to rank very differently from white birch, which was lower that the hard maples.
Have any experience with Dogwood I found a log straight and knot free , thinner narrower than my Hickory bow Both 60 # @ 28" I want to put in a slight recurve but was told the boiling process will check the wood ,would Heat bending work , I took out some deflex out of the top limb with a heat gun with no problems and the adjustment held up without having to repeat the process. I think it shoots faster through the cron tips are narrower at the knocks.
Dogwood is good stuff. Like hickory crossed with ironwood. It can be tricky to heat bend recurves with dry heat though. So don’t try to treat it like osage. I’ve used either steam or boiling water
Any tips on a design to make with wych elm (scots elm)? I have 2 branches about 3 - 4 fingers thick seasoning as we speak and i have never even attempted to make a bow before. Im now a little scared having just learned it's difficult to work 😂 Do I need to heat treat it and if so, how? Will it split ok as i only have a limited supply, or should I just attempt to rough the bow out from the branch as a whole?
I have a couple of questions and I hope you have the time to answer them- first off- I'm a full contact stick fighter and have been looking for a wood that's very resilient, can take a beating and keep on ticking so to speak- the staffs I use are usually from 32" to 50" - I've tried red and white oak and wasn't too impressed- what wood would you recommend for such a task? Next - What wood did the North American Indians make their bows out of and how did they do it? Here in the West there's not a huge selection- typical Tribes here are Sioux and Cree. They didn't have the tools the Europeans use and I've never seen a documentary on how they managed to make so many bows and arrows. Great Video!
Cool video. There is an Ironwood tree in southern Arizona that grows like a mesquite, or Osage. It will be difficult to find a piece with minimal grain variation. It is HEAVY! Denser than water! I have to wonder what you could do with that. No doubt it will require allot of work and tool sharpening.
I’ve heard it would be decent bow wood if you could find a straight piece. I think it’s a protected species too so it might not be easy to find a piece. Maybe landscapers/arborists
Locust is in the same family as beans and peas (legumes), and very distant to any of the ironwoods which are in the birch family (as far as the eastern and central US species)@@darinmalone
Beautiful 😊 . Im in eastern Washington and one of the only native hardwoods is black locust. Its extremely hard and pioneers used it for wagon tongues,and such. Some of it has a beautiful yellow color when polished. Just wondering what you think 🤔
Department of Agriculture says that there will be no distinction between Hickory and Pecan woods. In my area the sawmills sort any with black checks as Hickory, while Select Clear lumber is often sold as Pecan for a higher price. Either board could have come from the opposite species. I know nothing about bow making, but a fair bit about timber and lumber. As an aside, when making Hickory pitman arms for mowing machines as a kid, I was told to soak the staves in the creek until they sank tien to dry them in shade before shaping them with my draw knife to reduce the chance of splitting. I don't know if it mattered but I never failed to follow the advice. They lasted quite well compared to the ones in the tractor supply.
Pacific north west has madrone hardwood I've always wanted to try. It is very dense and strong but I don't know about flexibility after it is cured out
Awesome video, Im a starter bowyer and I was wondering how rowan wood is to work with for bows? On my land I have loads of rowan wood and I would like to see how it is to work with since I have so much of it.
Thank you for your reply! I heard yellow birches “heartwood” is reddish and great for gun stocks. Couldn’t help but wonder if it be a good looking bow.
@@DanSantanaBows really. Lilac surprises me. As far as sub species for Lilac, are they all similar? I imagine, it's a bit harder to get to a 4 inch or larger, 'log' to find a stave, So with lilac, I suspect the bow would be built more like a sapling bow?
For whitewoods you can use the underbark surface for the back of the bow but for heart woods you may have to chase a growth ring. You can always use the center if you chase a growth ring. Branches are fine but it can be hard to find a good stave. See my video the back of the bow 6 ways for a lot more about these topics
You should get your hands on some Chinese elm or leatherback elm. It has a deep brown to red heartwood with that same elm grain and figure. You can find them in mall parking lots down here in Florida
Treat it like osage and chase a growth ring. Make it a bit wider than an osage bow though. It’s very stiff so it likes a wider bow Do you use any osage? I saw some in Uruguay and I hear there’s more in Argentina
I have a piece of Bitternut Hickory with a bit of a twist at one end. Is there a way to get the twist out of the wood? I have read that you should leave a bit of sapwood on the back of the bow. Is this a good idea?
Use the underbark surface for the back of the bow. My video the back of the bow 6 ways will explain what you need to understand about the back of the bow. Twist is generally not a huge deal as long as it’s less than 90 degrees between the limbs. If you want recurves that will be an alignment hassle but it’s not a dealbreaker for a longbow
South-east Europe: Pear, Bloody Dogwood(my favorite), Cornelian cherry dogwood, Sour Cherry, Wild Apple, Hazel, European Ash. BONUS: If you cut them in August after dry summer, the wood needs only a week to fully dry after you rough shapeing.
