Will Tulip Poplar make a decent bow? Just cut one down. Got a section 7ish" diameter and 10+' long. I also cut a Pecan. Only had two logs that I thought might make bows. Can the trunk be used? It is probably 24" in diameter and 12+' long.

It is not a good choice. Jawge

Make it into arrows,I made some sweet shooting arrows out of good old "poppy" as some of my logger bodies call it.

These are poplar stained pecan color and painted white the last 5" our so, with turkey feather fletchings from a gobbler I killed.

Poplar isn't normally considered a bow wood but in all honest I have made at least a dozen and the great majority were good shooters. Wide flat pyramid style about 66" long.I would dry it real good and give it a shot.

I know it's a soft but might as well give it a try like Badger suggested.

What ShadeHaven said .... poplar arrows are excellent

I wouldn't hesitate at all. And if you were to put a light coarse or 2 of sinew on the back, I'd say it would be just peachy.

Any poplar bows I've seen chrysalled in short order, like 300-400 shots in. A few built by knowing bowyers. They were extremely wide and long and tillered very nice.

So, if I make arrows what should be my first move. Cut the log in 3' pieces and split, then table saw into 1/2" squares or split and varnish and let dry a while to let the wood stabilize and dry. What about the trunk of the pecan? I know I can use the logs, but is the trunk bow wood or fire wood? The pecan tree is at least 50+ years old. The house was built in 1959 and I assume it was planted when the house was new. I've been there 31 years and it was fairly large when we got there. Thanks for any help.

Any part of the pecan is good bow wood. If you can get 36" billets from some of it, get 'em.

I don't know much about split shaft arrows.

Nomo, yes, cut the poplar to about 36" lengths and then split it in half. I would seal the ends with paint, shellac, glue, etc. and let it season for several months before I processed it any further. I would also take the bark off to help keep the bugs out of it. Poplar does make pretty good arrow shaft material. Make sure you season it well.

OK, I'm good to go on the poplar. Now, I've never split a tree trunk the size of this Pecan. It's at least 24" diameter and 12'+ long. I will cut it in the middle and make 2, 6'+ pieces, but have no idea where/how to begin to split this bad boy. I have splitting wedges, sledge hammers and lots of desire, but never tackled anything like this. I've only split a couple of Osages about a foot in diameter. Any help will be greatly appreciated. In all honesty, I'm only tackling this Pecan so I can give some away to LWers and make some bows for me.

Steel wedges big enough to split large logs are hard to come by. I cut some long wedges out of scrap Osage that work well. Start on the small end of the log and work from top and bottom with your steel wedges first. Hardwood wedges are tougher than you expect. I have two made of persimmon that I have used a bunch. Good luck. Pecan is good bow wood.

I think I remember reading that tulip poplar is not a true poplar. Not sure how that affects it's bow worthiness. Anyone know the differences?

Make your first split on the pecan log with a chainsaw, the rest is easy after you get it in half.

So, now we're saying tulip poplar is not really a poplar afterall. Does that shoot the arrow making down? I have a nice fire pit out back. I guess I need to do some research on tulip poplar before firing up the old chainsaw. Thanks for the replies so far.

sounds like the "POPLAR" makes good arrows? Just that ( with my limited knowledge) that I don't remember many bows being made from THAT wood? Learn something new every day.

Man! I'm figuring out why pecan is good bow wood. Tuff shtuff. Can't get it to split yet. I said above that I had lots of desire to get it split. That dang tree took a little of that desire away last night. I got the poplar taken care of, but this 50+ year old pecan tree is one bad hombre. LOL

ttt

I would kerf it with a skilsaw first, then split it. It will split much easier. Once you get it quartered, the rest will split up much easier.

Yeah, I was going to cut a kerf tonight. I didn't start on the big part because I wanted to see how pecan works. I got a small split started in a smaller log, but I could see the strands holding it together, so I decided it needed to have the first couple of inches cut. It looks like those outside (just under the bark) fibers don't want to let go, so I'm going to coax them a little with a saw. Wish me luck. That shtuff is tough. ;~)

Pecan is tough. You know if you buy hickory lumber it may be pecan. Many mills don't differentiate the two. They are close. Hickory is a bit harder but in my experience splits easier than pecan. Pecan is super stringy. Good luck!

Aspen is popple. Popple and poplar are not the same wood.

MP

The tulip tree is a member of the magnolia family. It is not related to the poplars. At all. The wood of the tulip tree can make good arrows, especially when compressed. Anybody remember Don Stokes?

P.S. Don produced the Superceder shafts, which were compressed dowels from tulip tree wood. Some years ago, Dean Torges declared them the best arrow shafts he had used. I had about three dozen of them years ago, and they really do make great arrows. I still have almost a dozen, I believe.

Pecan is a pain to split. I spent days just getting a 20" log split in half, it wasn't much easier getting the smaller splits either. next to elm it is the hardest wood I have ever tried to split. The elm I gave up on.

Widow did a run of some tulip poplar bows a few years ago. My buddy had one, it looked like vomit.

I think the only way to get this thing into pieces is going to be a chainsaw. I spent 2 evenings after work just getting one of the smaller logs split in half and atarted to quarter one piece. Someone above said chainsaw and it appears they are right. Tough and stringy seems like a huge understatement. ;~)

weak in tension and compression, nope

Pecan and hickory seldom have snaky grain so you don't loose any wood with a chainsaw cut to split.

I always make the first split on a big log with a chainsaw, hickory, osage, it doesn't matter. I can't see whaling away for hours doing something you can do in minutes with a sharp chainsaw.

Here a bunch of hickory staves that I got out of two big logs, I chainsaw split the logs and skill saw kirfed the splits to trim them down to stave form. I ended up with 17 trimmed staves.

The pictures are out of line.

For all practical purposes Pecan is Hickory. I work it exactly the same way when I can get it. It makes outstanding bows whether self, backed, or sawed in to laminations.

And I COMPLETELY agree with Eric.

When I get done with all this chainsawing, do I need to paint just the ends or should I seal the whole split? Leave the bark on or debark it? Thank you all for the help so far! All comments welcomed. Y'all are awesome.

Paint the just ends, debark and give the back a coat or two of shellac. Hopefully your bark will peel right off leaving the back of your future bows.

The staves in the picture a late cut, it took me two weeks to remove the bark from all of them with drawknife and scraper. No more late cut hickory for me.

Here are all those staves debarked and with the ends and backs sealed with shellac.

Pecan and hickory are in the same genus so they both have heavy, dense wood, although pecan tends to have more twisting grain than hickory. I would echo the comments about getting a good kerf along the length of the log and then split from there. Be sure to do it while it's still relatively green, or you'll really have your work cut out for you!

yep, pecan and the other hickories are all genus Carya. We used to cut "pecky" hickory logs into veneer and sell it to furniture makers who made "pecan" items from them ..."pecky was a term that mean the darker color, color and bark inclusions resembled those seen in typical pecan logs.

I'm still practicing on the smaller logs to see how this stuff works. It doesn't appear that wedges are going to get it done, anytime soon. I think I'm going to wade right in with a chainsaw and a ripping chain. Eric Krewson looks like he has the answer for getting this thing split...in this century. I'm still all ears though. It sure looks like there ain't any easy way to split this stuff. I never had this much trouble with Osage. I can't let a tree kick my keester. I'm kind of having fun wrestling with this thing. It ought to be interesting to see who wins. Good day y'all. ;~)

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