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European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)

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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.

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