Eastern Hophornbeam question

[PeteC]

I cut a nice straight HHB about 30 days ago,and I"m about to split it ,rough out a couple of bows,and get em on  the forms.My question is to any of ya'll who have used this wood before.Does it favor a flatbow design,or will a more narrow,thicker limb work better. Thanks,and God Bless

[El Destructo]

I dont know if it prefers to be a Wide Limbed Bow....but I prefer it to be...I like to make Paddle Bows with it....and the Bowyers Bible 1... says that the optimum width for HHB is......1 1/2" wide....so take it from there

[GregB]

I've made several from hhb and find it to be a really good bow wood. I'd style the bow same as you would with osage or hickory. 1-1/2" wide limbs ballpark...

[Marc St Louis]

HHB is one of my prefered bow woods that I can get locally. I've probably made more than 100 HHB bows and you can made them as narrow as 1 1/4" wide to more than 2". This bow pulls more than 100# and about 1 1/4" wide  http://marc.stoneflake.net/Bows%202/War%20Bow/

[PeteC]

Yankee, Greg, Marc, thanks for the information,I'm fixin' to rough out a HHB stave. That is one awesome bow Marc.  Thanks,and God Bless,  PeteC

[Pat B]

Pete, I'm finishing up my first HHB bow from a stave Greg and Pappy gave me last year. It is 62" t/t, 1 1/2" at the fades with an easy taper to 5" longx 3/8"  Holmgaard type tips. I haven't measured the weight but am guessing 50#+@26". HHB works a lot like hickory to me. Pat

[TRACY]

The HHB that i've used has twisted from end to end to where it has almost one revolution to it. I cut, split and sealed in the same day with bark removed. I really liked the qualities of the wood. Is this typical and do I need to count on steaming to correct the severe twist every time? Thanks Tracy

[GregB]

If it was a smaller piece of wood and in warm conditions that might be why it twisted so bad. We usually try and cut larger trees and leave the staves in quarters, splitting the quarters down latter when we plan to make bows. If it is a smaller stave when cut, might be worth while to secure it to a form or some other means to minimize the twisting.

[Hillbilly]

Most of the hophornbeam around here grows small and twisted-it's a real job to find a straight piece without a bunch of twist. Greg, I noticed shooting the course down there last year that y'all have some big, nice straight HHBs-wish it grew like that here.

[PeteC]

Pat,that's just what I had in mind.About the same lenght,with a short draw,around 25".I have built most of my bows in the 64"-68"range,tillered to 28" ,for the last 10 years,(dang,time flies when your havin' fun),but last month I built 2 shorties,well short for me, from osage .One 56" ;55#@24",and the other58";55#@25".I will definitely be huntin' with a short bow next season.Both of these are just as quite,as stable,and hard hittin'as my longer bows. Thanks all for the comments. God Bless,  PeteC

[Marc St Louis]

You need to examine a HHB tree very closely to make sure it does not have spiral growth. It's hard to see but if you look at the bark and follow the lines up you can see the twist. Some tree have a lot and others just a small amount. I don't think I have seen a tree with no spiral growth at all. 

You can eliminate the spiraling of a stave by leaving it whole till it dries, then it becomes a nightmare to split. You can also kerf the log and leave it whole for awhile till much of the moisture has left and then finish it up.  Makes sure the log is sheltered from the weather as it dries. If you have a straight growth tree then you can split it right away and it won't twist up on you but I still like to kerf the log to do that as you don't waste as much of the wood and it makes splitting much easier.

[GregB]

Greg, I noticed shooting the course down there last year that y'all have some big, nice straight HHBs-wish it grew like that here.

  Hillbilly, I guess we are fortunate to have such a good source for bow would in our area. We have some HB on the course as well (I think), but it really looks to be a challenge to find a section to make a bow from. Perhaps billets might be easier to come by for HB. We don't have any cut and seasoning, but I plan to cut some this spring...keeping alert for good candidates.

[TRACY]

What diameters of HHB are you talking about? I cut two that apperad to be relatively straight growing along the creek that were at least 8" in diameter. Gonna do some more scouting elsewhere and compare to what I already have seasoned. Greg, I did process it very similar to what you explained and maybe just dealing with some inferior HHB Thanks Tracy