has anybody made a selfbow out of juniper?can one be made from juniper?john
There are several varieties of juniper - ERC or Eastern Red Cedar also called aromatic red cedar is common and out west there are several others including pinion. Cedar is lively but brittle. It can make a low poundage longbow or can be backed with sinew, hickory or other backing to make a hunting weight bow. Ishi preferred juniper with sinew backing.
do a search on here, I know some have been posted on here.
Keenan builds some great bows out of Juniper. I am working one now that I just about got tillered out while my glue up was drying on my swap bow. I shot it about 10 time today.
I'm gonna heat treat the belly and back with sinew or rawhide and put some skins or cherry bark on her. Right now she's about 10# heavy but needs alot of sanding and shooting so I will leave her that way for a while.
Never know it may end up being my swap bow.
Stiks