Trad Gang
Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: Bowjunkie on February 21, 2016, 03:26:00 PM
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Has anyone made selfbows with hickory heartwood?
Yesterday I split a short hickory log and ended up with several belly split billets that are all heartwood. Today I quickly got them to within a growth ring or three and sealed the backs with shellac. They have thin rings, about 1/16" thick.
Anybody have experience with them? All of the hickory selfbows I've made were all sapwood in the limbs.
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Sure would be pretty..
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Ye ol' triple split.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/Jeff_Durnell/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-02-21%2019.28.57_zpsgb7tyhwl.jpg)
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/Jeff_Durnell/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-02-21%2019.30.27_zpsjqb8ufjz.jpg)
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/Jeff_Durnell/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-02-21%2019.30.42_zpshptzm3ft.jpg)
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Neat...
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Hickory heartwood is more brittle than the sapwood but I've never built a selfbow with hickory heartwood. I assume with a clean back and good tiller there shouldn't be a problem.
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The heartwood sure has a nice color, but I have never tried using it, would make a beautiful bow though
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That's what I've heard as well, Pat. I'll give it a try. If it breaks, I'll switch gears.
Now I'm wishing I would have tried to leave a couple sapwood rings on there. That would have looked nice, a couple sapwood rings and the rest heartwood. It would have looked a little like a yew stave. Especially with these thin rings. Oh well. Too late now.
If the heartwood doesn't work out for selfbows, I could always flatten them and back them with hickory or hard maple.
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Hickory or maple would be good backing options.
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I have, Jeff. It was from a board. To the best of my knowledge it still together. My kid shot it for a year or so, then gave it to a friend. It was very light in physical weight.
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Good. That's encouraging.
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I have made some from boards and could not see any difference from sapwood hickory. I have also made selfbows that were about half sapwood and half heartwood with the borderline going diagonally through the stave. These Hickory boards were imported here 1960-1970 and were used in ski production. I'm posting a link to a trilam with a thin tapered Hickory heartwood backing.
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=013196
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That is a one dang fine bow Buemaker! Outstanding! :clapper:
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Nice one Bue. That hickory heartwood seems to be handling the tension. How many arrows through it so far?
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Couple of hundreds I guess, winter now so not much shooting outdoors and during tillering on the tree at least that amount ( I never keep count) I do not know which species of Hickory was imported all those years ago,but it is some heavy hard stuff.
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Very good. Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.
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I've backed with hickory heartwood with no problems as well.
I weight sample of heartwood and sapwood hickory from the same board and the heartwood was like ..85SG the sapwood was much lighter like .70SG.
II've neve made a heartwood selfbow, but I wouldn't hesitate either. I bet you can go a bit more narrow than a sapwood bow.
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That would be a bonus since I prefer narrower bows.