Tell us about your experience making and using sapling bows. Pictures would be great too.

Don, are you talking a bough stave bow?

Jawge is man on sapling bows. Hopefully he will see this. M.r Stout I think he is talking about up in trees.

Should say young trees. Wth?

I love sapling bows. Especially tension strong white woods like elm and hickory. I made a sweet osage sapling bow last fall for a friend. Sapling wood is very resilient, easy to harvest, easy to handle and doesn't require a band saw.

Okay....someone do a follow-along.

Sapling bows are great. Easy to cut and easy to make. They have to be left a few inches longer than needed to counter act the heavy crown. So I like my bows about 64" nock to nock. I'd leave a sapling bow 2 inches longer. More on my site. http://traditionalarchery101.com/saplingbow.html Jawge

Yep, best part is getting them out of the woods, you can cut em with a pocket saw and carry them for miles... as opposed to a 8 - 15" log that weighs hundreds of pounds. I'm getting itchy to go cut something.

My son Klent has made several out of hickory and osage orange. My favorite is an osage 53# at 29in. I have screwed up a couple. Jawg is an expert.

I have made a lot of sapling bows from elm and plum branches. They make great bows. A Jawge says make them a bit longer to compensate for the crown.

Do you guys rough them out green?

I love sapling bows.

Matt...I can't speak for the other guys but I rough mine out while they are green. Then depending on the type of wood I'll either tie it or clamp it to a pice of lod bed rail that I have to let it dry.

If I want a recurve, I'll put the recurves in it while it's green and let them dty in place. Easy to do on the bed rail. Just put a piece of pipe the right size inder each limb in the right place and fasten the ends of the limbs down over it.

Tsoukalas thanks for the link.

Thanks for the link Jawge. I was hoping to see a few pictures of sapling bows. I was just thinking today. That this type of bow was probably the first bow ever used by primitive man. And it is still being made and used by some men today. Pretty cool when you think about it.

George Stout had a great Idea. How about a build along? I'd like to see how its done.

Me too...me too !!!

I have a one set of pics I can post in a bit. The rest all died with our old computer. I have had good success with elm, HHB, osage and hickory in making pole bows.

Thanks fdp

I have roughed them out green but some I have not. Jawge

I prefer to strip the bark, seal it entirely and set it aside as-is for 10 months to a year, then use dry heat to manipulate it as I build it. Never tried to shape them green.

I should mention that even though the locusts, osage and mulberries work best with a heartwood back, these woods still do well with saying backs. Sometimes It is even possible to chase to a closer to the heartwood sapwood ring.

Sapwood changes to heartwood in a living tree.

My last BL bow has one of those transition sapwood rings as a back.

Jawge

This was a sapling bow I made my buddy last fall. Osage with the sapwood left as is. Its just over 50# at his draw length. Cant remember how long I made it. The handle is entirely stacked and glued cork. I wrapped it just to be sure it would stay intact for decades.

Braced

Close up of the grip area. This bow is very powerful and zippy. My best guess is its the most efficient bow I've made.

PEARL, what was the diameter of the tree when you cut it? Did you leave the bark on for (and for how long)? Did you seal the ends, and dry, for how long?? What do you seal it with? I hope this is not prying, asking too many questions. I think it will help me with my upcoming self bow project. Thanks. That is a real nice looking bow, and it looks powerful. I'd like mine to come out to around 65# if feasible on a selfbow. TK

Calvin the pole was given to me already cut. Bark on and ends only sealed. You can seal the ends with anything. Paint, sealer, poly, or wood glue will work. It didn't check at all on the ends or sides. I cut it in half to get two bows rather than one bow with an integral grip area. If I remember correctly it went from a living tree to a bow in about a year, maybe a fuzz longer than a year.

Pearl sweet looking bow! I am jealous of your guys talent/patients. Thanks for the information.

Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. I wonder how maple saplings would work. We have a ton of them around here. They are very hard to break when green, and display lots of sharp toothpick like splinters and do not break all the way through. And they are very rigid when dried inside. I'm thinking about trying them too, besides HHB. If they don't work, I can make good walking sticks with them!

Im not a maple fan, but plenty of people are. If I was going to use maple, it would be in the sapling form. Maple is quite elastic and would work great with a high crown back like a sapling offers. That high crown would give the belly a little breather.

