hickory and hackberry

[sadiejane]

greetings folks-
had a cupla questions. did do a search but still clarify.
working on both a hickory and a hackberry bow. the hickory is gonna need some straightening.
from what ive read, it seems most of yall deem steam, not the heat gun(dry heat) the way to go with hickory. same hold true for hackberry?

the other question.
i see many bows here with other materials for tip overlays. some wood, some horn, antler etc
is this necessary for hickory or hackberry to prevent the string from cutting in? i know sometimes its more decorative than functional.
but(correct me if im wrong), my understanding is, there are some woods that require it to protect the main wood from damage from the string. im just not sure which woods require it.
thanks!!

[SLIMBOB]

My experience, steam the Hackberry.  I tried dry heat and got nowhere.  It steam bends pretty easily without any checks.  I prefer dry heat on Osage.  As to the overlays, Hackberry is pretty soft wood and my tips narrow to boot at 3/8", so I did horn overlays.  I did help a buddy make 2 plains style bows with wider tips, around 1".  He cut string nocks in, no overlays, and they seem to be OK.  Don't know how they will hold up over time though.

[PEARL DRUMS]

My two cents I have gained after 6-7 hackberry bows of varying styles. Hackberry loves dry heat and its very soft wood. I suggest hardwood or bone overlays.

[missilemaster]

I've only ever used Dry heat on hickory to straighten and its always worked for me. The trick is to oil the wood before-hand.

                                                -Cody

[k-hat]

I'm with Pearl, dry heat on the hackberry has done some good straightening for me as well.  Haven't tried steaming hickry but that sounds the way to go cuz i've had plenty of mishaps with dry heat on it. 

Hackberry needs overlays on the tips imo, it is quite soft in that regard.  I put osage overlays on one recently and they came out perty.

[toomanyknots]

Hackberry in my experience hasn't really needed overlays, it may seem soft, but I have had harder woods like mulberry (still pretty soft admittedly) dent on the nocks where hackberry hasn't. Not to say that I might of had some better quality hackberry though. And that is not to say that it might not dent on you on your piece of hackberry. I mostly have used linen strings though. No thin fast flight strings or nothing. But for myself, when using cut threw the back nocks, on bows up to 90# @ 26", I have had zero problems. When a wood is too soft for self nocks, the string will almost sink into the nock, it also tends to crease into itself too, in a funny looking way. You wanna see a wood that is too soft for self nocks, take a piece of silver maple and make a warbow with self nocks on it. The nocks will start out a 1/8" deep and end up rivaling the grand canyon. Also, I had had great success with steaming hackberry. It is almost too easy to steam bend.