Hackberry hinge bow start :)

[skyarrow]

I picked up a decent billet from a job and it seems to be curd enough to start my hinge bow iv been wanting to make i debarked it yesterday and ithad a few of those nasty little tunnel bugs ugh i was hoping to justdebark and use that as the back well now its time to chase a ring. Its mostly sap wood with a small bit of hear wood on one side onthe belly and there is a nice lumpy knott on one end. The hinge will be a small 4" barn style hing here are a few pics of what i have done so far and of my new little helper Koda a black german  pup i found on a job the customer had a stray mother who had her in the woods behind his house he was calling the dog catcher for both of them so he lured the mother from the pup and i snatched her up man that mama came unglued and really came at me talk about having  some fast feet running from a angry german sheppard mama wew

[turtle]

Cant wait to see how the hinge works out for you. Hope your pup doesnt claim your bow as its chew toy.

[skyarrow]

Thanx turtle i think she already has hehe. The one thing i havent decided is if i want the knott to be close to the handle or the tip its pretty tall so maybe closer to the handle will serve the best spot that means less weight at the tip so hopefully less mass at the tip = less handshock hopefully what do yall think ?

[blackhawk]

Good luck..n good looking pup...do you always like it when your dog licks your wood?...lol 

[skyarrow]

  haha she love the knott on the side every time i put it on the floor she would go and try to chew it off crazy pup she is definitly in the teething phase

[skyarrow]

Ok i have a question on a high backed bows should the belly be flat or mostly flat . This bow will have a higher back then im use to messing  with im hopeing to finish chasing the ring this evening and then start shaping each limb before i attatch  the hinge and start tillering it in iv never worked hackberry before and or worked around this many notts and having a high back toboot this will be a good learning bow on alot of things hehe.

[SLIMBOB]

Hackberry is pretty tension strong and compression weak.  A bit of a crowned back in general is good to even out the two.  The knots are another issue.  I haven't worked Hackberry with a lot of knots.

[skyarrow]

Cool thanx slimbob for the info . im more worried about the belly shape iv talked to a few guys on the phone and they tell me to round the belly  so it puts less stress on the back since the crown is some what high. I started on chasing the ring after church its about 1/16 thick il post a pic in a few to most of yall the crown prolly isnt that high but for me its a first on high crown, and some notts to work around all and all a good bow to cut my teeth on a little charicture style bow  hehe 

[osage outlaw]

Good luck with it Sterling.  Sorry I wasn't any help. 

[skyarrow]

No worries clint hopefully il learn something that can help you in the future when you decide to work on some hackberry

Ok here is the growth ring im working it down to i know the one bellow it is a little thicker but the one im taking it to is almost touching the other the early wood is so thin between the two and this one measures about 1 7/8 wide which i think is a good width. it is the first decent ring from the edge the others faded off to one side before this ring. After the ring is chased il cut the little check out

[SLIMBOB]

I wouldn't typically say with Hackberry to round the belly.  It's gonna take some set with a board flat belly.  Rounding will increase that.  If there are some bad knots your worried about, I would go wide and keep the belly flat.  I will say again, I haven't worked Hackberry with many knots other than small ones which were no problem, so I am simply thinking out loud here.  The belly taking set is an issue with HB.  I would like to see where the knots are and what they look like.

[skyarrow]

Il post a pic in a few where the notts are. one limb has three small to medium size nots one is located on a side with a bunch of pin notts and the other limb has the huge tall massive nott i havent made up my mind on which one will be upper or lower limbs.

[skyarrow]

Ok here are the notts the one on the first limb are small im really not worried about them much

They are where my toe is and maybe 6" further is the side nott

This seems to be pretty shallow the rest is on the other half of the billet

Here os the big one its located about the same length down as the others  on the first billet



Here is the side nott again with the two halves  togeather

And the other ones togeather

I know for most of yall veterens this is not a problem but fer me its my first notty bow i just want to make sure i inderstand everything so i can do my best to make it a shooter and if not il definity learn something

[SLIMBOB]

You got me...Your limited on the width.  Pretty gnarly lookin' billets.  Looks to be a challenge for sure.  I will be watching to see how this turns out.

[skyarrow]

Yep definitly a challenge i wanted to have a learning project andi think this is one hehe il keep the pics going as i progress iv seen worse wood make a bow so hopfully this will be a shooter also if not atleast my hinge will survive hehe