Slocum, building his boat, used pasture Maple for the keel. Pasture trees stand alone, affected by wind from all around - as opposed to forest trees, which are protected. Forest trees though, have tighter annual rings
From your videos I have learned so much and produced some bows that have delivered much happiness. But what I really want to say is that your videos, like the bows you make, are simply works of art. Deeply grateful for them all.
Thanks Griffin, I’d love to see them! You should post over on r/bowyer
He is spot on and he really studied wood design
I’m so glad you named Juniper. I live in Northeast Wyoming and Over 20 years or so it has become my favorite bow wood. I agree with you on the aesthetics and workability of this wood. I also think it is faster per pull weight (and carry weight) than any wood I’ve used. Finally, I have a tip for durability. I decrown the stave , taking the sapwood down to just a faint line of heartwood in the center of the bow back. I prefer a square cross section about 1 1/2 inches wide. 64-68 inches long, unbacked. Favorite weight about 45lbs at 29”. Thanks again! PS it also makes a wonderful west coast bow down to 36” in length, sinew backed of course!😁
Excellent review of this guy knows what he's talking about especially with white Woods
I have never been in the asmr crowd, but watching nature and art come together while learning is extremely satisfying.
Thanks, Dan. Once again you show off the basic credo of the primitive archery scene..."passing it on". We all stand on the shoulders of the giants that went well before us, Ishi, Saxton Pope, the Thompson brothers, etc. They shared their knowledge without reservation, and you embody that same spirit. Tjanks, brother.
I really appreciated your systematic survey of so many different bow woods and insights about their characteristics and usage. This is epcert bowyer knowledge that needs to be passed on, used and expanded upon. As a like-long archer, I've made a few decent bows but have made thosands of arrows which are my primary focus. After decades of work on making arrows, and especially natural shoot shafts, I think I have found all(?) the secrets and replicated the whole primitive process to produce very good arrows. Incidentally, one of the things that I have learned about arrows is that those with trimmed feathers fly faster, hit harder, and most important fly straighter and more accurately. The primitive arrows preserved in museums have long feathers trimmed down close to the shaft.
The only arrows I have seen or used with untrimmed feathers, sometimes wrapped around the shaft, are flu-flu arrows which are designed for short range use and shooting upward because they quickly slow down and can even be caught by hand as they float downward. They're great for shooting at flying birds or squirrels in trees because you can usually recover the arrow if you miss hitting something.
Thanks terry. I make all kinds of arrows. I personally like inefficient flu flu type arrows in many situations. More control inside of my accuracy range in exchange of a loss of control outside of it is a trade off I frequently choose. I don’t typically shoot very far away
I loved the narrative you made of each wood type. Fantastic Dan! I really enjoyed the video.
U GAVE ME THE PASSION FOR IT… THE ULTIMATE “BUSH-CRAFT” WISDOM❣️
So relaxing! Thank you for another masterful and informative video
Fantastic video! I agree with much of your list. Hickory is by far my favorite as long as it's treated well and designed according to it's strengths and weaknesses, flat belly and a heat treat being the minimum there. Osage would be my second, while Elm, and by extension, Hackberry would round out my top three. Sugar maple would be my number four, followed by Black locust. Though I've only made one Locust bow and several Maples, so with more experience, those two may switch places. The bottom five, in no real particular order might have to be White Oak, Cherry, Mulberry, and Walnut. Every Ash bow I've tried to make has broken. No idea why, as I've tried several designs. I would love to try my hand at a Yew bow one day though! Great video, really love your content.
Laburnum is Britains darkest wood and will make a wonderful longbow .I kept the stringy sapwood on it and did a z splice billet in the handle. I shot a round of clout at Meriden with it. (180 yard round ) Performed very well.
I came across your channel because I was doing research on the hardest woods in my area to make a staff out of. It's nice to have with all the loose dogs and loose soil inclines I find myself walking up here in Kentucky. I made a beautiful one out of a vine-strewn Beech sapling, it just dings up a little too easily to practice any type of striking with. As it turns out, some of the same woods that interested me crossed over into some bow-making, Hickory, Hornbeam, Locust, and Osage. I love archery and you've really inspired me to move forward on picking out some staves while on my search for the perfect staff. You've done beautiful work, thank you.
Thank you, a lovely mellow presentation with alot of information. I live in central Victoria, Australia, i have access to plenty of good elm here, some ash too but not so much other species used in the US or Europe. I've played a little with making bows, mainly when I was much younger. I have however hunted with a bow since I was about 5yo, I'm now pushing 46... My father was a champion target archer back in the day, so I had a good mentor. I appreciate your teaching and will have a go with the elm available to me. I want to also try a couple of local species, black wattle and casurina,or sheoak. The latter was used extensively by gold miners here for pick and tool handles being very springy. Black wattle is also very springy. Im not sure about shipping staves or logs to the US but would be happy to do so to get your opinion.
