got fallen cherry trees that havent been down long wonderin if it would be worth it to cut some pieces out of it

Yep. They make nice laminations and veneers if nothing else. Can't remember making a bow out of one myself but I recall Tim Baker making a pretty darn good one.

I tried one self bow out of Black Cherry. Not good in compression. Needs to be at least 66", wide. and thin. Mine developed a lot of compression fractures due to being too short and narrow. Still shooting but has a lot of set .And it was tillered for 26".

one of the nicest bows I've made was an all cherry... 1/4" slab of cherry, parallel, between two pieces .040 glass with cherry riser, Hill style. Not sure whether to think of it as a glassed self bow or a one lam laminated, but it sure is a nice bow. See at:

http://dickwightman.com/archeryactivity/bowbuilding/gallery/cherrypie/cherrypie.html

wut kinda poundage did you get out of it

yeah i have made a few w, they work ok, just keep em long and wide. i did make one short and narrow once about 40# but it was not the norm.

I've made laminated cherry glass bows with clear glass over them. I believe it's an underated bow wood in that regard.

I've also made them backed with bamboo(didn't survive) and backed with thin hickory backing strips, glued into a slight reflex shape(worked good)... 68" long ntn and 1 5/8" wide, up to 60# @ 28"... feather light in the hand and full of lively cast. I still have one.

Yep, I love me some cherry.

One thing about cherry, when it dies, it rots from the outside. Not good for self bows in that condition, but lots of nice lumber in a big dead cherry.

Jim

jeff if its no bother could u do somewhat of a buildalong through the entire steps bc that sounds very interesting

I have used cherry in risers and really like it after it ages a bit. Too bad I am so far away, I would offer to buy the logs from you for my furniture making.

Here's one I made that was a mollegabet style. If I would have stopped pulling it to 29" and left it my friend Doug (who had a shorter draw) would have still been able to use it. I blew it up at full draw. I was on the short side. If I remember it was under 60".

My friend Doug at his full draw.

sure would have been pretty with some tru oil on it.

Bowfisher, I would, but I've got too many other things on the table right now... busy, busy, busy.

Basically, I cut down a cherry tree. Split staves out like I was gonna make selfbows, only wider so that the whole bow would be heartwood. Let them air dry for a few weeks.

Then I debarked them with a drawknife, then decrowned them, roughly at first with a bandsaw, then with a power hand planer down into the heartwood. Sealed the back/decrowned surface, with shellac.

Cut the stave 2" wide.

Then removed some of the extra wood on the belly side and handle area. I cut limb thickness to about 3/4" so it'll dry faster.

At this point, the whole thing's 2" wide and 3/4 thick, except the handle area.

After it's dried sufficiently, I prep the back by scraping it with a toothing plane, the backing strip too if it needs surfaced and/or thinned. Cherry likes a thin backing and it doesn't take much hickory to hold the glued in profile... less than 1/8.

Prior to glue up, I taper the limbs from about 5/8 at the dips to 1/2 at the tips.

To glue up, you can either do it with its back against a board/caul shaped the way you want, or in a jig... back towards the sky, the stave's tips propped up on the ends on posts... similar to how Dean Torges does his BBO bows. I've done it both ways.

Either straight, or a gradual, gentle reflex is best. I think I put about 3" in mine.

Hope this helps.

where did u get ur hickory backing

Choke cherry is perhaps the best.Cut a living tree under 10" diameter and over 4". Strip the bark & cambium off and saw into staves or billets. Allo to air dry in an ambient where temp stays between 45 and 70F and humidity is between 30-50% for a year or so. Inotther words, treat as any good bow wood. Sapwood comes off.Bows over 45#@28" and 66" NTN will need a backing of hisckory, bamboo or rawhide or sinew. Make an 'american style longer longbow with wider limbs( not canoe paddles) Kiln dried and lumber yard cherry for furniture seems too brash.Air dried properly worls well..tho there are a hundred+ trees growing in the forests and hedgerows of north america that are better bow wood.Jim

so wut your sayin is its not for a beginner which i am haha

Bowfisher: I'd encourage you to try one; as folks have suggested you want to make it wide and long. There is only one way to stop being a beginner; make bows. And cherry is nice to work with (although be prepared for a lot of somewhat gummy sawdust)

I've recently done three black cherry bows, one with hickory backing and two with sycamore. Hickory is so much stronger than the cherry that the first one got chrysalled, even with the backing trapped; I was able to cut the worst section out and splice matching grain in so it's still shooting. The other two with the better-matched sycamore backing came out fine - the owners say they are lovely shooters.

good luck!

