A cured hornbeam stave...

[nowhereman]

Hello,

Hope everyone is good, checked out a lot of the work on here and the craftsmanship is something to behold..not too many postings as i've been working 2 halves of the same gnarled peice of hornbeam (Carpinus betulus),  one is 53" the other 56" long, from a branch stave roughly 2.25" average. Anyone else worked this wood at this size? would be interesting to compare notes... =)

Got the shorter stave almost finished, strung, now tillering - this one's basically a flat almost D tillered bow with thin almost non-bending tips, which I should imagine will be coming out about 20 - 30lb max due to initial dimentions being so limiting  however I think a backing would suit (I'm hoping to back with either rawhide or linen). The wood's a little uncompromising but feels very nice to work (especially with a rasp/scraper combo) - and the smell is great...

The other stave is an attempt to apply some holmegard design into things, but I dont have too much width left (1.5" top) and i want to leave the crown on as its going to be just sanded with inner bark left here and there. As a precaution I left enough room to correct and retiller for a D bow. Backing only if the other stave works.

Has anybody tillered a holmegaard without a stiff/raised handle? Is it possible to tiller a d bow with holmegaard tips but a parallel belly? The problems I see might be with leverage from the stiff outers altering the tiller and making it inefficient, or maybe leverage concentrated in the missing handle area might snap. This is basically what I did with the other stave, ishi style short flat bow but with thin narrow almost unbending tips.

Just a quickie r.e. posting pics - is it copy/paste photobucket job??

Thanks for reading

PS how do you put quotes and stuff in your profile so they show up in small, mysterious looking texts at the bottom of each posting? its good xD

v

[dbb]

I cant give any advice on hornbeam but im sure someone will chip in on that.
as for posting pics photobucket works fine.
The "mysterious" text is whatever you write in the "signature"field if you go Profile-Forum profile on top of site.

/Mikael

[blackhawk]

Here's a recent thread on american hornbeam. I've made a bow from it.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,26680.0.html

[MWirwicki]

I am currently putting finish on a Holmegaard design that is 48" long TtT.  It bends slightly in the handle near the very end of the draw.  Also, it is osage and I sinew backed it.  It draws 45# at 25".  I think that I could have gotten another inch out of her, if I'd flipped the tips back a bit more.  I am afraid that I may lose the string off the tips the way that it is.  The HG design characteristic that I most followed was the 2/3 - 1/3 mechanics being that the 2/3 does the bending, the last 1/3 remains stiff.

Actually, I am building a second "sister" version.  The 1st one was from a piece of wood that had a wood borer hole that I drilled and plugged with a ramin wood dowel.  I didn't think that it was going to survive, so i started a twin.  Here is a pic of the twin in process.  I'll flip the tips a bit more on this one.

[nowhereman]

HI,
Thanks dbb - i'll get some photos up pronto

Blackhawk - thanks for the thread link - thats a lovely fossilized looking stave;-)

MWirwicki - some very interesting points, So you've got a slight handle bend at draw's end...is your handle raised? Your dimensions look roughly similar to my stave, though my thin tips are about 5% longer on each limb (i got roughly 56" ntn)  but i'm at an impasse, whereby I have to decide to thin out the bending section more and keep belly flat as possible *or* round the corners of the belly and keep middle thickness making a high lenticular profile...at the moment i'm letting the stave tell me how to work it and its saying "go thinner...go thinner"....

Thanks for everyone's input...

Now to get shaving sticks

v