By the way, I'm a Blacksmith by trade and have a good amount of carpentry experience so I do have some clue as to woodworking...
Cheers, Ben.
Hey Ben, the Traditional Bowyers Bible has both eucalyptus and wattle in there ( yeah I know that non specific as they don't give species) with both of them they recommend wider staves than standard. I completed a bow makers course down here but all the woods the instructor had were those European/American ones that grow as settler plantings or weed species Elm, Hazel, Oak, Hawthorn (I made a Hawthorn 30lb at 28" long bow that is nice and fast for the weight) You can also get Osage it grows as a weed up in NSW but be hard to find a decent stave. Hope that is some help. Darren
You really sold me on hickory. And I enjoyed the beautiful footage of you carving juniper. So pretty!
Juniper "bow stave" trees can be found along the eastern flanks of the SIerra Nevada. The Paiute, Mono, Washo, and other indigenous peoples would chop a stave out of the living tree, leaving a long, narrow, vertical scar on the trunk typical scars are from three to four feet long. Stone tools are sometimes found around the base of such trees. The bows would be flat(ish), wide above and below the grip, usually backed with sinew applied to the back.
Shawn Woods has a great video showing a tree he found with the scars from one of those stave harvests
Very cool info = likely return to the same tree the next time...!
@@mtman2 I have only seen one. It had three scars, long, narrow, vertical furroughs. The bark had closed over the scar left by splitting out the wood. They were spaced out around the trunk. This was in eastern Mono County.
@@theeddorian
If big & strait enuff(+growing bigger) may supply staves for generations = become a sacred tree into the generation...!
@@mtman2 Yep. I've spoken with Paiute and Mono people who were surprised that such trees existed. I suspect that individual bow makers had their own trees, and these were secret, or at least private, property, possibly only passed on to a single successor. One trouble with using the tree too much is the convergence of scars in the wood. You would need to leave the tree alone for a generation or more if it was used too often.
Thank you, I enjoyed that video. Living in the UK the available woods are a little different, but bearing in mind our damp climate (& that of Northern France), it can be seen why Yew was the tree of choice for war (self) bows, as some of the more moisture sensitive timbers wouldn’t have been very resilient to the local climate. Also why composite horn / sinew / timber laminate bows with water soluble animal products based glues didn’t catch on unlike say the Steppes of Mongolia which have a very dry climate.
Interesting.
Here in Sweden the Sami made bows from two woods glued together with fishglue. The wood used was birch and ”tough pine” (pine rich in resin).
Bows were approx 170-180 cm and with a light recurve with stiff static ears. The limbs were also covered in birch bark.
Great bows! One of my favorite designs
As someone who lives in Brazil, I would like to point some woods that can be useful for people in tropical regions of South America.
Firstly we have “Ipê” it’s known as the bow wood of our indigenous people. Additionally, there is “Jatobá” that can be considered as a hard wood, and very useful for bow making.
Thanks for the comment! My family is from Brazil-one day I’d love to make an ipe bow from a real stave
I live in Australia and the native people had no bow and some say it is because there are no good bow woods in Australia but I am going to keep experimenting until I find one even if it ends up being palm tree which the natives in the adjoining land use for bows
I've wondered about Jatoba. Here in the US it is commonly called Brazilian Cherry. Marketed as flooring primarily. I put it in my house and it is pretty hard. A flooring nailer just wanted to split it. Wound up pre-drilling and hand nailing.
@@mpetersen6 Good belly wood. As with any tropical wood it can be hard to see the growth rings, making it difficult to tell if you’re buying a violated board or not
Really nicely made and interesting video
Where i live Malaga- Spain theres a mountains called Sierra Tejeda (Yells Ridge) i know centuries ago english people came here to buy and cut trees to craftmaking long bows
They tell the Tejo or Yell in english was one of the best wood to create magnificient bows.......
I like to see and walk throught this mountains and beautiful trees yet...
Good video. Thanks for sharing
Gracias para la historia. Soy hombre de sangre Espanol, viviendo en US, en el estado de Minnesota. Quiero saber specificamente que es El tipo de Madera que deciste? Tejo? Buscando El mejor tipo de Madera en mi area para hacer arcos. Pero no se El tipo de "Tejo". Saludos de Minnesota, USA.
@@huskiefan8950 Hola. Bueno el tejo es un arbol relativamente abundante en el sur de España. Es una madera flexible y que no pierde su rigidez cuando esta bien tratada y seca. Tambien es ligera y era muy usada en epocas antiguas para arcos longbows de guerra. Aun se sigue usando en arqueria. Su nombre en ingles es Yell. Si pones Tejo o Yell en google podras ver fotos de este preciado arbol. Saludos amigo
Great information (and music). P.S. I never expected such violence in the world of frogs.
