DIY Bow Project X & Digging in Woods

Last time, I searched some lyly, hard reaction wood for making compression resistant belly for my bow. I found that the branches of spruce are really tough and the reaction wood is hard like a rock. The lyly, found in the branches of spruce, was also more continuous than it was in the branches of pine, but the total volume was too small for making a bow. Furthermore, in the branches of spruce there is plenty of little branches, which is a problem. During this weekend, I made a bending test with a piece of sawed spruce branch, which showed how the harder little branches made the surrounding wood of the main branch to fail during the bending, because the stress was spread unevenly. As a conclusion, the reaction wood of spruce seems to be really hard, but spruces are too branchy. On the other hand, the lyly found in the branches of pine is too heterogeneous, making it also unsuitable. That is why my old family friend and I went to the forest and took an inclined pine which was, luckily, full of good, continuous lyly! And it was joy to saw with my new band saw, bought to me by my friend as a graduation gift after I finished my biochemistry studies 🙂 Now I’m waiting that this plank of pine will dry and I can get my hands on it. During drying, I think I need to practice with some other piece of hard wood, so that I won’t break this piece of beauty so easily!

This is my (old) new band saw. Many thanks belong to my old forester fellow!

We also bought a new blade for the band saw. The best guide I found for adjusting the tightness of the blade was to make it sound like E string of a bass. Thus, I used the tuner in my phone and made the saw to sing for us. 😀

I wandered around the forests and found this one. Maybe, but I decided to continue and try to find even more inclined tree.

Darn, it is so hot in here, let’s go to swim!

Yes, plenty of cool water in the middle of a forest. 🙂

Then, I found this, a couple of fallen spruces. I saw the rocks and my imagination stared to fly instantly. At some point during the history, these rocks possibly lied in a shore of an ancient ocean or a big icy lake. Did someone wandered here like I do now, but along the shores of an ancient coast?

The trees were relatively young, maybe only 60-100 years old?

I noticed that there was darker and lighter soil in the ground. Look at that little circle of rocks, I cannot resist to see a small place for fire in there. 😀

I also found charcoal attached into the roots of the trees. The old guy told me that around this place there has been a lot of forest fires, which is the most likeliest origin for these charcoals.

The difference between the soil from different spots.

After a little digging, I found charcoal under 0.5 m in the ground. I need to find out, how deep a charcoal can go after a forest fire, or could there be something more interesting buried in the ground. I think I ask and send an email to Finnish National Board of Antiquities, let’s hope that they don’t keep me an insane. 😀

Look at that spruce, this looks promising!

Wow, almost half of the wood is lyly! It was extremely hard and continuous, but, still, full of branches. 😛

Like said, in the small spruces the volume of lyly is also small. If one leaves the normal wood after sawing, the piece of wood will brake during bending, because the lyly is so much stronger, pushing the normal wood to its limits.