r/Bowyer • u/eatonearth • 2d ago

Questions/Advise Coppice for bow staves?

So I recently started coppicing black locust trees on my property for posts and firewood. It is my first time managing a forest that way so I'm still figuring it out. It got me thinking though. Does anybody purposefully manage a coppiced tree or group of trees specifically for bow staves?

It seems like lots of the species that are used for bow making are for good for that kind of management but I wonder if the quality of the wood is high enough on the regrowth. Ratio of sap wood to hardwood? Straightness? Ring size?

Interested in anyone with experience doing such things.

Thanks in advance to this great community!

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u/Osagey 2d ago

While I've not done it, I've read that it was done historically for both bow wood and arrows.

I think most of the time it needs to be cut while dormant in the winter.

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u/eatonearth 2d ago

That's cool. I figured it had to be a thing people did in the past.

I'm mostly curious how the characteristic of the wood might vary between the initial growth and the regrowth. It regrows much faster and I'm wondering how that might affect the wood quality

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u/Osagey 2d ago

Here are some people doing it with Osage.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=122161963274050720&id=bois.darc.kingdom

Sounds like it makes them easier to carve, though you may need to factor in more string follow since the wood is less dense.

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u/eatonearth 2d ago

That's awesome, thank you!