Cherry

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D

Deleted member 7654

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I spotted a nice(ish) log of cherry in the woods, it was lieing against another tree almost horizontal, a tiny bit of root was still attached and it had very old, healed up axe marks around the base. There was a lot of sawn branches about where someone had been 'tidying up' fallen trees?
I sawed it cleanly at the base hoping it may sprout up again.
It's split nicely into one decent length and a shorter billet (where I had to cutt off the old axe dameaged piece) which may make some individual limbs or a spliced bow.
Chakazulu mentioned thinking of trying a Cherry Maple combo.
Anyone tried other Cherry Belly bows (now that just sounds funny, I gotta say cherrybelly again :) )
I thought maybe Ashy Cherry would look really pretty :)
Anyone tried laminating from natural staves rather than bought/prepared timber? Flat bow vs longbow?
Plenty of time for armchair work as it's gotta season yet.
Ideas, comments?
Del
 

soundo26

New member
elieve)

Don't know about a cherrybelly, I have a longbow that has a cherry lamination between hickory and lemonwood (I believe). It looks beautiful!, not sure if it's the right type of wood for the belly though!
 

dusty

New member
According to Tim Baker in TBB4, one can match any back and belly woods by trapping the stronger wood, for example you could back poplar with hickory if the strong back is very narrowed and the weak belly very wide and flat.

According to Pip Bickerstaffe, here is a list of wood he advises to use :

BACK
-hickory
-maple (for medium density belly woods).
-ash, elm (for medium/low density belly woods).

CORE
-purpleheart
-padauk
-piquia
-zebrano
-snakewood
-wenge
-maple
-yew
-lemonwood
-santos rosewood
-other rosewoods
-pernambuco
-ash
-elm
-oak
-chak te koke
-putu jumu
-bubinga
-cherry
-american black walnut
-osage
-goncalo alves
-sycamore
-black locust
-birch
-beech
-ramin
-hornbeam
-bloodwood
-etc...

BELLY
-lemonwood
-costello boxwood
-yew
-osage
-piquia
-partridgewood
-snakewood
-pernambuco
-oak
-ash (only with an ash back)
-american black walnut
-bubinga
-sonokoling rosewood
-putu jumu
-acacia
-chac te koke
-santos rosewood
-australian black lancewood
-teak
-mulberry
-pau amorello
-greenheart

This is a list of timbers i found on another site used in lamination's hope it helps
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
According to Tim Baker in TBB4, one can match any back and belly woods by trapping the stronger wood, for example you could back poplar with hickory if the strong back is very narrowed and the weak belly very wide and flat.
Cheers.
That's a usefull idea..
At risk of sounding grumpy/contraversial, I'm not considering cores, the core is almost irrelevant and could be made out of just about anything that sticks....not actually sure why people bother with a core except for reasons of cost, availability and decorative value? Maybe there's a good discussion to be had here.
Nearly all the stress is in the back and belly...a bit like an I beam the vertical bit of the I is just keeping the two other bits apart! I s'pose the weight of the core has some significance, Balsa would probably be rather good! They make some interesting composites using Balsa.
Del
 
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D

Deleted member 7654

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My maple/ash/cherry bow was looking very pretty.... until it broke on the tiller!
Yes it was pretty :( Maybe Ash Maple Cherry would have been better? Maple is often a core wood, but I understood that was generally due to it's stability and ease of machining.
How did the belly look after the failure? Was it still sound? Shame you never even got to feel it's cast (oh dear I'll be in tears in a minute...)
That's the problem with all this stuff, it's trying to separate fact from 'received wisdom' and I s'pose no two bit of the same species are identical anyway.
BTW, I just read an old book 'The Village Carpenter' (Father's Day present from my Daughter) fascinating, it's from the days when they felled the timber themselves and everything was done by hand, it covered averything from mending furiture to making Windmill sails and woodwater en pumps with pipes made from Elm trunks!...
Del
 

dusty

New member
I stand to be corrected on this .You are right about the back and the belly doing most of the work but from what i understand the core helps to provide stability to the bow

This is a bow that i have made it is Ash,Black Walnut,lemon wood,Black walnut,Lemon Wood

I tapered the laminates from 4mm to 2mm



This has made a very stable bow with a good cast.
I do really think that some though should go into the core timbers
 

jeburf

New member
Yes it was pretty :( Maybe Ash Maple Cherry would have been better? Maple is often a core wood, but I understood that was generally due to it's stability and ease of machining.
How did the belly look after the failure? Was it still sound? Shame you never even got to feel it's cast (oh dear I'll be in tears in a minute...)

Del
The core and belly are fine. The maple didn't actually break but I heard a "click" and a small crack appeared through the laminate. I think if I had continued drawing it on the tiller a few more times much more damage would have been done.
All is not lost though, I've prepared some bamboo to use as a new backing and I am in the process of removing the maple laminate. I'll post more photos when its all glued up and back on the tiller
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
I stand to be corrected on this .You are right about the back and the belly doing most of the work but from what i understand the core helps to provide stability to the bow. This has made a very stable bow with a good cast.
I do really think that some though should go into the core timbers
You make some good points, particularly, it allows you to taper the core, leaving the belly and back lams as parallel (with presumably better grain integrity).
Of course, where I fall down is, that I don't have experience with laminated longbows, (just maple/f-glass).
Some thought is require indeed...I'm just not sure what to think :)
Del
BTW Those are really handsome laminated bows.
 

dusty

New member
To go back to the original question
yes it is possible to laminate stave you just have to take your time and get a realy flat surface to take the laminate
I read some where that one bow makers puts a backing on A Yew stave that the sap wood is not good enough for the backing
 

tinkerer

New member
Jeburf. Wasn't the backing failure linked to a knot? The wood choices were otherwise good, I think.

Del, The core woods can have a big impact on performance. As you say, weight is the first factor. Swap a thick, centre chunk of lemonwood for a light softwood like cedar and you can lose 4 or 5oz, and gain plenty of cast (and scratches). Or try a very thick, eg 12mm tapered, core of purpleheart or other stiff wood between hickory and lemonwood. Or combine these two ideas in a 4laminate bow. Balsa could perhaps be used in an under 25lb bow. I made one once. Performance with a flight arrow was electrifying at short draw lengths but at 25lb it started creaking, and although it didn't snap, the life had gone out of it. David
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
Del, The core woods can have a big impact on performance. As you say, weight is the first factor. Swap a thick, centre chunk of lemonwood for a light softwood like cedar and you can lose 4 or 5oz, and gain plenty of cast (and scratches). Or try a very thick, eg 12mm tapered, core of purpleheart or other stiff wood between hickory and lemonwood. Or combine these two ideas in a 4laminate bow. Balsa could perhaps be used in an under 25lb bow. I made one once. Performance with a flight arrow was electrifying at short draw lengths but at 25lb it started creaking, and although it didn't snap, the life had gone out of it. David
Cheers...I'd love to have seen that Balsa cored flight bow...
Del
 
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