Is this hackberry? New problem & pic's

[osage outlaw]

I hope this is Hackberry after seeing Ranger B's awesome bow.  I live in S.E. Indiana and have a lot of these trees around.  I always thought they were junk. 





If it is, do I need to chase a ring like osage, or just remove the bark and that is the back of the bow?

Thanks.

[The Gopher]

someone else will confirm, but i think that is hackberry, the bark has that distinct warty look.

[makenzie71]

I second hackberry.

Additionally, there is no such thing as "junk" wood.  I've seen good bows made with balsa and I've even got a chinese elm piece going pretty good...when I have time to work on it....

[osage outlaw]

I didn't mean junk wood for bow making.  Growing up, we didn't cut it for firewood or anything else, so it seemed like junk to me.  I have only been in the bow making world for slightly over a year.  I am trying to learn about and hopefully make bows from trees other than osage.

[Stickhead]

Definitely hackberry.  I spent a large part of my childhood climbing in a giant one in my back yard.

[aero86]

do the branches look all crazy angles everywhere?  im trying to figure out what this tree is in my backyard..  it always seemed worthless to me.  seems different to me though. 

[Christophero]

That looks like the hackberry we have in Ohio.  When you cut it it will be white with some snot colored streaks through it.  I plan on using some of my 3 year cured hackberry and naming it "Snotwood" for the looks, LOL. 
The bark will probably be tight but you use it like hickory, take off the bark and make a bow.

[tombo]

Not the Hackberry we have in S. Texas but there are 2-3 different species. Ours is "sugarberry" hack. I consider it the best, superb bow wood.  Leaves are serrated on the Sugarberry. Tom

[sweeney3]

That is as hackberry as hackberry gets.  Serrated leaves that smooth off on the bottom near the leafe stem, knobby bark that forms into those wart looking shapes.  Definatly hackberry.  It's excellent bow wood.

[Hillbilly]

Yep, definitely.

[Parnell]

Best smelling wood to work with I've used, so far, just like buttered pop-corn.  Definitely doesn't need to be a high poundage bow to have great cast.  It's very light in the hand.

Good luck. 

[osage outlaw]

My hackberry is turning wierd colors, is this normal?  I sealed the ends with 2 coats of wood glue.  When I went to debark the back, I couldn't find my big bottle of glue, I think it got "borrowed" by a relative.  The only thing I had to seal it with was some polyurethane, so I put on a good coat of that.  I did the same exact sealing job on an elm tree and it doesn't look like this.  It is the two on the right. 

[El Destructo]

          Looks like Black Mold is setting up shop....never seen that happen before...but then I live in a Veritable Desert here...

[osage outlaw]

The black spots on the ends were there when I cut it down.  The rest of it just slowly turned this color over the last few days.

[El Destructo]

was this tree alive and leafed out when You cut it?