My Green Mountain Classic has black cherry limbs under clear glass,one of my favorite bows.

they are beautiful but as "dire wolf" says, they are a lot of trouble for inferior performance.. . . come to think...some wives can be the same.... ;-)

Go for it got to start somewhere, I just started shooting mine its a black cheery 66" ntn pulls 52# @ 28" steamed in a little recurve sinew backed a little wide 1 3|4" strong shooter fast acurate(as acurate as i am) will shot it the rest of summer, if all goes well i will raw hide/ snakeskin back it , only thing to lose is time but will definatly gain experience/knowledge

for dire wolf ("a hundred+ better trees") and fuzzy ("lot of trouble for inferior performance"): I'm interested in learning more about your experiences with cherry, and which of its performance measures you've found inferior.

There appears to be agreement that cherry bows need to be made wider and longer than stronger bow woods of the same draw weight. But as long as the bow isn't overbacked (Jeff Durnell suggests very thin hickory, while I've moved to sycamore) I've found cherry bows to match equal draw weight oak, with a smoother feel.

I'll have better comparisons when my walnut and locust projects are done, but in my limited experience black cherry seems like a fine bow wood, especially for field and target shooting where extra length is a plus.

I have made a number of Black Cherry bows and most I backed with White Ash. Most of the bows I made were in the ELB (English Longbow) style but with a flat belly. If well tillered it will make a nice bow that light in the hand and is very fast. It is low in elasticity so you need to get a smooth bend, one of the reasons it works well for longbows and it's also weak in tension, the reason for the backing. This is the only bow I have pictures of, see hyperlink. I have had a number of them chrysal on me including a sinew backed recurve and an RD bow. The RD bow still survives and is quite fast. My advice is keep the bow long, the longbows were all in the 70" long range for a 29" draw length.

I must say, these add-ons are a pain

Here's the link

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/Black%20Cherry%20Composites/Ash%20Backed%20Longbow/

i have made 6 wild choke cherry bows so far,and 5 are still going strong.one broke mid limb were there was a knot.takes heat treat belly pretty well.they have about one inch of back set when finished.build wide at 62 inches with 25 inch draw.2 are selfbows with bark left on the back.3 are backed with fiber cloth,which works well, and does not over power the belly. they have no belly checking.the power of these bows are on par with my hickory selfbows.done properly they make a decent bow, but not barn burners.of course none of my bows are. 50 lbs at 25 inches and a 475 gr. arrow yeilded 142 fps not considered fast ,but at 15 yds. and in will harvest white tail.if you have good wild choke cherry available go for it.

i have made 6 wild choke cherry bows so far,and 5 are still going strong.one broke mid limb were there was a knot.takes heat treat belly pretty well.they have about one inch of back set when finished.build wide at 62 inches with 25 inch draw.2 are selfbows with bark left on the back.3 are backed with fiber cloth,which works well, and does not over power the belly. they have no belly checking.the power of these bows are on par with my hickory selfbows.done properly they make a decent bow, but not barn burners.of course none of my bows are. 50 lbs at 25 inches and a 475 gr. arrow yeilded 142 fps not considered fast ,but at 15 yds. and in will harvest white tail.if you have good wild choke cherry available go for it.

i have made 6 wild choke cherry bows so far,and 5 are still going strong.one broke mid limb were there was a knot.takes heat treat belly pretty well.they have about one inch of back set when finished.build wide at 62 inches with 25 inch draw.2 are self bows with bark left on the back.3 are backed with fiber cloth,which works well, and does not over power the belly. they have no belly checking.the power of these bows are on par with my hickory self bows.done properly they make a decent bow, but not barn burners.of course none of my bows are. 50 lbs at 25 inches and a 475 gr. arrow yielded 142 fps not considered fast ,but at 15 yds. and in will harvest white tail.if you have good wild choke cherry available go for it.

Now i have 1 left from 6. Bad experiences with this stuff. update may 2018,If i ever build another bow from this stuff, which i will not, i would sinew back it like the black foot indians did.they knew about this wood much better than i did.One of the bows that broke 9 inches from the tip came up some how and broke my glasses into 2 pieces bruising my left eye.Pay no attention to what i wrote above under the handle of bobby b that was before i shot hundreds of shots from the bows.I now call this wood the hurt wood.Just sharing this with you guys so you do not make the same mistakes.Much better wood in my experiences is black walnut,has a thick outer growth ring,with belly heat treat i make a solid dependable bow every time, and with its low mass can be made to shoot pretty fast with out hurting you.Make it 2 inches at the fades 62 inches long for 26 inch draw 66 inches at 28 inch draw.

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