advice for a hickory bow?

[blades7558]

ive got a plank of hickory and id like to make a skinny long bow about 1.5 inches wide at the most. its 1 and 3/4 thick and about 80 inches long from flat face to end (see picture) the grain doesn't run off to much either. i also was thinking of backing it with bamboo but i think the diameter is to small the actual width of the bamboo is 1.5 inches at the widest. i don't have much hickory around here so id  like to make a safe, reliable backed bow(doesn't have to be bamboo) about 50 to 60 lbs. any advice?

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[blades7558]

heres the side view, the black spot doesn't mean its rotten does it?

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[Cacatch]

I can't tell very well in the pic, but is the dark spot more brownish red or actually grey? Hickories have heartwood that is brownish-red and that would be normal, however if it is more grey, that would be bad, indicating possibly dead/diseased rotting wood. I worked with hickory once that had some sort of disease and it had the sapwood that is supposed to be white, which had a pink-ish tint to it. Some of it made a bow and some didn't. The pink sapwood evidently was somewhat bad and weaker.

CP

[Hrothgar]

Like Cacatch said if your wood is diseased you might have trouble, if not you have a long planned piece of hickory, and since you are thinking of backing it, I would find a good hickory backing strip and glue on. An inch and a half isn't to narrow for a long bow. Do you plan on hunting with it? if not you can make it a bit longer and shouldn't have any problems.

[blades7558]

the spot is black, its not soft and doesn't smell. i think it might be something that bled into the wood as it grew or after it was cut. im not sure of if that is what it is or not. im thinking a strip of hickory or rawhide backing to back it with. yes i will be hunting with it. i think ill go a bit wider like 1and 3/4 wide just to be safe.

[sailordad]

i cant tell by the pics

but 1.75" at the fades is a good demension for hick
i have made several at this width,they seem to be very very stable in the hand,make weight real easy,and still feels light in the hand
not to mention the limbs look sweeeeet with the thin wide profile 

[El Destructo]

Blades....that sure looks like Spault to me (read fungus)....And if it is Spaulted....I would not waste my time on it...unless You can scrape it till this is all gone...and then there is still the Possibility that the tentacles of the Fungus are still all over in the Wood...waiting to spread more...Spault looks great on Furniture and Picture Frames and other woodworking projects...but it sure is not worth a crap on a Bow....JMO

[walkabout]

i gotta agree with el destructo, that almost looks like the same thing my last bow had and it blew. from what everyone told me the really dark, sometimes black veins in the grain are fungus, which will more than likely be the end of even the most pristine hickory.

[JW_Halverson]

My standard advice...build it, break it, build another.  Everyone needs more woodshavings in their lives.

[bubby]

If you're really worried, cut out the ? spot and splice it at the handle, and if you back with boo, 1.25" will proably work fine

[blades7558]

thanks, it does make sense that its a fungus, it sat outside at a friends for a while. i cut the bow to size and some of it came out of the final dimensions. when i go over it with the rasp it doesn't change character from the spault side to the good side. i'll try to make a bow out of it and if not oh well  luckily that was the out side part of the main board. the rest of it is in perfect shape from what i can tell.

[JW_Halverson]

That's the spirit!  Leap headlong into it and let the chips fall where they may!  I know I speak for a lot of people on here when I say you learn more from one broken bow than a dozen that came out easy.

[sailordad]

That's the spirit!    I know I speak for a lot of people on here when I say you learn more from one broken bow than a dozen that came out easy.

ya but that broken one is never as fun to shoot as that other dozen