Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: GregB on December 17, 2007, 10:03:47 pm
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Just finished this bow last week, the first I've made since last spring. This is the third hornbeam bow I've made, the first two were made as gifts. There is a spot between one of the grains just below the fade of the lower limb that I had hoped would go away by the time I finished tillering. But it didn't completely. I think it will be fine...hard to find a perfect piece of hornbeam.
The bow is 61" ntn, and 52#@27". It shoots really hard for it's draw weight, already been to the stand hunting with me a couple of times. I plan to close the season using it. Hope yall like it! ;)
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Used up to much memory I guess, had to make a second post for the full draw pics. :)
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thats awesome. that hornbeam is good stuff i would like to try it soon
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That came out real nice Greg. ;D Thats american hornbeam not hophornbeam correct?
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Looks pretty good to me. ;)
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Looks real good to me,Greg.I'm finishing up an elm backed HHB.Man that wood is hard to get tool marks out.
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Nice bow, Greg. I just started working on the HHB stave you and Pappy gave me. ;) Pat
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Awesome bow. Congratulations. Jawge
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Thanks! Ryan, from pictures I've seen of the bark, I think it's hornbeam not HHB. :)
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Nice bow Greg I think I have seen that before. ;)Well done and good save.
Pappy
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Greg I merged your two posts, hope ya don't mind. I'm glad I didn't mess it up as it was my first time :)
Awesome bow Greg has a really nice braced profile and the tiller looks well done. At 61" I'm curious as to how
wide the limbs are??
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Really nice looking bow Greg.
Alan
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Very nice bow Greg
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Good looking bow, Greg. I like seeing bows made from lesser-known woods, and looks like you did a fine job with a challenging stave. Most of the hornbeams around here look like giant pretzels with leaves :)
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Thanks all for the nice comments!
Greg I merged your two posts, hope ya don't mind. I'm glad I didn't mess it up as it was my first time
Don't mind at all Dana..thank you! Would have done that myself if I'd known how... ;)
Dana, the limbs are 1-1/2" wide to just past midlimb, then tapering to 5/16" tips. The bow has natural crown on the back at places, and fairly flat at other spots.
Thanks Pappy, yes you've seen it before and have even loosed a few arrows from it as I recall. I'm off today for vacation and am working on the other hornbeam stave you gave me...been taking my time on the tillering and it is extremely even at this point...53#@21". :)
Hillbilly, the three hornbeam bows I've made have all turned out as good shooters...not so much from any skill on my part rather then it really is a good bow wood. I personally think it is a close runner-up to osage. I haven't made an elm bow yet, heard they are good as well.
I stained this bow with red mohogany and steel wooled after drying to get the grains to show up well. It has in this order...mohogany stain, 2 coats of tung oil, 2 coats of truoil, and 2 coats of polyurethane clear satin and lightly steel wooled between coats. The polyurethane clear satin was Pat's suggestion to get rid of the gloss left by truoil in order to hunt with the bow. Worked great Pat, I like the results! ;)
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I agree with Greg about the finish it really looks good.I will try that next time. That hornbean shoots as good as it looks. I like the 1-1/2" limb width. Another classy bow.
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Fine lookin bow Greg. I gotta bad case of withdrawls goin on - been stuck in a hotel too long. Can't wait to get back home to my wood, hehe - that just aint right :D.
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Thanks Anthony! Your's really turned out nice, sweet tiller and hard shootin'! ;)
Cowboy, hope you're able to get home soon...at least in time for the holidays. Maybe you can do some scrappin' then. I'll try and do some more scrappin' in your honor until you're able to get back at it! ;D ;)
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That sure is a dandy. Your pictures are great! Got you bookmarked for December Self Bow of the Month, too. Thanks for the post.
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Excellent bow. I do think it looks a little more like hop hornbeam (aka ironwood) but I'm no expert. I got a similar bark pattern on my hop hornbeam. The few American hornbeam (aka musclewood right?) trees I've seen were really "muscly" looking with very smooth bark. By "muscly" I mean the trunk looked like a big leg with muscles, is that what you had? As for the bark, the ones I saw were young trees and maybe the bark doesn't stay that way, I don't know. Not being cantankerous, just wondering.
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I still think it is HHB we call AHB,Blue beach ,muscle wood.Not sure witch it is but it dose make a fine bow. :)
Pappy
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My understanding is Hornbeam has smooth bark and HHB has scally rough bark.
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You did good Greg. You kind of make me feel lazy with my spray urethane finish. :-[ Justin
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Thanks everyone for your kind remarks, I appreciate it!
I forget who post a website from a university where you could id trees. I'm almost positive that both the hb and hhb were similar bark, with the hhb bark being more where the bark curls away from the tree if that makes any sense. The smooth bark similar to beech or hackberry was NOT what I recall hb to look like. I could be wrong, but if anyone can post a picture that should settle the confusion.
Whatever the tree is...I like it! ;D
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Heres what I found at this website
http://www.oplin.org/tree/name/commonname.html
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No doubt, whatever it is you done a fine job. The side profile is just perfect, and when you see the character in the stave it is even more amazing.