Be grateful the Lord didn't make Frogs N Toads 100-200lbs or WE'd on the menue esp children = they'll stuff anything they can down their gullets including live mice in South America on video...lol
I love that I'm listening to casual guitar music and Dan's mellow voice, all while two turtles try to drown each other. 2:15
😂 I think they’re mating
This was really an excellent review
These are just my favorites, among the woods I’ve tried. What else would you all add to the list?
@@beesmongeese2978 Good one! Yellow birch is very underrated. The stats and feel are pretty close to sugar maple
Definitely laburnum. It has such elasticity.The original Bois'D Arc
Black locust. It's tough to find a good piece, but when you do and It's properly dried, it makes a fast bow.
Dogwood
Hickory was my favorite until found a stave appropriate for a Dogwood bow , it is 62 # @ 28"
Shoots faster than a more robust Hickory bow I built , wish I could find more of this , I have enough to make two two piece composite bows , all I need are the sleeves to do so.
Great information Dan, hickory is my go-to wood as well due to availability and juniper is my second. I’m curious why you said sinew backing requires months of patience? I sinew backed a juniper and was shocked at how fast the sinew dried using gelatin as hide glue and sealing with truoil. The sinew was translucent in less than 48 hours and rock hard,however, I left to sit for a week before finish tillering. Thanks, Ant 🐜
I really appreciate your good work. Thank you for feeling your heart when you choose not to harm the spirits of trees. Tobacco is a beautiful offering to give to the spirits of the trees when cutting them down. My people know and understand the circle of life coincides with the circle of spirit, giving thanks and offering to the spirit of these great trees helps their journey after that sacrifice and suffer for you
Excellent video and information on bow woods. The background music is nice too. Seems like you and your brother are very skilled at what you do. I have always wanted to build a Osage Orange longbow and this video gets me closer to doing that. I've had a stave of Yew since 2007, waiting for me to work it. Thank You for the information! Skal
I am also very fond of Juniper. While it might deserve its reputation as 'heartbreaker' bow wood, its just so beautiful to both work and see finished that I can't resist working it. Supremely light in the hand as well. However, you find so much contradictory guidance of sapwood to heartwood ratio that it can be very difficult to know how to treat the wood for a bow. What has your personal experience told you when it comes to sap v. heart?
As a bonus, the scrap makes excellent firestarter/good smoking material for grilling too.
Either will make a good bow. I don’t worry so much about the ratio (other than it looking good) and just try to chase a good g ring instead of leaving a violated back
@DanSantanaBows That was pretty much the conclusion I came to as well. Though I haven't tried chasing a ring on the sapwood, seems like it would be pretty difficult compared to the heartwood. 😅
I decrown the stave until there is a thin line of heartwood down the center of the back. This has worked well for me with both flatbow and longbow cross sections. Flat bow 64+ inches. Long bow 72”
I haven't made a bow in awhile. I have been making knives and have the big grinder now and am excited to see how it does.
Very useful and well done!!!!
Sorry if this has been mentioned before or elsewhere, I'm new here and don't know much about bowmaking. You mentioned one reason not to use ash was because of the potential for an ash borer hole to ruin a bow - just fyi EAB is just in the bark layers, they do not bore in past that point. They stop once they hit sapwood.
Just.. thanks primo!!!! Imágenes hermosas! Love it
Great info, thank you!
Excellent guitar!
:)
..I'm building bows wirh wood, (oak, poplar, maple), from Rona and Home Depot so far.. working on my 8th, 9th and 10th bows now.. its a little hit or miss.. lol
I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
Thank you again!
Using this as an outline for what wood to use for the new bo staff im making- since i just broke the current because it was weak and cheap
Check out the board selection diagram in the board staves chapter in my video “the back of the bow 6 ways”
If you’re buying boards this will help you pick out unviolated wood for a staff. I really the beech wood I used for mine
You are like the bob Ross of bows. Awesome videos. Thank you..
I like that! “The Bob Ross of longbows”!
Bowb Ross, if you will
Excellent presentation! I'm in Central Maryland (between Baltimore and Annapolis) and I generally use Osage Orange, Hickory and (I'm disappointed they weren't mentioned) Mulberry and Black Locust. I have a lifetime supply of Osage available to me, but I really do enjoy working with the others, also.
I treat Black locust as a cross between Osage and hickory. I clear the sapwood and chase a ring like Osage. But I heat treat the belly like I do hickory.
Mulberry, I treat similar to Osage except that I will occasionally leave a ring of sapwood if I use it to make an English Longbow. If I use it to make a flatbow, I just make it a little wider than an Osage bow.
Helpful, thanks! I have a lifetime supply of mulberry and I'm just learning.
I've made 3-4 bows from trifoliate orange. It's very white, a little stringy and twisted but very strong. Finding a clean stave is almost impossible; you have to maneuver around knots and curves, but it rewards with a very fast bow.
