Calling all ironwood bowyers

[jasonoflivingston]

I know there are guys on here with a great deal of experience with ironwood.  I was told by my father that there was some ironwood up at the family's bush property.  Well I went up yesterday and he wasn't joking.  There is a whole stand of tall straight ironwood trees about six to ten inches in diameter.  Needless to say, the chainsaw came out and one tree came home with me. 

So now I am looking for any and all tips and advice on bow design and working with this rediculously heavy wood!  Please share what wisdom you have.   So far, besides the weight, I noticed that the ends want to start cracking pretty fast.  I went ahead and sealed the ends with glue, but am not really sure what the best sealing method would be.

[jasonoflivingston]

I will also add that I stripped the bark.  Since the tree I chose isn't very large in diameter, I didn't bother splitting it into staves. 

[Pat B]

Which iron wood are you talking about. There are lots of them. Two that come to mind are hornbeam, hop hornbeam.

[Prarie Bowyer]

Check out mark st. louis's work.  pretty nice.

[koan]

Round here hornbeam is known as muscle wood Pat... Brian

[PatM]

If it's tall and straight it's HHB. You shouldn't strip the bark right away.

[Blaflair2]

If is 6-10" round it's probly HHB as well. Blue beech doesn't get that big I don't thibk

[Slackbunny]

If the kind of ironwood you have is hop hornbeam then I can give some advice.

I've found it to be semi-prone to cracking while drying, so after I split it I seal both the ends and the entire back with either shellac or polyurethane. I've found the spray on poly to be very convenient for this.

HHB really loves the heat gun. A good tempering can really improve the performance and I do it on all my HHB bows now.

Its a great bow wood and I would say there aren't too many designs that you couldn't pull off with it. I've had my best luck with shortish bend through the handle bows.

Otherwise just treat it like you would any A-grade bow wood.

[jasonoflivingston]

If it's tall and straight it's HHB. You shouldn't strip the bark right away.

It is HHB.  I am assuming that leaving the bark on will help prevent cracking along the backing surface.  Is that right or is there another reason to avoid stripping the bark? 

[Buckeye Guy]

Glue is good for the ends
seal the outside where you striped the bark with Shellac or some type of finish and split the log at least in half as round things don't shrink to well and it will shrink as it dries
If you cut trees 4 inches or less in dia then you should for sure leave the bark on to slow the drying way down , but since you said 6 -10 inches pealing is fine and gets rid of the bugs!
Now cut a couple more cause it gets boring watching wood dry !

[PatM]

If it's tall and straight it's HHB. You shouldn't strip the bark right away.

It is HHB.  I am assuming that leaving the bark on will help prevent cracking along the backing surface.  Is that right or is there another reason to avoid stripping the bark?

Yes, just to minimize cracking. You only have to leave it on for a short time though. The moisture content will drop quickly if you rough out a stave.

[mullet]

The couple of pieces I've gotten from Marc over the years have made some excellent bows. It does take to heat very well.

[son of massey]

HHB can be a good deal thinner than other whitewoods. I second the statement that shorter, D-bows work well with this wood.

SOM

[jasonoflivingston]

Thanks everyone for the info.  I will be splitting the larger of the two pieces that I have and will try to do some more sealing.  I can't wait to start working with it.  In the meantime, I have a red oak pyramid bow to work on. 

[jasonoflivingston]

Well, I figure there is no point in asking for help without adding some pictures so here is a picture of the wood that I managed to get my hands on.  The split stave is 78" or so long and the other is probably 60" or so.  I was actually a bit surprised by the lack of knots and nice heartwood coloration.  Thanks everyone for the tips and advice on sealing the wood. 



With HHB, is the heartwood better than the sapwood for bows?  Should I try to chase the rings down to allow me to use the heartwood for the belly and the sapwood as the backing?  Does it matter?