European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)

[keef]

 I have a couple of good,long, straight grained staves from this vey dense wood... Does anyone have any experience with the species, and if so, what dimension I should work with?...I'm not looking for a massive draw weight, but i would like 75lb + if possibble

Thanks in advance

Keith

[RyanY]

Wait for Marc St Louis to chyme in. He works with hhb a lot and I'm sure he's made some warbows from it.

[Mangeur de lard]

Hey Keef,

Should make it no problem. TBB says its density is 0.82 which is pretty dense. If you design the bow conservatively(I read hornbeam can be a little weaker in tension than compression) you can pull a 75 pounder, imo.

I just cut a decent stave of the american species (Caprinus caroliniana) and its reasonably straight. One thing though, the bark is so full of bumps that its impossible to take it off without cutting through fibers on the back. That may be the precise reason why some seem to find hornbeam a little tension weak: the back is full of curves that concentrate stresses.

Good luck!
Matt

[markinengland]

Keef,

I cut some nice hornbeam. If I remember the bark came off very cleanly when wet. Looks good wood.

Mark

[Markus]

This species sometimes have lot of humps on the surface, like mountains and valleys.
I once made a flatbow of it and when coming close to full draw on the tiller a large sliver raised from one of the "mountain tops".
I have another stave that has a smooth surface and I am hoping for better luck with that one. The wood I have is cut in Denmark. Markus.

[keef]

 I had serious problems with that ridged back when de barking the winter cut stave... Would a linen or silk backing work with a longbow design if i got the back flat?
Any help would be gratefully recieved

Cheers

keith

[bambule]

european hornbeam works very fine with a backing of natural fibres like hemp or linen. With a backing you can build bows up to 100# or more... I've seen some of them in Action

[keef]

Great news Bambule...I have some very fine Irish linen here, and I intend to try to make a 90lb bow.. I will keep you posted

When I de barked the stave, the wood (which was harvested in winter) was reluctant to  give up its bark easily, and i violated the back slightly in a ew places due to the ridged nature of the wood...

I'm going to sand the ridges down and linen back it...The stave is as straight as can be..Looking forward to trying this one.

[The Hinge]

I'm curious how this stave turned out..

[bownarra]

Keef probably made a fine bow out of it
This is from a looooonnnnnnggggggg time ago.....