I gotta try that. There is no shortage of variety of wood types here. Got some small elms too (that can't seen to make it to 10 yrs because of Dutch Elm). A lot of HHB, birch, who knows, maybe just try a few and experiment for the fun of it, and practice.

Go for it. I was a "renegade" builder to. I did all kinds of crazy stuff. I think its the best way to learn.

Thanks for posting the pictures Pearl Drums. That's a cool looking bow. And pretty impressive at over 50#

This bow is a HHB sapling. About 2.5" round, the grip is the same size as the sapling. It was for a raffle. It's 66" ntn and 53# @ 28.

Vine maple.

64" ntn, 65# @ 28".

I named it Wart, because it was covered with a bunch of little bumps and knots. I shot it really well for some reason. It's 18 years old now. Still have it.

Nice looking bow Jeff. Wow 65# I didn't realize you could get that kind of draw weight from a little sapling bow. That's a serious hunting bow. What did you use to blacken the limb tips and the handle area? That really looks good.

Nice looking bow Jeff. Wow 65# I didn't realize you could get that kind of draw weight from a little sapling bow. That's a serious hunting bow. What did you use to blacken the limb tips and the handle area? That really looks good.

That's a powerful stick, Jeffy. Nice bow.

There really is no limit to the draw weight. If the width appears it will be too narrow for the weight a fella wants, you simply add length to compensate. Building wood bows is a tug o' war. You have to always keep the teams even on each side.

Interesting topic. Pearly, Jawge and Jeff...always enjoy your bows and am very appreciative of you guys sharing your knowledge. I think George is correct..a build along would be great.

Grok likely made his first bow from a sapling. Tillering came later. Paleo bow undoubtedly went through the same developmental stage just as all designs do. Trial and error. War, and threat of war, spurs weaponry design.

If I had the tools early man did I would use nothing but saplings. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

I dyed it with alcohol aniline dye.

I started a hickory sapling 'stone age' bow, made a hand axe to chop it down, and used deer antler and flint tools to split it and reduce it in size. It's bending a little, but I haven't worked on it for a long time. Every time I work on that thing it makes me bleed :^/

Pearly, that osage pole was cut in March and handed over to you at Marshall. The bark was left on and the ends were sealed multiple times.

I've made bows from small diameter osage, HHB, yew, and vine maple. All 4" or less diameter. You have a higher crown and maybe less handle depth. Other than that its the same as a bow from a large stave.

This is a vine maple bow

This was a small diameter yew

That yew bow is a killer. Love it.

I just read the latest issue of Primitive Archer, love the snaky coral skin outlaw. Always enjoy seeing what you primitive bowyers come up with, you are all true craftsmen. I'm curious how you shape cork PD's , the self bow thing is new to me, but just got my first one in black locust, it needs a grip. Hoping to go to a class in the near future, I've got plans for some yew or osage. Which do you guys prefer?

Photos of selfbows in the woods. Good stuff.

Jeff, cool bow...I have seen sapling bows made by splitting and using the center/inner part as the back with the outer part as the belly... is that how you made the WART bow posted above? Someone does need to do a build-a-long.

It can often be done either way, but Wart's back is the bark side. I just scraped the bark off, vine maple has very thin bark, lightly sanded it, and that was the back of the bow.

I usually make my bows with a radiused belly when they come from large diameter trees(which naturally gives them a flat back), but make their bellies flatter when they come from small diameter trees and the back is naturally highly crowned. If one side or the other is flat-ish it helps keep the limbs stable.

Wart was half of a vine maple tree ripped right down the middle. This didn't leave enough wood to make the handle the way I like, so I stacked/glued two thick pieces of leather on there and shaped it like Pearl did with the cork.

cool Jeff...I saw what looked like spot/warts on the belly and was just curious about the construction. With the highly crowned back a sapling bow might be a great candidate for a hollow belly bow. :) I think I need to find some 2nd growth osage in the spring.

Yeah those are just knots. I'm gonna go hunt for some osage saplings soon too. I'd like to get em before the sap comes up.

Those are some sweet looking bows guys, I'd love to see a good tute on here. I have maple saplings galore at deer camp and mulberry all along my fence here at home. Would that work?

Good looking bows Osage Outlaw.

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