Palm any one?

[Cuban Missile]

So has any one used palm for a bow?  I need some advice on it.  I just came upon a freshly cut palm and have the whole thing sitting in my house. I am debating on using it for a belly or just cutting it up for a riser, but I have no idea.

[hova]

there was some discussion on here and paleo , about black palm mostly , a google search should find something...

[Cuban Missile]

Yeah I've been looking, articles seem few and far between.

[Silent Bear]

I was thinking about trying palm myself, not much  information out guess I will have to cut some down and try it out

[Furtaker]

I've used black palm in a riser before, came out beautiful.That stuff is verry hard though and eats sand paper for lunch.Also had to do alot of grain filling with CA before finish.Lots of work but well  worth it.

[Cuban Missile]

Hey Furtaker, do you happen to have any pictures of that bow laying around you could put up?  I am leaning more toward using it for a riser.

[8Charles]

I've used Black Palm for a grip on a board bow.  Beautiful stuff.  One thing I noticed when I cut it to put an Osage stripe through the handle.  The small piece of Black Palm about 1/8" thick that was left was very brittle and easy to snap in half.  I am not sure but I think Black Palm is more like bamboo as it is not a tree.  Other than that no problems.  When I faded the riser to the limb, the cross cut sort of looked like leopard skin.

Emmett

[John Scifres]

Do a Search for "palm" on this forum.  I topped one thread about it.

[Furtaker]

Here's a couple pics for ya Missile.
Hope they help.

[Cuban Missile]

Awesome! Im gonna start planking that tree tomorrow! Im not sure how long its been sitting out but i think it will be pk to chop up now. Im crossing my fingers!

Thanks for the pictures thats a beautiful bow. Its funny that you welded your 3d on to that angle iron cause i did the same with about a year ago.  So you used super glue as filler? How was that process cause it looks beautiful.  What did you finish with?  Thanks for the info.

[Furtaker]

It took about 3 maybe 4 coats of CA, sanding smooth between each coat to get the pores filled.
I use Helmsman spar urethane in the spray to finish with.
I have a piece of red palm to try this winter.They told me at the wood store that the red is a little softer than the black so I'll probably pair it up with a hard wood for strength.
If I get around to using it I'll post a pic or two.
Good luck.

[Bivyhunter]

I've used some black palm for veneers and it was so dark you had a hard time seeing the "grain".  It is really hard on bandsaw blades also, very high silica content. I have a bunch of red palm, if anyone is interested.