You can make bows from wood with knots. They are just hard to tiller and usually have less poundage unless backed with something like sinew, rawhide or fibreglass. I have also seen some experimental carbon fibre backing which would work well too but I haven’t tried it. My bowyer days are quite long gone.
What free wood did you find today?
- Thread starter woodtickgreg
- Start date
Which one? The calicotome is way to small for anything except a pen blank (if you are lucky). The r. alaternus is reasonably stable, so once it's dry it can be used. This is a small pencil holder:
You can see just a tiny stripe between the yellow and the brown where the wood takes the orange/pinkish colour of the r. cathartica samples @daniscool sent me.
This is a 6-8" wide board waiting to be dry:
In fact I think the yellow is not actually sapwood but rather heartwood, but there is some discussion about naming on this.
This doesn't have knots, but rather proper cavities.
Hmm. You are right about that. As long as the back is not violated you can still make a bow from this. I would not try it as my skill as a bowyer is rather limited but Byron will probably be able to assess the situation better.
Yesterday I went into the desert again for Versecolor Cholla only. Where I started looking, it was all smaller than 2" trunks. I went south on the road, found another BLM land parcel, and found a bunch more just a tad larger than the first stop. Grabbed a few, and went further south past a fire station, pretty much the last real building there. It's all private land 20-30 acres each plot, but covers at least a whole section then turns into State Trust Land. That's the land you don't want to get caught on taking a leak on as then you are littering it instead of just admiring it. Just kidding on that, but you can only take pictures and only leave footprints on it. A hunting license allows me to go onto it, but the only thing I can get off the land is an animal, and it had better be dead.
Back to the Cholla. Here is a picture or two. Most of it is from pen blank size to one piece being over 4", I hope. I'm going to start pressure washing it in the next 30 minutes. Tomorrow, I'll start cutting it to sizes that have been asked for.
I have a Flintknapping friend in Georgia that wants a box valued at 200 bucks for knife handles.
Since he's not a member of this sight, it's not a backroom deal. ................ Nubs
Back to the Cholla. Here is a picture or two. Most of it is from pen blank size to one piece being over 4", I hope. I'm going to start pressure washing it in the next 30 minutes. Tomorrow, I'll start cutting it to sizes that have been asked for.
I have a Flintknapping friend in Georgia that wants a box valued at 200 bucks for knife handles.
Since he's not a member of this sight, it's not a backroom deal. ................ Nubs
This is my best and largest Versecolor trunk I've found so far. It is 4 1/2" OD and 12" from the round void and up to where the branches start. It's very solid which is amazing as after they die standing up, bugs attack them and then rot starts in. But, this had the live color on the trunk indicating it was fresh deceased.
These other 3 are all large trunks, but not al long or as straight as the first one. It took almost 3 hours to clean them to the stage they are. The bark does not want to come off, but when it does, the wood is purdy.
When I finish cleaning and cutting them up, I'll post it all in the "wood for sale" thread. It's gonna be a couple days as the bark just does not want to come off. ............ Nubs
These other 3 are all large trunks, but not al long or as straight as the first one. It took almost 3 hours to clean them to the stage they are. The bark does not want to come off, but when it does, the wood is purdy.
When I finish cleaning and cutting them up, I'll post it all in the "wood for sale" thread. It's gonna be a couple days as the bark just does not want to come off. ............ Nubs
