Help with hickory bow

[Jojotater]

I want to try my hand at making a hickory self bow. I want to make it around 55 to 60 pounds at 26.5 inch draw. I would appreciate some of you guys that have had good success with hickory give me some dimensions to try. I hope this will be the first bow of many. I have been studying the video by Gary Davis, but it mainly deals with osage orange.

I have my eye on a tree to cut; it is about 8 inches in diameter, straight and pretty. I think I will wait for it to leaf out before I cut it so the bark will slip off easily. Any advice at all about working with hickory will be greatly appreciated.

Do any of you consider a hickory bow your favorite bow?

One more thing: What one book on building self bows do you consider to be the best one?

Thanks,

John

[eagleone]

a good, no nonsense, quick read is the bent stick by paul comstock

[fishfinder401]

i don't know anything about working with hickory, but i wanted to make sure you know you have to wait around 6 months at least for the wood to dry and cure for it to be usable, besides that, i hope someone who knows more answers
good luck
noel

[ken75]

well ill jump on this one if no one else will . hickory is to me an excellent bow wood . that being said understanding it will go a long way towards having a great bow. first if cut and split and the bark removed you can reduce to near bow measurements and quick dry some in a hot box or inside your home . box will take several days at around 100 degrees and inside will take a week or two.second understand that hickory is extremely strong in tension so to make a low set bow you have to narrow (trap) the back or use a high crown stave.this helps to equal the tension compression forces.  it is probably the best sapling wood because of the high crown back of small diameter trees.at that draw weight and length i would try for 66 inches in length or greater and around 1 1/2 to 2 inches at the handle fade . center three foot of the bow same width and narrowing from there to the tips. after some expirence you can shorten these lengths some.hope this helps and remember its just my opinion not stone writing. tbb 1 is your best bet for books

[okie64]

Hickory is a great bow wood but like Ken said it is a lot stronger in tension than compression. I've never tried trapping hickory but it works great when heat-treated. I usually heat in a couple of inches of reflex and it usually keeps an inch or so of it after being shot in. Hickory used to be my favorite bow wood till I started workin with osage. To answer your last question TBB4.

[Pappy]

Hickory makes a fine bow,the dimensions given above should be about right for what you
want.Like has been said,keep it Dry. Gary's video will guide you through the tillering process
not much difference in tillering Osage[clean] and Hickory except Hickory is not quite as forgiving.
Go slow and keep things bending even and it will be fine.
   Pappy

[George Tsoukalas]

Like Ken said take one of those staves, rough it out, and get it to floor tillering. Let the limbs bend a few inches. Do leave the nocks wide and the handle full width. You an shape them later after the first stringing. There are buildalongs on my  site.  Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[crooketarrow]

   My favoret bow wood, it's all perty much all been said. I like my tips to finish at 3/8's Keep it inside up high with the heat to stop it from sucking up mosture when ever your not working on it.. If your going to work on every day untill it's done. I use a hot box with the lid opened fairly wide. But you can't leave it or it will get to britle. This helps with string follow as well as never over stress you limbs. This damages wood cells causes string follow also. Hickory likes collect moisture so make sure you start out with a seasoned stave. I'll even but mine in a box box after it's finished before I dye and seal it. Tiller it well and follow these steps and you'll end up with a bow with out string follow thats fast and snappy good cast and will never were out in hundards of thousands of arrows.
                    BENT STICK

[eflanders]

One thing that wasn't mentioned yet was that Hickory will split or check if dried too fast so please be conscious of that if you opt for the heat box suggestion for drying. 

Hickory does temper/harden very nice but I personally wouldn't suggest doing it on a first-time self bow. 

Now if your bow is a bit snakey, it will also shape quite nicely with heat.  For shaping/forming, I would suggest doing that with steam if the stave is still green.

[Jojotater]

Thanks Guys, all that is a lot of help. Anymore input will be appreciated.

Do any of y'all use any kind of shelf at all. I now shoot a Bear Montana, so I'm assuming if I make a bow with no shelf there will be a learning curve and a big change in the spine of my arrows.