A feller I know has an industrial wood plane. He makes a good living sizing old lumber from all over the world and selling it. Went to see him about wood and ran into a retired carpenter friend who sometime helps in the local demolition. He gave me a ragged piece of hickory that he happened to have on the truck.Said it came from a barn corncrib that was old when he was a boy. Man is 75 years old.
Piece of wood was about 7 feet with broken split-offs on each end on opposite sides. About 1 3/4 " thick. Still had a couple wedge nails in it and it had been treated with something probably creosote a long time ago. Now we all know that hickory sucks moisture and therefore it rots fairly quick. Supposedly this piece was part of the frame inside a bin inside the crib inside the barn. I don't know but I took it home not expecting too much.
Got it cleaned up and laid out a 67" pyramid. When tillered it pulled 74#. It was fun but too much so I narrowed it down and shortened it too keep my pointy taper. Got it to 64#. After a couple hundred arrows I noticed the tips getting whippy. Narrowed it some more, shortened it' took wood off the belly. Made antler caps for the pin nocks and it snapped clean 4" from the top tip.
Had a little surgery and later had time to kill so I cut the bow down to 53" and narrowed it to 1 3/8".Was in final tillering when I noticed a splinter. Patched that and put on a burlap backing. It has 300-400 arrows through it now and pulls 51# at 25". And shoots very strong and smooth. The wood came from a barn, burlap from the field and the handle is an old welding glove. It was a screwed up build but I really like the results. Thanks for looking.
Lane
