HHB questions

[echatham]

have some hop hornbeam staves i cut this spring, they are debarked, shellaced and have been drying in the garage, was just looking at them,  and wondering a few things.   how well does HHB respond to heat straightening.?  particularly about 90 degrees of propellor twist in each one.  I have taken the same amount out of osage using the old heat gun, crescent wrench, and bucket of water trick. will probably use dry heat, if adviseable, when i get around to them. i have a hot box that i use to speed up the drying process, and will probably rough out the bow, reseal the ends and stick it in there at 95-100 degrees for a few weeks to dry it.  that worked well on a hickory bow i built earlier this year, and the HHB seems alot like hickory to me (not having made a bow from it yet).  so any advice specific to the wood as i start preparing these staves for bowmakin season?  been wanting to build a molly.

[sweetpea]

I've had real good luck with Hop Horn Beam. It bends with heat real good to me and I like working with almost as much as Osage.

[echatham]

cool, all i know about it is what i gleaned from splitting the staves.  splits like hickory, looks like hickory.  does it want to take a set like hickory?  guess i need to do a search for specs.   probably just going to go with "standard" mollegabet dimensions for the first one, and give it some reflex at the start.  staves all stand pretty straight, 3 clean and 1 character.   they are actually halves of the log, log was about 5-6" diameter at the bottom of the bottom staves down to about 4" at the top of the top staves, gives me just enough meat for a static handle. 

[osage outlaw]

I love HHB.  I have had good luck with minor heat corrections with dry heat.  I tried flipping the tips twice on HHB with dry heat and cracked both of them.  From now on I'll use steam for the tips.

[PatM]

HHB is better than hickory in compression for damp weather. I find it more like hard Maple to work than hickory.

[lostarrow]

Are you sure it's HHB? not trying to be cute or anything , but  it doesn't really look, split or work like Hickory.  The prop. twist sounds like it though! Have any pics?

[The Gopher]

HHB is better than hickory in compression for damp weather. I find it more like hard Maple to work than hickory.

I agree with this. I have found hhb to make a well tuned spokeshave chatter and tear out wood. I've had to do whole bows with rasps.

[Dances with squirrels]

I love HHB.... it's in my top 3 bow woods.

[echatham]

Are you sure it's HHB? not trying to be cute or anything , but  it doesn't really look, split or work like Hickory.  The prop. twist sounds like it though! Have any pics?

sorry the bark picture is a little fuzzy,  HHB right?

[gutpile]

one of my favorite woods...I got a screaming longbow HHB...

[PEARL DRUMS]

That's it. I love the stuff second to the King only.

[echatham]

well i guess  might as well build me a bow then! 

[echatham]

well after putting saw, knife, and rasp to it i do see that it is not at all like hickory, just seemed that way when i split it because of how stringy it was.  very hard wood, and kinda pretty.

got some twist to contend with



 plan is 66" ntn mollegabet, with 60/40 working limb/lever.  47ish @ 29"  sound reasonable?  2" wide working limb and 1/2" wide levers?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Id suggest a good temper as well. 

[echatham]

Id suggest a good temper as well.

ok now i got some questions about that... at what stage of tillering do you temper?  and do you just heat the belly until the very onset of discoloration?  quickly or slowly?  just pretend i have never done it before (cause i haven't)