The music literally keeps me transfixed to both your instruction and the visual.
this is a great video. I have tried making walking staffs for about 30 years. I'm in Nova Scotia , Canada and although our ash and oak are good Rock/sugar maple takes the cake so far for me .
That would be my favorite bow wood in canada, plus, elm, white oak, and hophornbeam when you find it.
I live in Maine (close by) and you should be able to find plenty of suitable Amelanchier (shadbush, Juneberry, etc) where you are. Very hard wood. It made his honorable mention list along with lilac (even harder) if you can find an old one.
I live in Pontotoc Mississippi, it's kind of wet here but we get a lot of Osage Orange, also known as Bodark and there is some large bamboo growing in the area, like 3.5 inches in diameter and I know it can be used for a bow or bow backing or center laminate if you get it processed. For a kids bow a 2.5 to 3 inch diameter can be split into six even staves and a wooden handle fitted into the middle, then taper and tiller the ends to fit your needs, without any extra work can manage around 20 lbs for a couple of hours work. The handle allows for either a long bow grip or a cut out throat shelf arrow rest. By pre drilling the bamboo and making a counter sink with a leather washer glued into it a screw can be used without splitting the bamboo. Good job .
This was absolutely spot-on! and an excellent review I liked what you had to say about Hickory,.Ash is similar. Even though it's going extinct .people were designing these Woods the wrong way because of the English warbow. This was definitely spot on and with the right design white Woods can perform well
Fantastic content!
My personal favorites are strawberry guava and vine maple, harvested above 3000 feet.
Cheers!
Good taste!
I've been drying out an ash stave for about 18 months, I was planning on using it to make an English longbow. I have never made a bow before so I'm not sure if a longbow is the way to go. My stave is really nice and straight with no obvious knots and is about 8ft long.
Great presentation full of useful information. Good bow wood is tough to come by in the mountain west.
Nice video, i have a long and straight enough piece of boxwood to make a bow wich is pretty rare do you have any idea of how it would behave
I'm gonna be making my first bow soon out of maple!! I'm going for a simple recurve and have everything planned out. Just cut my stave yesterday. Happy to hear it's a good choice for a beginner
I would suggest trying a simple straight stave design first. From what I’ve seen of first time recurve builds about 50-60% fail or quit, maybe 20-30% succeed, and of those only a small handful make a bow that I would consider nice. Compared to a straight stave bow, about 60-70%of first timers finish the bow, with a massive 10-20% actually making very nice bows I would be happy to have.
It’s tempting to choose recurves for performance and looks, but the reality is that only a very well made recurve will shoot better than a straight stave bow, and unless you get all the details right it won’t look right. A decent straight bow will outshoot a recurve that is so so.
Most bowyers will tell you that the first step to making a recurve is to make a straight bow first. You need to have good command of the abc’s, and a lot of experience troubleshooting to have a good shot at a recurve. Something will go wrong, and unless you have good experience dealing with random problems then you’ll get thrown off.
@DanSantanaBows I appreciate the feedback!! I am happy to report that my project is staged for this reason.
My goal is to get the nice standard straight staved bow that'll shoot. Then steam bend it into a recurve. Then, make it into a penobscope. I say I'm jumping straight into a recurve because I want to personally keep that fact in mind so as not to remove too much material when tillering or shaping.
I may be new to bow making, but I've been sculpting wood all my life, so my goal really isn't to "make *A* bow" but rather to learn the techniques used in bow (and arrow) making so I have them. Part of that is knowing the progression of a bow.
That said, I actually wasn't aware how small the improvement from straight staved to recurve is. In truth, I just liked having three stages in my plan, so I might end up skipping it for my first attempt. I do want to learn steam bending, but I can always learn it on a pipe build or something
@@Absurdtheistic I’d recommend using different staves for each project. A layout that would make a great recurve could be lousy in a longbow, and vice versa. If you’re going to make a recurve it’s much easier to design for it from the start, and do the bending much earlier so you have more stave left to fix mistakes
I'm so happy to have discovered your channel. I look forward to looking at your older videos and discovering this ancient artform
Awesome video. I build board bows and usually back them.
My favorite is hickory/bamboo and Brazilian walnut/ bamboo.
The most beautiful Bo I made was purple heart/ bamboo. All soot well but the Brazilian walnut/ bamboo was the best performance due to how light the limbe were tillerd to draw weight, lots of hand shock. Hickory/ bamboo was the smoothest, like silk to shoot
watching the the big strips come off when youre using the plane blade tool really satifying. cheers from Aus
Cheers! Don’t let anyone tell you australia doesn’t have great bow wood
Excellent and. Very informative video. Dan _ it was beautiful done_ thanks for the information
I believe some of the natives in northern Canada would search for Black Spruce that leaned out over a river. The lean would create compression wood on the water side and they would work that up to make the bow.
