Have some Black Locust logs and will be splitting them. Wondering if any of you have had experience working with Black Locust and could give me some pointers so I don't have to recreated the wheel. Thanks, Clay

Its good bow wood if its healthy. Build it to the same dims you would osage, if anything, a fuzz wider and/or longer.

Think osage that has a penchant to chrysll/fret on the belly. Most is less dense than osage so over building a tad, and precise tillering can make an outstanding bow. A great wood to teach the bowyer to get good at tillering. My first successful bow was black locust that came from a grove my grandfather used for fence posts in wisconsin on the family farm. That bow gave up the ghost at a shoot on a hot summer day in coastal NC. Two built up in riser/steep buchanen dips. The frets on the belly of the lower limb just continued to get worse until it died. For BL a much more gentle riser transition, even allowing for flexing through the riser will mitigate the fret risks. If you have BL, make bows. If you are chasing the ultimate in a hunting selfbow I recommend to knock on doors in osage country, Ohio prefered for an some unexplainable reason.... Or call Osage Outlaw

I concur.

I agree with the experts!

It'll work well, well-dried, at 68" length for a 27" draw if bending thru the handle a bit. 72" (minimum!) for a stiffer handle (and like he said above, with very gentle fades).

That's for 50# or so while keeping it no wider than an inch and a half for half the limb. Tips should be less than 1/2" wide.

Don't be tempted to induce much reflex or otherwise increase stress, unless you're looking to do a time-consuming experiment with likely disappointing results.

I agree, but make the limbs much wider. Where Osage works at 1-3/8" wide,my BL bows did best at 2-1/2" for pyramid design. When I lived in Maine, BL was the best wood available.

I'm hunting with a BL bow that I made last fall. It's sinew/snake backed 58" 47#@27". I made the limbs about 1 1/2" wide to mid limb and then tapered them to 3/8" tips. It's a great hunting bow and I managed to put 3 deer in the freezer with it. Everyone is right about the tiller and frets though...go slow and don't pull it any more than needed until it's bending properly.

How long does it need to dry. I sealed the ends and backs with glur, to keep from checking. Just don't know how long it takes dry. I live in Montana. Some say 2 years wow!!

Trap the back a little, and tiller to the very best of your ability.Chase the back down to a good thick ring if the wood will let you.Use a gizmo to help with your tiller. Light belly heat treat also helps.Works good with sinew also. I had trouble with one log that was really thin growth rings, but when I found a good thick ringed log made some nice bows from it. 2 self bows, and 2 sinew backed bows.

its a good bow wood,, great advice from above,, enjoy the process,,,

Make sure you take the sap wood off and get down to the heart wood

Great bow wood worked properly, follow above. Makes a light, fast, quiet bow.

Like they said. Overbuild an osage design by about 15%. I made about a dozen of them. Osage is prettier and denser. Locust could be quicker. Tedd

It's a mighty fine bow wood. I cut my bow making teeth on it. If you have enough heartwood chase to a heartwood ring. If not go as close as you can to the heartwood. 1 5/8" should do it. As for the length, I like 64" for my 26" draw. It does loose moisture quickly. Seal the ends and don't leave the back unsealed on wet wood. You can try chasing the ring and getting it to bend a bit and it will dry faster but do seal the back in between. I like spar urethane but it takes awhile to dry. You don't have to stain it; the heartwood is pretty. Jawge

Interesting, I had no idea it could be used to make a bow. I have a metric schitt ton of it on my property.

Thanks for the advice, I sealed the backs with glue. What do you think about that?

I need to try it it’s very common near me. I’ve just heard so many horror stories about it chrysaling that I never tried it. I think Dean Torges said in his book something like Locust can make a great bow but it can break your heart by chrysalling out of the blue if tiller isn’t PERFECT

Have had great luck with it !!

I have a lot on the back of our farm. How long do you let it cure? And can you make a bow from a limb with 2 1/2 inch of heart wood without splitting? May try again, thanks

I never made a limb bow, Greyfox.

But my first bow was made from a sapling bow that was 2.5 inches wide. I didn't know that the sapwood had to be removed on BL and it worked fine even though the tiller was horrendous.

But...the best scenario is remove the sapwood it you have enough heartwood.

As for dying so much depends on where you love. You can remove the bark of the sapling, sand it and seal it. I like poly. Then begin to floor tiller bending the limbs a few inches.

Here is info. on sapling bows.

http://traditionalarchery101.com/saplingbow.html

Jawge

Thanks Jawge, I appreciate the information. Have a good Thanksgiving. Kenny

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