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Author Topic: Honeysuckle bows  (Read 1727 times)

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Offline Badger

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Honeysuckle bows
« on: March 23, 2018, 06:36:19 pm »
  Anyone here worked with honeysuckle? I did one and it seemed like a hard dense bow wood. I only had 48" and a 1" piece to work with. There is a guy in Sothern Ohio getting ready to tear out a bunch with stocks and branches up to 6".
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Offline Springbuck

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Re: Honeysuckle bows
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2018, 06:41:41 pm »
  I have not, Steve, but I remember a lot of guys talking about it and seeing a few bows back when I spent more time on stickbow.com's Leatherwall.  6" diameter seems BIG for honeysuckle.
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Offline upstatenybowyer

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Re: Honeysuckle bows
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2018, 07:15:34 pm »
I've tried 3 times, all failures. I know it will make a bow. There's a guy on PA, I think his name is Dylan, who has made some nice ones.

I believe my failures were due to a number of factors... wrong design, too narrow (couldn't be helped due to size of the stave), and my guess is it's not great in tension. All were tension failures.
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"Even as the archer loves the arrow that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains constant in his hands."

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Offline BowEd

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Re: Honeysuckle bows
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2018, 07:46:26 pm »
I've got it growing here but mostly suitable for arrow shafts and that's about it.I keep looking though for an off chance I can find one big enough and long enough and half way straight enough....lol.
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BowEd
You got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
Ed

Offline osage outlaw

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Re: Honeysuckle bows
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2018, 08:44:51 pm »
I've got some drying to test out.  It seems very stiff.  Even the small diameter stuff doesn't want to bend.  I think it would be easier to find good billet length pieces than full stave length sections. 
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I started out with nothin' and I still got most of it left

Limbit

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Re: Honeysuckle bows
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2018, 12:42:16 am »
Ask Dylan Holderman. He has made quite a few and posted them here. I actually got some billets of honeysuckle from him that I am still waiting to use. I think the issue might be that the wood has a lot of indentations right under he bark they may cause it to fail in tension if this is the back. Also, the wood is typically very small in diameter, so the heartwood is rarely utilised and you are forced to make a thin design. This may also be leading to failures for some folks. An HLD would probably work best for these smaller diameter pieces. When you look at it, it seems similar to Osage in that the heart wood is probably significantly better than the sap wood. I'd imagine a heartwood bow would be excellent. You may be lucky enough to get one like that id you have such big diameter stuff. I'd be happy to do a trade for some billets if you are getting a large haul of it.
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