Hickory vs Osage bow building

Рет қаралды 6,705

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 45

@CampfireKodiak 8 ай бұрын

Very interesting and informative experiment! I've heard people call Osage the King of bow woods. Also it would be interesting to repeat that performance test after fire hardening.

@Benjamin.stevens 8 ай бұрын

Great idea

@m.l4596 8 ай бұрын

Great vid! I just got 3 osage bows, 2 flatbows and one English longbow with the D shape. They're lovely. When I rub linseed oil on osage bows, I found them to be much more oil-thirsty than my hickory longbows.

@Swoops355 8 ай бұрын

You know it’s a good day when Ben posts

@sweetchariotengland Ай бұрын

My goodness yew sapwood loves ro gum up a rasp. I reckon its because of how fibrous it is and therefore what makes it good bow wood. Lovely stuff dude

@IdahoEagle77 8 ай бұрын

This is awesome. Do you have any in-depth tutorials teaching how to make wooden bows?

@Benjamin.stevens 8 ай бұрын

I have a handful of bow making videos. I walk through each step. I will make a tutorial soon though.

@DavideScott-u8u 8 ай бұрын

Try fire hardening the hickory. There are a few videos about it

@JETHO321 3 ай бұрын

You're like the Bob Ross of bow making.

@johnprentice1527 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for this video. Really concise and informative. I was also glad to know that chasing a growth ring is not essential with hickory. I have three old hickory half-staves that are de-barked, and in the process of de-barking I may have compromised the outermost growth ring. But I may be seeing the cambium instead. Wish me luck.

@Benjamin.stevens 8 ай бұрын

Good luck! Hickory is very forgiving. It should work out great.

@johnprentice1527 8 ай бұрын

@@Benjamin.stevens Thanks.

@Daylon91 8 ай бұрын

Fire hardened hickory is a might faster and lighter than osage. Keith Shannon makes both along with Thad Bekum. I use maple to make short bows under 50" and selfbows perform very well with a short profile and narrow limbs. Cheers from Alberta

@Henry_The_Goat 6 ай бұрын

What’s the best wood you can find in Alberta I also live there and want to get into more wood working.

@Daylon91 6 ай бұрын

@Henry_The_Goat we have Oak, 🍁, Beech, Apple, Cherry, Lilac. Alot actually. The problem is not everyone wants u to take their nice trees. The most tress wild here as u know are birch and Pine both useless for bowmaking

@Henry_The_Goat 6 ай бұрын

@@Daylon91 I have a lot of Lilac and Choke Cherry, I will test that out.

@Daylon91 6 ай бұрын

@Henry_The_Goat lilac makes great bows but checks very badly during drying so. Quite recently I literally cut off a branch took off the bark sealed the ends and 12 hours later I had huge cracks in it...should have taken it down to form or left the bark on. Has to dry evenly is all. If u make staves out of it you'll be OK as long as u seal it up good. Maybe leave the bark on. Chocke cherry is also a great option. I have to get some staves of my own here soon

@Henry_The_Goat 6 ай бұрын

@@Daylon91 Okay thanks for the info.

@thenarrowpathoftruth9443 4 ай бұрын

Wonderful channel

@stevenkeil7869 5 ай бұрын

Great video!!!

@sprk11 8 ай бұрын

what about pacific yew? I know quite a few bow builders from Vancouver Island that use the yew. Also what is your opinion on yellow cedar . I have heard it also can be used for bows. Though I love it for arrows. Sitka spruce is another great arrow wood but I have heard it makes a nice bow. But I have never seen a bow of yellow cedar or spruce

@Benjamin.stevens 8 ай бұрын

I’d love to try yew, we went to look for some in BC but didn’t find a suitable log. Yellow cedar is very soft. I’ll experiment with Sitka spruce. That grows not far from here.

@sprk11 8 ай бұрын

@@Benjamin.stevens like I said, I love sitka and yellow cedar for arrows, only heard about them as bow wood.

@michaelabraham9177 8 ай бұрын

According to the Bowyer fletcher bible set Osage is a really strong for compression, supposedly the strongest in North America. Hickory is supposed to have the most tensile strength. Hickory also has one other attribute, it can get really dry and still function. Probably very good for desert conditions. I've never worked with Osage, but I've made a few bows from hickory. It's always taken a set, but they've been very indestructible which is great for a beginner like me.

@eojsnrak 6 ай бұрын

What about yew? I've always been under the impression that is what native Americans primarily used and it was better than hickory.

@bryonguenther6199 8 ай бұрын

I have heard that vine maple is really good. If it’s available to you, you should give it a try. Let us know what you think.

@Benjamin.stevens 8 ай бұрын

I’d love to! Eventually I’ll try it all.

@erikhoff5010 8 ай бұрын

I've made bows with both, I prefer Osage Orange.

@keepyourhead340 6 ай бұрын

Hickory bows also perform worse in wet environments, I live in the dry rocky mountains so hickory performs the best for me. Besides, Osage costs an arm and a leg around me.

@daig1984 8 ай бұрын

Hi there isn’t yew wood good?

@Benjamin.stevens 8 ай бұрын

Yes but it has a tendency to explode if it’s exposed to subzero temperatures. Which makes it useless in the north. I’d like to try it anyway.

@LETME-kl9jg 4 ай бұрын

Make a bow out Douglas fir and mountain juniper.

@stephenballard3759 8 ай бұрын

I think it's totally inadequate to try to just compare two woods. How can you leave out elm? Yew? Hard maple? Black locust? Etc? Hickory is great but it's not better than any other white woods. It's tougher than most.. And I have found Osage to be one of the easiest woods to be successful with. Osage WANTS to be a bow. Overall design beats wood, as far as performance.

@Benjamin.stevens 8 ай бұрын

I’d love to try it all. And I agree design is everything.

@stephenballard3759 8 ай бұрын

@@Benjamin.stevens By the looks of it you will. Take it from a guy who's two hundred bows in but started with you know eleven.

@LETME-kl9jg 4 ай бұрын

You can't really use the same design/dimensions and tell which wood is better. Different woods have different attributes usually thinner and wider than Osage makes them equal.

@glawenclattuc3127 8 ай бұрын

The best wood is Yew, but i don’t know if it’s available outside of Europe. In England we planted it in every churchyard all the way since medieval times because there would always be wood available for bows. It’s also why all the hedges are hazel, for arrow shafts. Osage is apparently the second best wood, and the best commonly available in North America. I remember finding a study someone did comparing the flex and strength of sapwood’s and the compressive power of heartwood for a lot of different woods. You can get some good results by laminating different woods, although laminated bamboo is insane and you get similar performance to fibreglass.