Working American Hornbeam

[Phillip King]

Hello Folks, I recently Cut this Dying American Hornbeam Tree, Wondering what route You Peaps would go about tillering this Stave.
I was thinking Hollowing the Belly but then I hear that I could Crown the Back then Back it.
Lots of Hills and valleys in this Stave.
 Here is a video of the Stave May be easier to see.
 https://youtube.com/shorts/SWIzyeRmWfo

[Aksel]

Hello. Interesting stave. I would not hollow out the belly as is. As I understand HLD you want uniform thickness in cross section with rounded back and side ( like a small diameter sapling naturally would have) and those bumps would make that very difficult unless your an expert bow maker. Another option is to cut down the sides through the growth rings on sides and back to make the cross section of the stave resemble a sapling with a high stacked back. I have done this with yew, and scooped out the belly side. works great.

This would get rid of those valleys and ridges to a large degree.  But that would be a shame since they would look nice on your bow.. . Why not make a flat bow or long bow? I think Hornbeam is hard as nails but i have no personal experience with it so many designs may be possible. Only risk is when you say you cut it from a dying tree. Could be mold in it. I did it once from a dead or dying ash tree. Everything looked fine until full draw when the bow literally exploded in a cloud of dust and hundreds of shrapnels. Good luck!

[bassman211]

That is indeed referred to as American Hornbeam, muscle wood, iron wood, and so as not to confuse it with Hop Horn beam I just call it blue beech. You can de crown it, and sinew back it. I have built quite a few bows from it over the years. You can leave the back as it is in your pics, and get a bow out of it, but I never had luck with it done that way. I have also de crowned it , and backed it with linen. I have also filled the low spots on the back with sinew, and  then sinew backed the whole back with a thin layer of sinew which worked really well. I found it to be  flexible enough to make horse bows from it.  Takes heat well, and you can recurve with dry heat. My best to date bow made from blue beech is a 60 inch sinew backed recurve. 40 lbs at 25 inch draw. Smooth drawing , and snappy. It is not a real popular wood for bow making ,but it can make a good bow. I made most of mine out of saplings. An ax works better than a draw knife to remove heavy wood, and then use different rasps , and sand paper.

[bassman211]

As Axsel said if it was a dying tree it may be problematic as a bow wood. Good luck.

[Jim Davis]

I've only used hop hornbeam, but it worked well. Mine was lumpy all over the back and I left it that way. I was intended to be low weight bow for a small person. She loves it and it performs well.

[superdav95]

I agree with what has been said here too.  Blue beech is hard.  Very hard wood.  I’ve got a sapling hld blue beech I’ve started and it’s a lot more work then I expected for sure for his design.  Based on how hard this wood is I would be careful putting too much effort into a dead standing blue beech for a bow.  Just my 2cents.  Best of luck. 

[Phillip King]

Thanks all, Appreciate the input. This is Definitely a tricky wood to remove wood, the Hatchet, Adze, and Shinto Rasp have Helped a lot.
It does make good Low weight Bows, I'm pretty much sure that I cut the Spallted Ends off .The Highest Ridges are 1/2"
 the Latest one I made was 30# @ 18" 37" NTN.
I will post when I get Finished, Gotta let the Wood Dry a few.
Happy Holidays
update- it was a mess to work with, fail on this one, used the wood for smaller projects.