# Anyone use sweetgum for bows??



## billyberger (Nov 28, 2012)

Just wanted to know if anyone out there has ever made a bow out of sweetgum.  I once tried to split a piece at my friend's house and I hit that log with every ounce of strength I could muster and the axe only sunk in an inch and a half, even after repeated attempts.  Seems to me that stuff would make a mighty tough bow, but I've never tried it.  Anyone with experience know if it's worth trying?


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## Kawaliga (Nov 28, 2012)

If the log is a reasonable size, you could use a bandsaw, and cut it into staves. I did this once with an Elm log, which has a grain as twisted as Sweet Gum. If you made it wide enough, it might be OK. One thing for sure, there is a lot of Sweetgum in SW Georgia.


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## BradMyers (Nov 28, 2012)

billyberger said:


> Just wanted to know if anyone out there has ever made a bow out of sweetgum.  I once tried to split a piece at my friend's house and I hit that log with every ounce of strength I could muster and the axe only sunk in an inch and a half, even after repeated attempts.  Seems to me that stuff would make a mighty tough bow, but I've never tried it.  Anyone with experience know if it's worth trying?


That stuff won't split even with a powered splitter, but it will tear.


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## dawg2 (Nov 28, 2012)

BradMyers said:


> That stuff won't split even with a powered splitter, but it will tear.


Yep, but it works GREAT to start your fire with all those frayed ends.  

I have never tried to make a bow but I bet it wouldn't break!


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## Oconostota (Nov 28, 2012)

I cut some into lumber once, with a bandsaw.  Once, dried, it does behave differently than when green.  That stuff is fairly useless for much of anything.

I can see how you might think it would make good bow wood, from how it behaves when you try to split it.  But I don't think it would do that good for the task.

However, I've often wondered how dogwood would work.  I made a hiking stick out of some once, and it is unbelievably tough.  Seems almost unbreakable to me.  Very stiff too, but not brittle.  I think it might do fairly well for a bow - probably much better than sweetgum.


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## chehawknapper (Nov 28, 2012)

Sweetgum is weak in tension and compression. You can make a servicable bow out of any wood as long as you design it based on the tension and compression strengths/weakness. Sweetgum will need to be wide and long - but why? There are tons of great bow woods available in the southeast without resorting to kindlin. Hickory, ash, elm, black locust, mulberry, sassafrass, white oak, hophornbeam, cedar, maple and these are just some of them.


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## John Webb (Dec 1, 2012)

I tried it once. It warped pretty bad in the drying process


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## billyberger (Dec 1, 2012)

Thanks guys.  Ya know what....I think I'm gonna try to make a bow from it.  Yeah I know we have hickory and ash and all this other stuff and they make great bows, but I still want to try sweetgum.  It just has my curiosity and I want to see if I can make one that'll work!


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## Munkywrench (Dec 9, 2012)

Me and my brother in law were talking about this yesterday, he has a few boards of sweet gum he picked up from the mill. They are rough cut and still green. It's actually a nice looking wood and he was asking if it could be used for a bow


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## NCHillbilly (Dec 10, 2012)

Billy, there was a guy on the old Primitive Archer forum who made several sweetgum bows, everything from flatbows to static recurves. He said it worked well and didn't soak up moisture like hickory does. I've seen a couple other ones at shoots over the years. 





Oconostota said:


> I cut some into lumber once, with a bandsaw.  Once, dried, it does behave differently than when green.  That stuff is fairly useless for much of anything.
> 
> I can see how you might think it would make good bow wood, from how it behaves when you try to split it.  But I don't think it would do that good for the task.
> 
> However, I've often wondered how dogwood would work.  I made a hiking stick out of some once, and it is unbelievably tough.  Seems almost unbreakable to me.  Very stiff too, but not brittle.  I think it might do fairly well for a bow - probably much better than sweetgum.



Dogwood is good bow wood, I've made a bow or two from it. I'd rate it at least as good or maybe better than hickory. The main problem is finding a stave long and straight enough. And it is bad to check while it's drying. Really dense, tough, elastic wood. Dogwood is also a really impact-resistant wood. It's what people around here used to make wooden gluts (splitting wedges) from. Dogwood and persimmon are the only local woods I've found that will stand up to use as a billet for flintknapping tough rock like rhyolite and quartzite. Bot have been used for golf club heads in the past.


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## elmer_fudd (Dec 13, 2012)

I used to be a tree surgeon, and sweetgum was the most unpredictable wood I ever worked with.  It would break unexpectedly.. but this may have been mostly at certain times of the year.  Dont know if it would work as a bow.. just sayin.


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## Ancient Obsession (Mar 27, 2013)

Are you shooting that sweet gum bow yet?


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