I haven't posted one in a while, so here goes. This is my first attempt at eastern hophornbeam, which is sort of a rare bow wood in my neck of the woods. I split this stave from a eight inch diameter tree that I cut down last year. I split this stave and roughed out the outline when it was pretty green, so I painted the back and ends with some old left over grey paint to keep it from checking. This proved to be a mistake, since it stuck in the little grooves and valleys in the back of the bow. I started to try and sand it all off, but then started to like the textured look of it. I ended up staining over the remnants of painted areas and ended up with a pretty cool camo effect.
The bow is 66" tip to tip and 1 1/4" wide at the fades tapering to 1/2" tips. I wanted to get to know the properties of HHB on this first attempt, so I didn't heat treat it. I did steam a slight flip to the tips long before tillering the bow, but it hasn't seen a caul. I didn't use scales or a tillering tree this time and tillered strictly by eye and feel. I am truly impressed with hophornbeam as a bow wood. I see why all you guys from further north are so impressed with it. This bow came in in the mid forties and will cast a 600 grain arrow around a 150 yards. It is accurate, sweet on release, and took very little set. This stave had a big knot near the handle, which worried me at first. No problems through a couple hundred shots. HHB or ironwood is definately my number two bow wood and will rival osage in how narrow a stave can be for a hunting weight bow. I am liking this one.
