thoughts on long narrow hickory bow,,

[bradsmith2010]

  Didnt want to hijack Organics thread,, but had some thoughts on the long hickory,, as suggested,, probably not the best wood for that design,, but would work,,heat treating would help alot,,I have not made alot of hickory bows like that,, but did make one from scrap piece,, 70 inches long and 1 inch wide, I was surprised how well it shot ,, and really didnt follow the string that much,,
  I think a hickory bow in the 50# range would shure kill a deer,, even with string follow,, the accuracy would be equal to any,,hickory likes to take on moisture more than I like,, but if that was the best stave I had I would hunt with it,, I have read that some heat treating methods reduce the tendency to take on moisture,, I have not experienced that myself,,
   now if you were going to sinew back that profile would be nice in a shorter version,, either way think it would kill a deer,,

[BowEd]

I have a number of heat treated hickory bows here.The amount of poundage loss from winter to summer because of the humidity is no more than that of osage.Range differences average from 2 to 4 pounds.
Sinewed bows can be more though.Especially if there is at least 3 ounces of sinew on the bow.
Here the humidity ranges from 35 percent in the winter to sometimes 70 to 80 percent in the summer.The humidity does'nt stay that long at those percents.Usually around 45 to 65 percent average.
I keep a dehumidifier running in the house throughout the summer.

[bradsmith2010]

we live in Different worlds, Im in Santa Fe,, 7000 feet,, and its so dry here,,,I probably need to run a humidifier,,its a definite consideration,, when I make a bow here and send it to a different climate,, osage seems to transition well to a different climate,, Im sure sinew would not be so stable,,

[Pat B]

Hickory loves dry, as you know. I think a long, narrow hickory bow would work pretty well there. Around here a wider hickory bow seem to work better.

[bradsmith2010]

ok I should know this but welcome input, Eastern Woodland bows,, some where long and narrow,, war bows, but flat belly right,,

[PatM]

 Definitely a very viable choice, especially where you  are.  Narrow Hickory was used where it arguably is not a good choice.

[organic_archer]

I’d say go for it! 70” long sounds nice, but a width of 1.25” or 1.5” might be a little better. I’ve made lots of 1.5” wide bendy handles and they’re not as finicky about arrow spine as you’d expect. I’ll post an ERC longbow with a 1.5” midsection here shortly.

Maybe instead of a full D cross section for hickory, something more like a squished oval? Heavily rounded but still with a narrow flat section in the center of the belly? Shaped like “0” and heat treated as you mentioned.

It might take some string follow, but it’s not that big of a deal. It’s always the goal to have as little as possible but there’s no reason to discard a bow for it unless it’s clearly a dud when you shoot it.

I did an experiment with a green, sopping wet hackberry bow last fall. Force dried it over a fire, crafted it into a bow, and hunted with it. It took over 3” of permanent set and passed an arrow clean through a mature doe at 7 yards.

*Edited for grammar errors.

[Buckskinner]

That's a cool hunt.  I just checked out your website, awesome gallery and sexy bows!

Well, I'm giving the narrow hickory a go, I had a really nice stave with natural reflex that I goofed on the profiling anyway.  Started working on it this morning and have it to floor tillering.  It's not going to push any big boundaries as I'm shooting for about 35-40# for a bow to start shooting again after my shoulder injury.  I'll definitely heat treat the belly.