Author Topic: Anybody ever seen a chrysal on a hackberry bow?  (Read 1271 times)

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Offline toomanyknots

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Anybody ever seen a chrysal on a hackberry bow?
« on: September 02, 2012, 09:51:36 pm »
I haven't. It seems if I was going to I would of a long time ago. I have made hackberry bows that might of been over stressed for the design, and although this has resulted in set as would be expected, I have seen no chrysals. Bows I have treated in a similar fashion made of red oak, mulberry, ash, and silver maple (obviously silver maple) have all resulted in chrysals. Just curious really.
"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
 the part that has too much is reduced,
 the part that has too little is increased."

- Tao Te Ching, 77, A new translation by Victor H. Mair

Offline PatM

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Re: Anybody ever seen a chrysal on a hackberry bow?
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2012, 12:14:04 am »
Some woods just have all the cells compress uniformly and others "crumple" in spots. I haven't had a chance to work with Hackberry but a lot of  Elm is very much like that.

Offline rossfactor

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  • Humboldt County CA
Re: Anybody ever seen a chrysal on a hackberry bow?
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2012, 01:08:43 am »
Baker says that hackberry  is  "Similar in looks, structure and design to elm." So that would make sense.

I've been wondering recently why some woods chrysal, while others just take more set... Its almost like a chrysal is a large amount of set focused in a small area, where as other woods distribute the set across the limb. I suspect it has to do with the strength of the cell walls on the belly of different bow woods.

Its as if certain woods have a lower threshold for abrupt cell wall failure, while other woods the cells walls slowly deform under pressure. 

Gabe
Humboldt County CA.