Working on a Hackberry Bow

[Tradslinger]

Haven't been on here for a while, too many health issues had me sidelined. Have had 5 eye operations in the last year and have still another one planned for the last of Dec. My first cornea transplant failed due to a freak accident at 8 months of a 12 month heal time. So I had a second one three months ago with of course complications. But it never seemed to be doing so good and my vision jut got worse in that eye. To the point that I can not see anything out of it now. The good news was and is that it is simply a cataract that had gone wild from the stress.  Anyways, I need new bifocals but the VA won't consider it right now until my other eye is healed. So I struggle to see, my depth perception is lousy up close and my balance is lousy. But, I am slowly working on a Hackberry stave that a very good friend had sent me.
holy cow is hackberry one tough wood! I have had to earn ever little bit of wood removed with my rasps. It is a white wood but I struggle to see anything up close right now and a pencil mark is just hard to see. So, been using the black magic marker to mark for limb thickness etc. I know it bleeds into the wood some but oh well, it is what it is. I have finally gotten both limbs to almost 1/2" thick and this is still way too thick. The bow length right now is 62" and it will be mostly a flat bow. I am shooting for about 42# and plan to fire harden later. It will be a D bow or a Bendy bow. Yes, I am being very careful and pretty darn slow. Bow building kind of gets into your blood and wood can really scream at you to work it. I am about to drop the handle thickness to 3/4" or so maybe this evening. Even now, I'd bet a Kung Fu Master could take it and use it just the way it is to take out 600 men, it is really tough wood. Anyways, it feels good to be working some wood again.Jerry

[rps3]

Good luck with your hackberry bow. It smells good while heat treating.

[Morgan]

Hackberry is probably my favorite wood to work with. Not because I think it is the best, but because it is very good, quite tough, and Literally everywhere in the area that I live. It can vary greatly in quality. Density, hardness, etc. A good piece will allow a narrow, good quality bow to be made  with 1 1/4”-1 3/8” wide limbs. The less dense stuff will still make a bow, just have to make it a little wider.. sounds like you have a good piece of wood. Good luck on it, and wishing you health in your recovery.

[Will B]

Hackberry will make a beautiful selfbow. I’ve made a couple selfbows and stained them to bring out the grain. Keep us posted on your progress. I hope you see improvement with your vision and you continue to build. All the best. Will

[Stixnstones]

I love me some hackberry, makes a lite, fast and powerful bow. Obviously just take it slow with your limited vision at the moment, which I hope clears up for ya quickly. Good luck

[Tradslinger]

Thanks for the info, I really think this piece will make my best bow so far. I had really considered buying an electric hand planer to help take the thickness down but stayed with the rasps. I just rasped until my hands said to quit and then left it for an hour or two. I am almost to floor tiller but not quite. It actually looks less than a flat bow now, more like a pyramid. I added more light to help a little bit on seeing the lines etc but it is all about just taking it slow and easy. The wood had looked a little bit like hickory when I first got it but quickly found out that it was not at all. I can see a lot of qualities that I like in this wood or at least this piece of it. I am glad that I have made several bows before this one, the experience of them has helped me a lot. For a lot of us, building a bow can be a thing of joy. we know the sheer work that we put into each one of them and the challenges. But we also know the joy of shooting something that we made from a tree. Very cool thing and just totally awesome.

[JW_Halverson]

To me, hackberry is "rubbery" in texture and seems to take great joy at kicking the tool off it's surface. Osage is hard, but it parts beautifully and crisply under a sharp blade. Hackberry just seems to resist even the sharpest blades.

That being said, I have had some excellent success with hack.

[PaSteve]

I too concur about hackberry being a very good bow wood. Light in hand and with a good heat treat (fire hardened) makes an excellent bow. Sorry about your eye issues. It sounds like you are doing the best you can dealing with it. Good luck on your build and especially on your health. You sound like your attitude is in the right place.

[Tradslinger]

yeah, it is a very tough wood. hard to chisel and to use the draw knife on. I sharpened both several times but it didn't seem to help much. So it has been a lot of rasping. If a person started out with wood like this, many other woods would seem very easy LOL. But I see the potential for a very good bow in this wood/stave.