cherry selfbow

bowmaker07 · November 18, 2009, 07:37:00 AM

I have some cherry staves I'm about to tear into & I have some questions about backings. Knowing cherry is weak in tension, is brown paper bag (Pat B mentions often)enough to hold it together or should I use a thin maple backing?

bubby · November 18, 2009, 01:22:00 PM

i had two hickory backed cherry bows blowup on me, be very careful with tillering. these were bows from boards. personally with cherry i feel tillering has to be spot on

bowmaker07 · November 18, 2009, 05:39:00 PM

Thanks for the reply Bubby. Maybe the hickory was too much. I believe cherry can get by with a lighter backing. Touchy but makes a fast shooter

Swamp Bow · November 18, 2009, 09:50:00 PM

Just got through doing a cherry bow a couple of weeks ago. I used silk as a backing. Tough stuff, it is working for my new Ipe bow as well. Just make sure you really stretch it length wise when you apply it or you might get wrinkles. I like to wet the fabric and then squeeze out the extra water, then I keep it balled up in my hand and apply TB III to it and work it into the fabric to "prime" the silk before applying. Then I used a metal rod to burnish it down and squeeze out extra glue. The nice thing about silk is it is translucent enough that you can see any voids as you apply. Having said all that, maple should work just fine on cherry.

Swamp

Pat B · November 18, 2009, 11:49:00 PM

Maple would probably make a good backing for the cherry plus it can add some performance. Take it real slow with cherry and don't overstress it along the way.

bowmaker07 · November 19, 2009, 05:24:00 AM

Thanks for the responses. I have to finish a hick selfbow then I'll jump into the cherry. Maybe a build along is in the works.

Mike Mecredy · November 21, 2009, 09:36:00 AM

I'd use rawhide. I have some mule deer rawhide I made if you want to try some.

Dean Marlow · November 21, 2009, 10:17:00 AM

Glad to see this post on Cherry selfbow. Got a couple of staves of Cherry I am working on myself. My staves had about an inch of white wood on them so I am going to take most of it off to get to the darker heartwood. Not necessary to do but want more of the darker wood in the bow. I will try the rawhide on the back of it. Dean

shamus · November 22, 2009, 09:44:00 AM

I'd use rawhide on cherry.

Roy Steele · December 01, 2009, 09:37:00 PM

Raw hide works well.But if you have good staves why back.

bowmaker07 · December 02, 2009, 09:56:00 PM

I will soon have some pics of my first cherry bow.Thanks for all the responses.I did back it with maple and think it looks like a board bow, not a bow from a stave. The rest I will back with rawhide(thanks for the offer Mike,I will try to get in touch). I started with the smallest split so I wouldn't ruin good wood and ended up with a youth bow 60" long and 30# at 25".Cherry is a joy to work after rasping on hickory!Will be putting on finish this weekend and pics soon to follow.I'm eager to do another but I also have some cedar and doug fir shafts waiting to be put together;and some deer to kill.Not enough hours in a day!