blakey
Active member
I was sent an article the other day, a PhD thesis from Finland, that was talking about using pine and conifer for self bows. Apparently in the sub Arctic, where strong prevailing winds howl across the tundra, trees often grow leaning over at a sharp angle to the ground. Because of tension between gravitational forces and the trees innate drive to grow upright, the wood on the underside of the trunk (facing the ground) grows really heavy compressed lignin. This apparently makes very good self bows. The Finns have also gone the next step, using the compression wood fir the belly and a strip of birch fir the back. I thought this sounded quite interesting, because I had never had much of an opinion of pine and such as a bow wood. Then someone pointed out that Yew is a conifer!