Trying to understand hickory backing

[MulchMaker]

So I've been doing what every good " new bowyer" should be doing...generating more questions for you guys to answer. lol. couldn't help myself with the opening. So my question is on hickory backing. What is it? I see it for sale on an archery site that counts rivers, but nothing in the description to tell you what it is. I get it, it's security, keeps splinters from lifting on the back, but is it a sawn piece of hickory? Is it one solid ring of hickory? I get how to install it, I know what it is for. I see that it is a great backing that a lot of P.A. Members like, but I can't find out exactly what a piece of backing would look like. I will never purchase hickory backing but I might make some on future projects as it sounds great.
Thanks Zach

[Marc St Louis]

Essentially it is a 1/8" thick strip of quarter sawn wood

[MulchMaker]

Thanks for the reply Mark, that's easy to make.  I accept that this is a tried and true method. But I leaves me with more questions, Is hickory one of those woods that doesn't care about ring violation so much? I'd put hickory on a de-crowned bow in a heartbeat after seeing all the posts on P.A. But I'm curious on how it works together. Essentially a de-crowned bow is the same as a "board bow" (as I understand it) and then You back it with a thin strip of hickory that is quarter sawn and it works together just like a single stave. I hear it in my sleep "don't violate the ring" . does the fact that it's thin make the tension not lift a hickory splinter?
Thanks Zach

[Pat B]

Zach, hickory is tough wood with interlocking fibers. It makes a very good backing for bows. Quarter sawn hickory makes the best backings but I have used hickory with all sorts of grain configurations and even some with bad violations and never had a hickory backing failure except for one that had been infected by fungi.
 I don't back good tree staves unless they actually need a backing. Normally I will use it on a board.

[willie]

not the fact that it is thin, but rather it withstands "ring violation" better than the board that you are gluing it to

[LittleBen]

Backings in general allow you to use a less than perfectly grained wood for the belly side.

A hickory backing is as Marc said, a thin strip of (typically although not always) quartersawn hickory. It works because the grain is very straight and the grain runoff is minimal.

Yes you can make your own backing. You just have to be able to read the grain well, select a good quality board, carefully resaw, and thickness to the desired dimension. No different than resaw ing any other thin lamination except the grain is critical, and the thickness needs to be even.

If you have a table saw or bandsaw and a planer or thickness sander (or even just a hand saw and hand plane if you're skilled) then you can make backings. In the old days this is how they would make veneers; as they say, where there's a will, there's a way.

I have not bought backings in a long time and I suspect neither has Marc.

Step one, find a good hardwood supplier who will let you go through the stacks of hickory.

[Marc St Louis]

You can get a quarter sawn wood backing to fail if the backing was cut from spiral growth wood.  I have tried quarter sawn backings and plain sawn backing  and I have had failures from both but oddly enough much less so from the quarter sawn backings

[ty_in_ND]

Step one, find a good hardwood supplier who will let you go through the stacks of hickory.

I don't mean to muddle the topic, but if you are looking for a wood backing, you can also check out hard/sugar/rock maple and white oak boards.  These woods in the same configuration as the hickory (1/8" thick, quartersawn or at the least a very straight grain pattern throughout the board) will also do a good job backing a bow.

Marc's posted a few sweet maple backed bows (not to mention others who've posted great maple backed bows) and there are examples of white oak backed bows on this site as well.  I only wish to add this because maybe it'll be tough to find hickory boards, but hard maple and white oak might be a bit easier to find.

Good luck!

[Dances with squirrels]

Hard maple looks especially nice on yew.

I make my own hickory backings from trees I cut. When you buy lumber, you never really know how the grain is or how it was treated after it was cut. I only use the most perfectly straight grained tree trunks to start with for the reason Marc said. A tree that stands straight but is spiraled inside can produce a lovely looking quartersawn piece whose grain(not growth rings) is 'secretly' violated.

A buddy of mine has a sawmill and I stay right there and guide every cut we make to get the best and most quartersawn lumber I can. Otherwise, he said, he wouldn't do it the same way. He may yield more or bigger lumber his way, a sawyer's normal priorities, but not nearly as much BOW wood. Us bowyers have special needs ya know

I've made quite thin hickory backings for certain belly woods. Less than 1/16" for black cherry bows for instance, so it doesn't crush them. That thin little slice of hickory still holds the reflex too.

[MulchMaker]

I love this site, learn something every day. So it's hickory's wonderful grain that we owe it to. I've got bitternut drying right now. I might have to go get me another tree.  I've got sugar maple too. This is another open door to go through. No wonder this is so much fun, there is so much to learn, and do. So many different woods and backings.
Thanks guys Zach