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Thanks Lennie, I'm working on another...whatever the last one was ;D, and just got finished shaping the handle area. Finished tillering it yesterday and went by and had Pappy help me recurve the tips yesterday afternoon. Its a straighter piece then the last one, although it does have some checks in the handle area. I haven't shot an arrow out of it yet, looking forward to seeing that first one fly.
To borrow a phrase from a good friend of mine..."Life is Good!". ;)
Thanks for posting the pic's Dana, I couldn't tell much about the hb pic. Does it have smooth bark?
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So does it take a good bend? You use steam or heat gun?
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Cowboy, hope you're able to get home soon...at least in time for the holidays. Maybe you can do some scrappin' then. I'll try and do some more scrappin' in your honor until you're able to get back at it! ;D ;)
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Appreciate that Greg, and will start scrapin as soon as everything else gets done. This time of year is too busy, and I'm a scrooge.
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In Dana's pictures, the smooth bark one I believe is musclewood, and the top picture is hornbeam or ironwood.
My first stave bow was hornbeam, gave it away during a hog hunt in florida to the orange grove owners brother, he fell in love shooting it. I miss it.
Nice bow by the way Greg.
VB
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Lennie, I used dry heat and it did well. I didn't put an extreme bend on it, but decent. I first radiused the edges in the bend area and coated that section with cooking oil. We took it slow and easy, giving it quite a bit of heat. Probably won't be able to remove all the brown through sanding.
This time of year is too busy, and I'm a scrooge.
Cowboy...remember..."god bless us everyone!". ;) Hope you're scrapping again soon.
Thanks VB, I think the general consensus is the wood is hhb instead of hb. I'm going to try and research it further. I think Justin posted a Virginia University website that I had checked out before.
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Your right Greg - I out of the work zone now, need to focus on the important things :).
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AHB is muscle wood. (the bottom one in Dana's picture) I think pappys right you got HHB. The barks are nothing alike, hhb is scaly and flakes off if you brush up against it and ahb is smooth and grey like beech, and the tree is lumpy like ripling muscles.
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Ryan, yall are wearing me down that hb is the smooth bark (muscle wood), but I'm not quite ready to give in yet. Unless I dreamed it...I thought for sure I saw the two listed with very similar bark, only the hhb was more scaley then hb. Could be wrong, but would sure like to find the website and check it out again. ;)
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:P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P ;)
Do I need to take you pictures to convince you? ::) We have loads of both up here. ;D I have a tree ID book some where. :-\
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I don't know squat about either, but this might help clear up the confusion.
30 Encyclopędia Britannica articles, from the full 32 volume encyclopedia
> hornbeam
any of about 25 species of hardy, slow-growing ornamental and timber trees constituting the genus Carpinus of the birch family (Betulaceae), distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The hop-hornbeam (q.v.) is in a different genus of the birch family. A hornbeam has smooth, grayish bark, a short, fluted trunk, and horizontally spreading branches. It differs from ...
> hop-hornbeam
any of about seven species of ornamental trees constituting the genus Ostrya of the birch family (Betulaceae), native to Eurasia and North America. A hop-hornbeam has shaggy, scaling bark and thin, translucent, green leaves with hairy leafstalks. The hoplike, green fruits are composed of many bladderlike scales, each bearing a small, flat nut.
Justin
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Thanks for the Discovery channel moment Justin. I have a little crooked knife that a buddy in New Mexico made and sent me that has a hop hornbeam handle and I love the wood. I would be totally interested in trying some out in a bow. Danny
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> hornbeam
any of about 25 species of hardy, slow-growing ornamental and timber trees constituting the genus Carpinus of the birch family (Betulaceae), distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The hop-hornbeam (q.v.) is in a different genus of the birch family. A hornbeam has smooth, grayish bark, a short, fluted trunk, and horizontally spreading branches. It differs from ...
> hop-hornbeam
any of about seven species of ornamental trees constituting the genus Ostrya of the birch family (Betulaceae), native to Eurasia and North America. A hop-hornbeam has shaggy, scaling bark and thin, translucent, green leaves with hairy leafstalks. The hoplike, green fruits are composed of many bladderlike scales, each bearing a small, flat nut.
Well, why didn't you say that the start with...I guess I need to start calling my bow a hophornbeam after all. ;D
Ryan, I guess pictures won't be necessary...just a little stuborn sometimes I guess. I could have swore they both had similar bark...guess it's just more symptom's of the inevitable old age creeping in. Yall will just have to overlook me sometimes. ;)
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Greg,
This may be the site you were asking about.
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/data_results_with_common.cfm?state=unknown
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Greg, for what it's worth from a horticulturist whose specialty is working with native plants-they're right, hornbeam (Carpinus) has smooth gray bark that's fluted and "muscled" at the base of the trunk, and hophornbeam (Ostrya) has scaly bark. The leaves are similar, but the fruits are different. And it's still a helluva nice bow. :)
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Sweet Greg, I love the natural finish on the back. Keenan
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Thanks Anvildawg, I'll check it out...
Hillbilly, thanks for the feedback, I guess I've made three and working on a fourth hophornbeam bows...not hornbeam. Gotta make me a hornbeam now. ;D
Thank you Keenan, the one I'm working on now I think I'll try and stain darker. Trying to keep the deer from spotting the movement as easily. ;)