Neat! the sami would also make composite bows with compression pine bellies backed with birch
Love your Videos and have learned allot from them. Wanted to ask if you have ever done or thought of doing a Video on your work Tools, axes, hatchets, draw knives. Particularly sharpening and maintenance. Would Love some Tips.
@@Terbs-24 See the carving tips video and the drawknives video. I’m also planning a more general one about tools, from beginner to pro
If you're in the southeast i can highly recomend persimmon. Hard to find good trees but well worth and takes fire hardening well.
I have heard excellent things about it! Would love to try it one day.
Persimmon was almost the exclusive wood used to make wooden golf club heads before modern materials, when Taylor Made moved to steel, they called it Pittsburgh Persimmon.
@jk07ist Yes sir that's a fact, and that's one of the reasons it's hard to find more mature trees in many areas.
@@gaswamper1479 There are two persimmons about 50 yds from my property, very straight and about 15 yrs old. Unfortunately, they're not on my property. :)
@@DanSantanaBows I don't know anything about bows,but I know wood. The heart of a big persimmon is black, sometimes called ebony. They used to be used in golf club heads when they were actually wood. Dogwood is very similar, very hard and stable, and wears smooth, persimmon and dogwood were used as shuttles in the textile industry. Live oak is tough as hell, you can't hardly split it, with a big hydraulic splitter. Used to be the preferred wood for certain components in wooden ships, but is probably too twisty to make a bow.
I've been making some from a big mull berry I had to cut down and I'm really impressed with it. I've been an Osage snob for so long, I'd never tried it lol. There's a bunch of black locust around me, I'm going to cut some staves from that next to try.
New to your channel. thanks for the invaluable info
Welcome!
I just made my first real bow with hickory I got from Windsor plywood and I am extremely impressed it's only about 40 ish pounds but shoots so fast and quiet compared to my (bought) laminated recurve
Hi. About twenty years ago, I cut down a Hedge Apple and found a really nice straight knot free section of it about six inches diameter and six foot long. I quartered it into four staves.and discovered that they have a slight twist. I threw them in the garage and forgot about them. Now that I've retired, I can put a little more time into bowery. And suggestions how I can remove the twist from these staves? I had thought about jamming them into the fork of a tree, supporting the opposite end in a forked stick and building a fire below it and hanging a weighted pipe wrench from the other end so that the weight would counter the twist in the wood. Think that might work? Do you have any suggestions, tips?
I am just starting out and live in Australia where they say there is no good bow wood but I believe different and am going to experiment with various local tree species.Just by bending saplings to the point of near destruction I have already found so amazing wood so strong and flexible,I can hardly wait.Thanks for the valuable teaching it is all new to me but soaking it up like a sponge.I hope the addiction will subside soon as my life is becoming a little dysfunctional but some passions are worth it.
Don’t worry there’s plenty of good wood in australia. Look up Colin Gair, he’s active on the facebook primitive bowmaking group and works with several native australian species
Love the opinion of the types of wood and your explanations. I would enjoy seeing you use some bogwood. Specifically bog Cypress. This is wood that has been submerged in a bog for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It has been protected from decay by its lack of access to oxygen. Some of these bogwoods have even started partial petrification, with little stone flecks visible when cut. After drying, these woods can be comparable to tropical hardwoods.
At any rate, I would like to see a bow made from bogwood. There are several species to choose from, but if beggars can be choosers, bogwood Cypress would have my vote.
Black Walnut? Or Black Locust, I have several BL staves dried and am on the hunt for a BW stave
In the bonus chapter both are listed, black locust has a star. I had to pause and zoom in to read the paper on my phone.
@@jamesparks6137 sorry I didnt see the bonus section 😂
I apologize
i made a recent English selfbow using hazel and i left the bark on as a backing hazel grows like wildfire here in east of England and it is holding up well i hade to chase the knots and heat bend the top limb to behave but sollid bow at 50/60lbs
Outstanding video! Loved the format. Can you make a similar video about the best arrow shaft woods?
It’s much more forgiving with arrow woods. You can use pretty much any decent wood for an arrow if it grows straight or can be split straight
@@DanSantanaBows Good to know thanks! I just bought a Pfeil carving draw knife which should be perfect for this!
I don't have much to pick from here in Alaska. I want to make a bow and will experiment with Alder, willow, birch, and black spruce. Some kind of composite may work well using sinew as a backing. We shall see...
I’d use spruce or birch. Look up Sami two wood bows as well, that could be a great design for you
Agreed on hickory as a bow wood. I fire-hardened a hickory English longbow, backed it with bamboo, and it retains its initial backset and is quick and stable. Not a selfbow, but as a backed bow, hickory makes a great English longbow if fire-hardened.
Planning some board Bows, and some Bow projects...
I should also have a maple. Tree to find. Some staves from...
Curious about advice to compliment maple.
