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Amazing that it can bend nearly 90 degrees without breaking. What does it look like when you let it go?

[toomanyknots]

Here are a couple photos I took of a hackberry longbow I screwed up. I think it might of been 60# or 70# @ 28" I think, but I am not super sure.





Hackberry is extremely strong in tension, and it is my belief that this plays a good part in why it is generally accepted to be the most steam bendable wood. The fibers are very strong and hold together very well. I had a hackberry warbow I screwed up a couple years ago, and I was trying to break it, and it wouldn't break for nothing. I was jumping off my porch onto the tip, and it was "pogo stick"-ing me back up on my porch! It also grows extremely straight most of the time, and with almost zero knots. If I had a way to mill me up some, I think it would be excellent for backings. It would be so easy to get perfect straight grain. It is also almost always pure white to the pith 99% of the time, so all the backings would come out nice and creamy white, where as with hickory you got all that brownish heart wood.

[Marks]

I keep meaning to go cut me some hackberry but I just haven't yet. I have osage and crepe myrtle drying in the garage. I need to go ahead and get some hack in there. We have that stuff coming out our ears on the farm. Every fence row is full of it and its all thru the woods too. Like you said, seems to grow good and straight.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Is hackberry approximatly as good as hickory?

[toomanyknots]

Is hackberry approximatly as good as hickory?

I think hickory would be pretty hard to beat, but I don't know. My instinct says it might be "close". But hick is super strong in tension. (except the garbage dry rotted stuff I bought a month or so ago,  ).

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Is hackberry approximatly as good as hickory?

I think hickory would be pretty hard to beat, but I don't know. My instinct says it might be "close". But hick is super strong in tension. (except the garbage dry rotted stuff I bought a month or so ago,  ).

Maybe the garbage you bought was actually pecan...

[Joec123able]

Amazing that it can bend nearly 90 degrees without breaking. What does it look like when you let it go?

It looks like its suffered major compression damage but the elastic strenth of hack berry just amazes me I need to get my hands on some hickory and compare the two

[toomanyknots]

Is hackberry approximatly as good as hickory?

I think hickory would be pretty hard to beat, but I don't know. My instinct says it might be "close". But hick is super strong in tension. (except the garbage dry rotted stuff I bought a month or so ago,  ).

Maybe the garbage you bought was actually pecan...

I think it was just bad quality for some reason, dry rotted or something. And from what I hear, pecan is great wood too.

[Joec123able]

Hackberry is extremely strong in tension, and it is my belief that this plays a good part in why it is generally accepted to be the most steam bendable wood. The fibers are very strong and hold together very well. I had a hackberry warbow I screwed up a couple years ago, and I was trying to break it, and it wouldn't break for nothing. I was jumping off my porch onto the tip, and it was "pogo stick"-ing me back up on my porch! It also grows extremely straight most of the time, and with almost zero knots. If I had a way to mill me up some, I think it would be excellent for backings. It would be so easy to get perfect straight grain. It is also almost always pure white to the pith 99% of the time, so all the backings would come out nice and creamy white, where as with hickory you got all that brownish heart wood.

Yea I think hackberry would be amazing backing material

[Thesquirrelslinger]

I just got meself some ash and elm... Intend to make a nice bow...
Seasoned elm is not nearly as strong in tension as hickory... but man, its good. a thin heartwood locust piece is practically unbeatable in my book. Bend it 90, 100, 200 degrees... at 250 or so it cracks.

[Joec123able]

I just got meself some ash and elm... Intend to make a nice bow...
Seasoned elm is not nearly as strong in tension as hickory... but man, its good. a thin heartwood locust piece is practically unbeatable in my book. Bend it 90, 100, 200 degrees... at 250 or so it cracks.

I made one honey locust bow shot it alot took a few carp with it and one day while I was stringing it it popped a splinter on the back still have the bow been standing in a corner for a while with a piece of rawhide I was intending to fix it with but I don't think it's even worth fixing

[Slackbunny]

Is hackberry approximatly as good as hickory?

I think hickory would be pretty hard to beat, but I don't know. My instinct says it might be "close". But hick is super strong in tension. (except the garbage dry rotted stuff I bought a month or so ago,  ).

Maybe the garbage you bought was actually pecan...

Pecan is hickory. Hickory is a genus better known as carya, and pecan is Carya illinoinensis. There are nearly a dozen of species of hickory, like pecan, shagbark, pignut etc each with their own latin species name. But its all hickory. 

[Badly Bent]

It's all fun till someone gets hurt.   Be careful of flying pointy splinters when torturing wood like that, doesn't look like the safest way to test the resiliency of bow wood. Just saying we don't want any of our fellow bow makers disabled.

[Joec123able]

It's all fun till someone gets hurt.   Be careful of flying pointy splinters when torturing wood like that, doesn't look like the safest way to test the resiliency of bow wood. Just saying we don't want any of our fellow bow makers disabled.

Lol nope we don't want that but this is safer then putting a string on it and drawing it back till it breaks

[Badly Bent]

Joe, not if your pulling the string on a tillering tree with a rope from 15' away.  
Be careful bro.