Last Oct. I cut some small Birch trees,and made some green ,and made others as they were drying with the bark on. Here are pics of some of the better bows that I made, and I must say that Birch can make a relatively good bow with repeated heat treating.

Birch bark canoes and Birch bows, now that would be a good combo, bows look good.

Very nice work!

Beautiful work Bassman ..

... the bow in the middle of the first picture looks absolutely stunning

Thank you Wayne, Ez Archer,and Phil. Birch is not a wood used to make bows that often,so I wanted to play with it to see for my self, because it is listed as bow wood. I tried about every local wood except Birch. With repeated heat treating I was able to keep set to Zero on most of them, and some have a little reflex, which made the bows perform quite well. It is a low mass wood ,soft,and easy to work with, but hard to keep set at a minimum. These bows at 10 gppwill shoot 100 plus their draw weight and some exceed that by 10 fps or more.

Very nice looking bows as always

good job... it looks like you stayed busy with good results. Congrats.

Very cool! Will that heat treating work for most woods?

My first selfbow was birch and the arrows where cut from the same tree. John

Great work. You will soon be able to supply the whole tribe.;^) >>>>-----> Ken

Very nice Bass!

Great lookin bows right there...

Very nice. I think my favorite is the one with the red handle wrap

Great looking bows!

Very nice bows. Jawge

Bassman::: Great looking bows.

Gotta try birch myself some day. Looking good Bassman

Bjrogg

Great looking bows. How do they perform?

Are the limbs relatively thick.

I’m curious because I don’t have Osage or Yew So I have to buy it.

But I have A lot of Birch, Mulberry, Locust, Black Walnut, Elm Hickory etc Never even thought to look at birch.

Al sick, that is all good bow wood to pick from. With that selection of wood you can make some very good bows with the right design.I will post more pics below that shows a lot of what you are asking about width,length, thickness, performance,etc,

Just curious Bassman. How does Birch compare to Hickory in the performance department? Also is it as forgiving for the beginner to work like Hickory? Also how long did you make your bows? Very nice job on those bows.

more picks

more picks

more picks

The bows from top to bottom in the pics above are as follows.60 inches long at 37 lbs 143 fps.2nd pic is 60 inches long at 44lbs 154 fps.3rd pic is 57inches long at 45lbs.156 fps. 9,and 10 strand B55 string, and all shot with 425 gr. arrow. With low stretch string numbers would go up 4 to 6 fps. 1-1/2 to 1-5/8 inches wide coming off the fades to 1/2 to 5/8 narrowed at the tips.Straight taper.Made on a form,and belly heat treated before coming off the form. Heat treating as they are tillered until finished. All shot at just short of 26 inch draw. Hope that helps.

tonto, Birch is a low mass soft hard wood . Very easy to work with. Takes heat well.Good wood to learn on along with Walnut.Much easier on tools, also. than Hickory. Not as sensitive as Hickory to moisture. Not many bow makers use either wood on a regular basis, but can make a good bow. Paul Compstock liked Birch though he made his bows wider ,and longer than mine.

Thanks for all the information Bassman .

Bassman those are good speeds for that weight of bows and arrows. Arvin

If I may ask, which kind of birch are they? I'm guessing white, since yellow birch seems to be pretty heavy and dense. I'm not familiar with black birch around here.

Thanks Arvin,coming from you I will take that as a real compliment.Slow bow joe I only assumed it was paper Birch, or white birch, but to be honest with you I don't know for sure. I knew it was Birch, so I figured I would give it a try.Guys on primitive archer claim that yellow Birch is best for bow making . I don't know about black Birch. This stuff was growing on an old coal dump were I used to play when I was younger.I found some 4 to 5 inch diameter trees that were leaning over with clean trunks, so that is what I used. All the bows in the pics weigh less than 16 ozs. with a grip wrap,and string. Very low mass compared to other white woods. As far as durability ownly time will tell. Thanks to all.

That is some great information Craig. Thanks for sharing. I made these Birch wood bows ,so guys would become more aware of it's potential as a bow wood.Glad to see that guys are going to try their hand at using it as a bow wood.Good luck on your search, and good luck with your builds. Bob

Very nice bows!

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