You've described Maple as
Strong vs tension (bow back)
Weaker vs compression (set) (belly)
Maple is a great classic example of a whitewood. They’ll all tend to do better in flatter bows with a good heat treat. You can still make a longbow but don’t round the belly too much. See both of my maple build alongs for more details
@@DanSantanaBows I'm absolutely watching those on repeat.
My plan is to make some simple. Board Bows first, so I CNA test and learn and practice.
Then I should be able to plan the maple staves.
I once read an article with an accompanying data sheet that ranked Golden Birch (yellow birch, silver birch) as one of the woods with the highest tortion strengths, just behind hickory, but well above maples and oaks. This was in the context of use for axe handles, but I'm curious about it's application to bows. Again, golden birch happened to rank very differently from white birch, which was lower that the hard maples.
Yellow birch is good bow wood, similar to sugar maple
Have any experience with Dogwood
I found a log straight and knot free , thinner narrower than my Hickory bow
Both 60 # @ 28"
I want to put in a slight recurve but was told the boiling process will check the wood ,would Heat bending work , I took out some deflex out of the top limb with a heat gun with no problems and the adjustment held up without having to repeat the process.
I think it shoots faster through the cron tips are narrower at the knocks.
Dogwood is good stuff. Like hickory crossed with ironwood. It can be tricky to heat bend recurves with dry heat though. So don’t try to treat it like osage. I’ve used either steam or boiling water
Any tips on a design to make with wych elm (scots elm)? I have 2 branches about 3 - 4 fingers thick seasoning as we speak and i have never even attempted to make a bow before. Im now a little scared having just learned it's difficult to work 😂
Do I need to heat treat it and if so, how? Will it split ok as i only have a limited supply, or should I just attempt to rough the bow out from the branch as a whole?
I have a couple of questions and I hope you have the time to answer them- first off- I'm a full contact stick fighter and have been looking for a wood that's very resilient, can take a beating and keep on ticking so to speak- the staffs I use are usually from 32" to 50" - I've tried red and white oak and wasn't too impressed- what wood would you recommend for such a task? Next - What wood did the North American Indians make their bows out of and how did they do it? Here in the West there's not a huge selection- typical Tribes here are Sioux and Cree. They didn't have the tools the Europeans use and I've never seen a documentary on how they managed to make so many bows and arrows. Great Video!
I’d use hickory, especially in the west where it’s so dry it really shines
Cool video. There is an Ironwood tree in southern Arizona that grows like a mesquite, or Osage. It will be difficult to find a piece with minimal grain variation. It is HEAVY! Denser than water! I have to wonder what you could do with that. No doubt it will require allot of work and tool sharpening.
I’ve heard it would be decent bow wood if you could find a straight piece. I think it’s a protected species too so it might not be easy to find a piece. Maybe landscapers/arborists
Is Locust wood one of the Ironwood species? They have it in Virginia, and it makes indestructible fence posts.
No
It’s less dense but closely related.
Black Locust is an excellent bow wood.
Locust is in the same family as beans and peas (legumes), and very distant to any of the ironwoods which are in the birch family (as far as the eastern and central US species)@@darinmalone
Beautiful 😊 . Im in eastern Washington and one of the only native hardwoods is black locust. Its extremely hard and pioneers used it for wagon tongues,and such. Some of it has a beautiful yellow color when polished. Just wondering what you think 🤔
Good stuff! It’s on the bonus list
Where do you find such beautiful Juniper, I don’t find any juniper with such vibrant heartwood
Curious if Pecan wood can be viable since it is related to hickory?
Excellent bow wood. it’s often sold interchangeably with hickory
Department of Agriculture says that there will be no distinction between Hickory and Pecan woods. In my area the sawmills sort any with black checks as Hickory, while Select Clear lumber is often sold as Pecan for a higher price. Either board could have come from the opposite species.
I know nothing about bow making, but a fair bit about timber and lumber.
As an aside, when making Hickory pitman arms for mowing machines as a kid, I was told to soak the staves in the creek until they sank tien to dry them in shade before shaping them with my draw knife to reduce the chance of splitting. I don't know if it mattered but I never failed to follow the advice. They lasted quite well compared to the ones in the tractor supply.
Pacific north west has madrone hardwood I've always wanted to try. It is very dense and strong but I don't know about flexibility after it is cured out
Awesome video, Im a starter bowyer and I was wondering how rowan wood is to work with for bows? On my land I have loads of rowan wood and I would like to see how it is to work with since I have so much of it.
Great video thanks for sharing have you ever made one out of sweetgum i have several in my area wondering if make a good bow wood
No but i’ve heard it’s good bow wood. Treat it like an average whitewood. A heat treat is probably a good idea
Other than yew, I can walk to a source of most of these woods. Ironwood, I will have to drive to.
This was excellent, i wondered if elm would make a good bow when i tried splitting it and my axe bounced off
And cool ash makes great arrow shafts. How would say yellow Birch wood do for bow?
