I posted this on a different site just wanted to see what comments you guys have on Russian Olive.
I was shooting this R.Olive bow 64 1/2"ntn the other day. I was aiming for 40lbs at 28 . When I finished sanding out all my tool marks and the amount of set it took (5") it came in at 36lbs.  Was super fun shooting but I couldn't stand all that set. So I put the heat gun to it and this is what I ended up with this morning. Really cool color, the back is a real light yellow/green and the belly wood is a rich tobacco with a tinge of yellow, stripped with dark brown early growth rings. My friend said he had cut this about a year ago may be a bit more.

Question , Now that I have taken the set out can I aim for a higher weight say 45lbs or a bit more? and would it help to heat treat the belly? and maybe flip the tips. Might be good sinew back??

I also made out of the same Olive stave a 52"ntn flat slat bow. I don't know what you call this type of bow , its 30# at 28" bend in the handle flipped the the tips slightly The Russian Olive seems to take the heat good was so easy to work some stiff  flat spots where the knots are but now I can work on them a little more.  I diffidently will be making more Olive bows if this one holds up the trees around here grow like weeds.

Thanks for looking, Chuck

 

 

That is some perty wood.

it is a lovely bow.

Nice looking wood.

that is lovely wood. Where did you buy it from?

UnderControl16 Thanks for looking, I got it from a friend cut approx one ago 4 1/2" round sapling, tree, stave or ever you want to call it.

Take care, Chuck

Definitely a pretty piece of wood, Chuck.  Can't say about the wt. increase. I'm too much of a novice.

I made one from russian olive one but made it too narrow and too thick and it exploded 6 ways from Sunday.

I've gained as much as 10# by heat-treating and adding in a couple of inches of reflex on hickory bows, cant speak for russian olive as I've never worked with it.

UpDate,

 Added the heat to the handle and fades that was suggested and ended up with 2" top limb and  2 1/2" reflex on the bottom.  Only heated did not blacken the belly should I? or is it good now? The back looks good no checks. How long should I wait till I re-tiller?





Thanks for Looking, Chuck

I usually try to wait at least 3-4 days. Store the bow somewhere where the humidity is around 50% and wait 3-4 days and it should be ok. Longer would be better but it depends on how much patience you have. I heat my bows till the belly is a dark brown color but not quite black.

So here it is after a lot of heat tweek'en,

Heated up the fades and flipped the tips slightly. Remember this bow was only shooting 36# @ 28" and took 5" of set. So I retillered. I was shooting and hoping for a target weight of 45# at 28"..  Tillered high to 48# thinking after finale sanding and if it took any set it would come in at 45# will so far its holding at 50# at 28".
Added lots of pix at full draw or very close to it, seems to shoot dead on at 17.5 18 paces. It has a little twist upper tip,and has a little string vibration think cause of the recurved tips, its better at a higher brace, pix show bow at 5 1/4" brace  but string still stretching.








Thanks for looking, Crg

well that turned out very nice now didn't it.

Great looking bow, I've been looking for a piece of russian olive to try, but cannot find a piece straight enough to work with so far.  Did the knots give you any problems?....Dan

Hi Dan thanks for looking,
The knots were a little tricky but not to bad. the stave was petty clean top limb has one knot out towards the tip and the lower limb had a few more  and not to close together so I made it the bottom and a litter stiffer.

Take Care, Chuck

Chuck,
Thanks for posting for us.

is this olive tree mate?
i did not know if olive tree makes a good bow. here, where i live, millions of olive trees. hurraay      

edit:

i just checked the values of it and
---------------MOE---MOR---              
120|Olive Tree|2.53|25.3
very good values actually.

inksoup if they were some lager ones here just south of you I would have found out. In one of the post here on woods olive and some good number, and it is a fruit tree and most fruit trees make good bows. There is only one way to really find out so we all will know. That is if you get some shavings going.
Good luck,
kelly

...very nice !