Any tips to make hickory perform

[RAU]

The only bows I've made that I enjoy shooting or have killed deer with are made of Osage. Osage is tough to come by around here and I can't pay $100 for a stave. Ive got a few dry hickory staves on hand but every hickory bow I've made has been a slug!! I've decided to build my 2017 hunting bow out of hickory and do the best I can to get some performance out of it. I live in NE Pa and I think the humidity is part of the problem I've had with hickory in the past.  Any tips you guys that work with hickory a lot can offer to help me build my 2017 hickory hunting bow that doesn't shoot like a wet noodle with inches of string folllow? Thanks

[PEARL DRUMS]

Temper it correctly and seal it well with polyurethane spray, 6-7 coats. No doubt hickory does absorb moisture a bit more than most, but I think that gets blown way out of proportion by folks with no experience, they are simply repeating something they read. There is no reason you cant make a good shooting hickory bow.

[PEARL DRUMS]

One more bit. Keep it stored somewhere inside the house. Somewhere the humidity is mostly constant. The few hours you hunt with it or shoot it wont have any effect. It takes days and days for moisture to enter or exit a finished bow and actually change it.

[BowEd]

Pearlls' on the right rail here and it's pleasant to hear that stigma squelched from a good bow maker..I rough mine out.Take it inside at 50% humidity a few weeks till it quits losing weight from moisture leaving and then some.If you got a hot box that'll hurry things up even more.I don't use one myself.I'd shellack the back and ends then for sure.While tillering I keep it inside.Seal it up really good after tillering,and it's ready.
It loves a heat treatment but don't do that till it's dry till during the tillering stages.

[Onebowonder]

Moving to a dessert clime does make a hickory bow into a high performance machine, ...but it is usually not really an option for most guys.

I've also found that Hickory is SUPER tough in tension.  Mind, it is pretty good in compression too, but the tension strength is out of balance to the extra high powered tension strength.  To balance this out, here are a few tips I have used:

1] Go for an extra flat and wide limb cross section that puts the belly wood in a single plane as much as possible.
2] 'Trap' the back of the limb so that the width of the back of each limb is significantly less than the belly.
3] Heat treat the belly till it is just short of caramelization, being careful to keep the back fibers of the limb cool while doing so.
4] Seal it well after you have it tuned and tillered.
5] ...and perhaps most importantly - GO SLOW!  Once set has occurred, the damaged fibers in the belly do not recover.  When striving for peak performance, when working with woods that do not have well balanced compression to tension strengths, it is so very critical to never go beyond target weight or bend.

Some guys keep the bow in a hot drying box between tillering sessions.  If you live someplace that is very humid, this may be needed.

Hope these help...

OneBow

[BowEd]

Other options with hickory and osage are possible too if things are tight.Getting more out of less material.Other then self bows.A hickory backed osage glued up into a perry reflex is another way of making the best of things with limited materials too.I for one am going to do one of those sometime myself.I've done the BBO's before into a D/R design that were pretty sweet.

[George Tsoukalas]

Keep it between 6-8% moisture content and once it is done store it in AC.
Heat treating definitely helps.
Jawge

[osage outlaw]

Build yourself a simple hot box.  I've put hickory staves in a hot car before and kept track of the water weight they lost. 

[bubby]

Keep it dry and dont over build it

[Stick Bender]

 Glad to see all the positive comments on hickory , dry wood, right design & right mass,right skills and you will end up with a nice bow there are those that posted here that have made some incredibly fast hickory bows also hickory/sinew is a nice combo !

[Pappy]

Yep, they have about covered it on how to build a nice Hickory bow, Hickory make a great bow, it just needs a little more TLC than some other woods.
 Pappy

[LittleBen]

I have personally always found hickory to be a great bow wood. I live in the northeast, so the humidity is typically moderate-humid.

Three things:

Trap the back and/or use a crowned stave, and/or heat treat belly.

Store it inside.

Use a polyurethane finish, probably wouldn't hurt to paste wax it either.


As mentioned earlier, if you store it inside, one day of hunting is not going to change the MC enough to matter. I personally think that many hickory bows feel soggy because the belly wood is overstressed not because they are too moist.

Hickory backing can crush an Ipe belly, so what chance does a hickory belly have. TRAP THE BACK.

[H Rhodes]

I agree with Pearlie on hickory.  I live a couple hours drive from the Gulf of Mexico - southwest Alabama.  Heat and humidity abounds and I have no problems with hickory.  My bows hang on a rack indoors with the air conditioning and they seem to shoot fine for as long as I can endure the heat myself.  Hickory is fine bow wood.