u/eatonearth

Coppice for bow staves?

So I recently started coppicing black locust trees on my property for posts and firewood. It is my first time managing a forest that way so I'm still figuring it out. It got me thinking though. Does anybody purposefully manage a coppiced tree or group of trees specifically for bow staves?

It seems like lots of the species that are used for bow making are for good for that kind of management but I wonder if the quality of the wood is high enough on the regrowth. Ratio of sap wood to hardwood? Straightness? Ring size?

Interested in anyone with experience doing such things.

Thanks in advance to this great community!

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u/eatonearth — 1 day ago

▲ 13 r/Bonsai

Looking for styling advice

I manage a nursery for a living, so I spend a lot of my time dealing with landscape trees. Even though I love bonsai trees, I don't keep very many and don't spend very much time styling them.

I've had this hemlock on my driveway for ten or eleven years now. I dug it out from a hedge row and have been keeping it as a bonsai ever since. When I first got it home, I selected branches that I wanted to keep and have been regularly pruning it ever since mostly just to get an overall conical shape and try to bring the pads into the proportions I had in my head. I've repotted it three or four times and haven't had really any trouble with it.

Add I'm looking at it today, I feel like I've just been going through the motions with it. I love the tree but I'm at a loss for what the next steps with it might be. Grateful for any advice.

u/eatonearth — 1 month ago