Core woods???

[Mafort]

So I’m looking to build my horn bow. Got some horn ready just need to find a core wood. I’ve got hickory, black cherry, Osage orange, red elm, and hackberry. I have a small long of eastern hip hornbeam that’s about 7 years old. It looks a bit twisted though I guess I could straighten it out a bit. Would Osage work?

[bownarra]

Osage works but it is too dense really. Anything ring porous makes things harder. Ideally you want sugar maple. All you need to do is call a bunch of mills and ask for perfectly straight grained, green maple.
Do not use anything twisted that you have straightened. You need to use heat when tillering and the heat would undo any corrections turning the whole thing into a twisted mess

[Pat B]

I don't know as fact but I believe mulberry was one of the traditional core woods used in Asiatic horn bows.

[Ringeck85]

Straight birch or beech can work too (I think those are diffuse porous?), but seconded on sugar maple!

[bownarra]

I don't know as fact but I believe mulberry was one of the traditional core woods used in Asiatic horn bows.

Mulberry was normally used for the tips as it steam bends so incredibly.
Beech has short fibers and birch is too low on density. You could maybe get away with yellow Birch but standard silver birch is no good.
Maple is easy enough to get and a broken core really, really sucks when you have 6 months in a bow
Use only what is proven until you have a few successful hornbows under your belt and then you can use your experience to guide you on corewood choice.

[loefflerchuck]

Birch is one of the best core woods. Yellow birch is hard to tell from sugar maple as far as looks and weight of the wood.

[bownarra]

Interesting the birch you can get must be completely different to the European Birch (silver).

[stuckinthemud]

As I understand it, silver birch isn't great but yellow birch is excellent for bows, but is a species from the US not Europe.  Species from Scandinavia and other cold-climates in Europe are also excellent.  Such a shame Silver Birch is not supposed to be any good for bows, I am surrounded by the stuff.  BUT, this is only what I've been told, its not something I have any experience of in bow making.  I can vouch for it being a very hard, tough, beautiful timber though. How would you test for suitability as a core wood?  As I understand it, sheer resistance as well as bend-ability is important?

[loefflerchuck]

Very true. There is variation in Birch species just like maple. For example the big leaf maple in California is a soft brittle wood while sugar maple out east is great. We have river birch around here that I would not try. I would not trust it. I buy yellow birch imported from the east in our hardwoods store.  I'm in Utah and we have lots of imported Norway maple growing here and I understand it is good and one of the woods used hundreds of years ago. Other invasive trees we have here are Siberian elm that was used in Mongolia in older bows. I have a core shaped here but found a couple knots in one limb so I'm going to cut a new piece. We also have white mulberry, it's not the best mulberry for self bows but I believe it is the same mulberry used in China. Another invasive tree/shrub is tamarisk. It was the core wood in old Scythian bows. Ash was used as a core in Egypt I have used it as a core on one not too stressed design and it works fine. I've seen others make cores of hickory and osage. I think Ivar's world record shots were a yew core Turkish flight bow(I may be mistaken) but it is the only good conifer I know of for cores.

[stuckinthemud]

Norway Maple?  That's as common as silver birch here. Thought it was classed as  soft maple?

[bownarra]

Latin names are very useful when discussing tree names with people who live in other countries
I've made selfbows from silver birch and it is ok. Heat treated belly and it is pretty good. But selfbow wood isn't necessarily hornbow corewood.
I've used quarter sawn ash as a core before as well. No problems and it is a long draw bow. It is just the diffuse porous woods are easier to work with.
Same with osage I've used it a few times BUT it is really getting too dense and I struggle to cut up perfect osage for a core I'd prefer to make a selfie out of it.
In this country elder, any of the elms, hornbeam, ash, maple, yew are the main woods to look for that will make a good hornbow core. Anything ring porous I would use on the quarter.

[loefflerchuck]

Everything says the Norway maple in utah is the same as European.  I can go to the hardwoods place here and spend some time finding a perfect sugar maple or yellow birch and spend $40 on a board that will yield 2 self bows and 5 hornbow cores. Just need to soak them for a couple weeks before attempting to steam bend.