Ozbow

If you are interested in old archery books the following link has many hours of enlightening reading;

http://www.archerylibrary.com/books/

Happy reading,

Daryl.

This is great, thanks Daryl.

Matt

Thanks Darryl, which one are you reading. Cheers Roadie.

Roadie wrote:Thanks Darryl, which one are you reading. Cheers Roadie.

At the moment I am perusing different chapters in the various books depending on what projects are at hand.

As you would be aware I have been extoling the virtues of Degame [lemonwood] for selfbows and have made comment about the draw weight of the bows falling short of expectations for the limb cross section.

I was checking out the chapter on 'Bow Woods and Bow Staves' in the book by By L. E. Stemmler, 1942 this morning and came across the following

LEMONWOOD (Calycophyllum candidissimum), the degame of the wood importers, is a native of Cuba. It is hard, heavy, tough and springy. It comes in small logs or spars and is straight enough to be sawn into bow staves. It is the most satisfactory and reasonably priced wood of which to make a bow. It grows in the mountains, and most of it is carted by oxen to a port for shipment by steamer. The bark is a reddish brown, rather stringy and somewhat resembles red cedar bark. It has nothing to do with lemons; the name refers to its colour. It varies from a light yellow to a light brown and is often mottled. We have found that the spars yielding the very best bow staves have a distinct apple green streak just under the bark. Lemonwood is a true bow wood, and for an all-around bow, as good as any that comes. The fact that the highest score ever made in tournament for the American Round was made with a lemonwood bow speaks well for its qualities.

Perhaps through logging and milling the timber most suited to the bowyer is being wasted. Tree size; 40-80 ft (12-24 m) tall, 1-2 ft (.3-.6 m) trunk diameter.

Daryl.

Thanks for the link Daryl. There's some very interesting stuff there.