I cant wait to see how this one turns out. I have never used hackberry yet but i have a roughed out stave i traded blackhawk out of this last fall thats itching to be a bow.
I have never worked hackberry. How would you describe it?
Hackberry is a fine wood, but you can't treat it like osage, plain and simple. Although it doesn't have to by any means, typically it will take some set if you don't heat treat it (which I never do). But it will more than make up for it in performance if you do it right IMO. It must be nice and dry too. Although it tends to take some set, it is a very light wood, and can make a very light in the hand, fast shooting, zero handshock bow. When you brace up a nice springy 60# hackberry bow for the first time, you know you got a wicked bow, as the bow has the draw weight of a 60# bow, but feels like it has the physical weight of a childrens bow made of other woods like hickory/hhb/elm/even denser red oak, etc...
. Now to get around the set, you have to go either longer or wider. I usually chose to go longer as the length really doesn't slow the bow down typically because the wood is so physically light. And I think length has a bigger effect on the stresses of a bow verses width, for the most part. I mean IMO you have to go pretty darn wide to reach the same stress reduction as if you went a little bit longer, if that makes any sense... ...Ya, I'm not the best at explaining things,
. Like, if I wanna make a zero set hackberry flatbow, of around 60# draw weight at 28", I will:
- Make the bow 70" if the bow has a stiff handle
- Throw the bow in the hot box the day before tillering. Remember, if you tiller a bow right out of the hot box, depending on how hot it gets, you can actually induce set from the bow being so hot. You gotta wait until the bow has cooled down completely.
- Than just proceed as normal, typically I like a pyramid design. Maybe 2" or so at the fades, most likely.
IMO, this bow I am making is under built if I didn't want any set (once again, no heat treating here. Not even considering it's natural deflex as well). As it is only 63 5/8" NTN, and it is not working on the last 4" or so of each limb. It is also a very low density piece of hackberry. Some pieces are better than others, just like all species of wood. Unless I went with a lighter draw weight, which I really didn't wanna do, although I probably should of. I do plan to pick up a heat gun soon though, so I can stop mis-treating staves,
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EDIT: Regarding the physical weight, if you've ever worked mulberry, than they are similar in density I usually find. Mulberry might tend to be a tiny bit lighter sometimes.