@@DriftWander770 Yellow birch is good stuff. Very underrated and similar to sugar maple
Thank you for your reply! I heard yellow birches “heartwood” is reddish and great for gun stocks. Couldn’t help but wonder if it be a good looking bow.
Have you worked with silver oak and what do you think of a pinobscot bow
@@johannessteyn-ww4kn No but generally all oaks are useable if you can find a good piece
@@DanSantanaBowsthanks
Very satisfying to watch
Can you tell us about Sycamore, Hackberry and Persimmon?
is there a video or more information about the bow at the start? It looks beautiful!
www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/lbn320/longbow_carved_from_a_hickory_tree/?
Really nice info! Do you know if any kind of elm is situable? The one we have in Europe is little bit different from what you show in the video
Wonderful video...thank you!
Lilac, interesting.....
We have a bunch of lilac...
How does Spruce compare, is it similar to something like Pine?
Spruce is surprisingly good for its low density but is still a low-mid tier bow wood. Lilac is amazingly dense and takes a great polish
@@DanSantanaBows really. Lilac surprises me. As far as sub species for Lilac, are they all similar?
I imagine, it's a bit harder to get to a 4 inch or larger, 'log' to find a stave,
So with lilac, I suspect the bow would be built more like a sapling bow?
When I was a Kid in Sweden, we used to make bows out of Juniper...
And then later Ash (think it compare to Hickory...)
I don´t know Osage...
Love your videos learning a lot curious about Black locus?
@@renegadep684 Yep great stuff. Treat it like a heartwood and chase a growth ring
Anyone know what some good (Hopefully common) bow wood is in Philippines?
Do you need the center of a branch or log or can you use any part of the tree for a bow? Can I make a bows out of a 10" round log?
For whitewoods you can use the underbark surface for the back of the bow but for heart woods you may have to chase a growth ring. You can always use the center if you chase a growth ring. Branches are fine but it can be hard to find a good stave.
See my video the back of the bow 6 ways for a lot more about these topics
@@DanSantanaBows what does chase a growth mean?
@@NovaDexter Following one growth ring from tip to tip for the back of the bow. See the video I mentioned and it will explain in more detail
You should get your hands on some Chinese elm or leatherback elm. It has a deep brown to red heartwood with that same elm grain and figure. You can find them in mall parking lots down here in Florida
I’ve heard it’s good stuff!
Beautiful video. I'm a bowyer from Argentina. What about black locust? Any opinion or advices? Thanks!
Treat it like osage and chase a growth ring. Make it a bit wider than an osage bow though. It’s very stiff so it likes a wider bow
Do you use any osage? I saw some in Uruguay and I hear there’s more in Argentina
Do you think a Juniper would make for a good Reflx-Deflex bow due to its flexibility?
Yes but it can be a difficult wood to bend. You only really need flexible woods when you want to make narrow and thick bows
Mulberry is closely related to Osage. Is it a good bow wood? I've used it for knife handles and pistol grips.
@@666toysoldier Yes great stuff. Treat it like a heartwood. They say make a mulberry bow 20% wider than an equivalent osage bow
We have lots of Black Locust and Hickory where I live. We have lots of different Hickories though. So, what is the best type of Hickory for bows?
Pignut, but the quality of the individual piece matters more than the species
@@DanSantanaBows Thanks.
How to buy these woods in India?
Make one
@@jackwoodlandMake wood?
go into the sacred foliage and find hardwood
Get them bro
@@RishabYadav-j3x I have staves for sale
I have a piece of Bitternut Hickory with a bit of a twist at one end. Is there a way to get the twist out of the wood?
I have read that you should leave a bit of sapwood on the back of the bow. Is this a good idea?
Use the underbark surface for the back of the bow. My video the back of the bow 6 ways will explain what you need to understand about the back of the bow.
Twist is generally not a huge deal as long as it’s less than 90 degrees between the limbs. If you want recurves that will be an alignment hassle but it’s not a dealbreaker for a longbow
@@DanSantanaBows Thank you. I have removed the bark, and the sapwood has worm holes. I will look for another piece of wood.
Did you mention elm wood ? On the Mary Rose were found longbows made of this wood
Oh yeah it’s in there. One of my favorites
South-east Europe:
Pear, Bloody Dogwood(my favorite), Cornelian cherry dogwood, Sour Cherry, Wild Apple, Hazel, European Ash.
BONUS: If you cut them in August after dry summer, the wood needs only a week to fully dry after you rough shapeing.
Slocum, building his boat, used pasture Maple for the keel. Pasture trees stand alone, affected by wind from all around - as opposed to forest trees, which are protected. Forest trees though, have tighter annual rings
Other than Yew wood what would be a good wood or woods to use to make an English Longbow not a flat bow?
How do you prefer to sharpen your drawknife(s)? It looks like you have an incredible edge on the one used in this video.
See the video on drawknives
Will do, thanks @@DanSantanaBows