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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: horatio1226 on October 07, 2007, 07:13:00 PM
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What is the best way to make a bow out of a 3.25 inch sassafras tree? Is it possble? Should I decrown it by ripping and backing it? Thanks
Brian :confused: :help:
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Never worked with sassafras, Brian, so I can't be of much help. I'll bump this one back to the top for you, and maybe someone else will chime in.
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Thanks Stan
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up
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Not a very good wood for bows. You could make a much better bow from a carefully selected $6 red oak board from Lowe's.
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Up for any more advice....
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Some one on here said he read a book by two guys that said sasafrass was their favorite bow wood. Try spliting it with a bansaw down the middle and make two bows one decrowned and backed and the other leave the same as mother nature intended ( minus the bark ). good luck and keep us posted.
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the leaves are good in gumbo>>thats all I can add.
I shot one over the summer shot nice>
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I think it's too small a diameter for a bow, from my experience a sasafrass bow should be made of heartwood, like an osage bow. I would get a bigger stave and chase it down to one growth ring of heartwood for the bow back. The one sasafrass bow I made with sapwood for a back snapped in tension, it looked like the sapwood just didn't stretch enough, I may be wrong but these are my observations.
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I think it's too small a diameter for a bow, from my experience a sasafrass bow should be made of heartwood, like an osage bow. I would get a bigger stave and chase it down to one growth ring of heartwood for the bow back. The one sasafrass bow I made with sapwood for a back snapped in tension, it looked like the sapwood just didn't stretch enough, I may be wrong but these are my observations. I would like to try another sasafrass bow sometime, it is a relativly soft wood and easy to work when straight grained. There is a lot of sasafrass on our family farm, but straight trees are hard to find, also they don't get very big.