The wood that must not be named... (Plum. It's plum. I made a plum flatbow.)

Plum is often considered a first rate bow wood. It has but two small problems. One, it's hard to find, and even if you do find it it's usually in someones backyard and, as a general rule, people don't look kindly on you cutting down their fruit trees. It's also rare to find long enough and straight enough pieces, though the grain is usually straight, oddly enough.

And, two, it's frigging impossible to season/dry without it checking and cracking all over the place. At least, I haven't been able to crack (pun intended) how to do it just yet. Ash, elm, maple, hazel – you can cut fairly thick pieces of those and chuck them indoors in room temperature when they're green. They will almost never crack. With plum, you can't do that. You can't even look at it, and you must never speak its name. The only way I've found that works, at least kind of, is to shape the bow roughly while the wood is green (making it as thin/narrow as possible, that is), keeping the bark on, painting the whole bow with wood glue, and keep it under a plastic tarp outdoors. And, yeah, this requires that you cut the wood in late fall/early winter, when the wood is at its driest to begin with, and you get help by the cool winter weather to slow the drying down the first few months. It takes at least a year to make a bow from plum.

But the reward makes it worth it. It is an absolutely stunning wood, with stark dark brown and red colors in the heart wood, even a spot of pink pops up here and there. Some pieces – I would say most – have a rather thin layer of sap wood so you end up with a bow where the back is cafe latte in color and the belly has the beautiful red-ish hues.

It's all fine that it looks good, but what's its actual properties in a bow? Well, my experience with it mainly comes from cursing over cracked staves, but if this bow is any indication, plum is absolutely top notch, probably the best I've ever tried. This bow took almost no string follow whatsoever despite it being drawn a little further than what my comfort zone dictates. Its low mass, narrow tips, slightly dynamic recurve makes it shoot wonderfully. Only problem was a rotten spot of the lower limb that started to crack a little. I wrapped it with sinew and then put on a few other wrappings for the looks of it. It's got a long drying crack that runs through the handle, but that's fine, it's filled with glue and won't bother anyone. As far as I can tell, this is a very good and durable bow.

So I guess I'll have to cut me some more plum soon. Damn it.

42 punds/27 inches, 63 inches nock to nock. Moose antler overlays.

Hope you like it!