Softwood cores

[Tom Dulaney]

I'm looking for more info about softwood (and soft-ish hardwood)  cores for hornbows. Most hornbow cores are made from relatively hard woods like maple, but at least one horn bow (the Conot Uul bow from Mongolia) had a willow core. I'm thinking about building a bow with a wood core of juniper, eastern red cedar, incense cedar or walnut.

I've heard someone here mention that a juniper core failed in a hornbow, but if the Conot Uul bow was made with willow, it's possible that some other factor than the softness led to the failure of that bow.

[BowEd]

An investment in time and effort is needed.Actually because of the short limbs and low mass of them I think it would'nt make much difference performance wise.Unless accessability of local materials determines it.

[Tom Dulaney]

Yeah, I'm in an area where there are few hardwood samples that are suitable. My concern is not performance but whether soft woods can handle the hardness of the horn, and how that might cause failure.

[bownarra]

Horn has a fair amount less resistance to bending than wood has. It can simply be bent further.
Willow can bend pretty far. Willow is used to make cricket bats and is actually a wood with a funny set of properties.
Juniper and erc are nothing like willow. Incense cedar could work....
The easiest way to get a good core is to contact wood mills in Canada and get them to send you some green,flat sawn, perfectly straight grained maple. I've done it and got premium material. Indeed if I hadn't gone down this route I doubt I'd ever have got good enough material. The core must be absolutely flawless or else it will break.
Hornboiws were made with a set of materials that allow the thing to work, change one of the material to something subpar and you are in for a lot of heartache! By all means experiment but bear in mind that the materials settled on where the concensus of knowledge from many thousands of people who really knew what they were doing. A good craftsman would never waste time making something that may or may not hold together so they used solid, proven materials.
Anyway good luck

[Tom Dulaney]

Seeking more opinions here on whether juniper is good for a hornbow core. I think Juniper bends way, way, further than willow...

[loefflerchuck]

I think it comes down to crushing strength here. I think the old Mongol willow core bow was over 60" long and a non contact recurve if I remember right. ERC has a higher crushing strength than RMJ, but not sure if either are more thanthe willow used in that old bow. If your talking about making a long hornbow with a draw of under 30" I think juniper would be fine, but I dare you to make a short flight bow with that core. Yew is pretty light conifer and was used and is now used in great hornbow cores.