First posting here but have been reading the forum archives avidly the last few days.
I'm an experienced woodworker but have never made a bow. Always wanted to (the usual story eh?) but only now getting round to it. Bought the Traditional Bowyers Bible Vols 1-3 and really enjoying that too.
To get to the point though I was reading the chapter in Vol 1 on using white wood as they describe it to make bows. Living where I do in Nth East Scotland I'm surrounded by birch, sycamore, and rowan (mountain ash) forests. In fact there's a fair amount of it in my garden.
Just wondering what size of trees/branches I should be looking at? Out walking this morning I noticed a fair amount of straight branches/saplings of around 4 inches wide. Would these be too small or would it be possible to get a working bow out of them?
Cheers
Gerry
I'm an experienced woodworker but have never made a bow. Always wanted to (the usual story eh?) but only now getting round to it. Bought the Traditional Bowyers Bible Vols 1-3 and really enjoying that too.
To get to the point though I was reading the chapter in Vol 1 on using white wood as they describe it to make bows. Living where I do in Nth East Scotland I'm surrounded by birch, sycamore, and rowan (mountain ash) forests. In fact there's a fair amount of it in my garden.
Just wondering what size of trees/branches I should be looking at? Out walking this morning I noticed a fair amount of straight branches/saplings of around 4 inches wide. Would these be too small or would it be possible to get a working bow out of them?
Cheers
Gerry