hickory stave

[dbcoopersurvivd]

i am building a bow out of a piece of hickory which i have split myself. i was a little concerned about slight discoloration of the stave and its sturdiness. for example, the normal hickory wood is whitish in color, but there are areas which are darker brown, and some areas are almost yellow. i was wondering what this meant and if it can pose a problem, i.e., loss of strength or tension/compression? the areas which are brown and yellow are quite noticeable and distinct from the white hickory wood.
    

[Dano]

I think what you are seeing is heartwood, if your talking along the inner stave. Most hickory bows are made with all sapwood.

[sailordad]

sapwood hertwood
when it comes to hickory its all good

i have made bows from both
i have made board bows that have had both in them,never had a problem with any of it
except for my lack of skills   lol

[dbcoopersurvivd]

ya, all of the discoloration is along a single ring more or less. i asked a naturalist that i know about it and she doesnt think its a problem but i just wanted to make sure before i get to far into it.

[sailordad]

oh ya by the way

love the user name there D.B.

[dbcoopersurvivd]

haha, thanks. i did a report about him in highshool. most have never heard of him before. such a shame

[GregB]

They found some of the $$$, but that was it as far as I know.

[coyote pup]

Make sure it is the heartwood in the core and not in the sapwood. If you see slightly red or light brown discolorations in the outer whitewood, and especially if you can carve grooves in it with your thumbnail, I wouldn't use it. I've messed with hickory before that had this and I think it's some kind of rot or something because the wood will be softer and more brittle. And I know for sure that it was hickory because it was a shagbark in a shagbark grove. One of the 3 bows I made out of this tree blew up, and hickory should never blow. Splinter, crack, maybe, but BLOW-never. 

[dbcoopersurvivd]

ya, the brown sections are not soft as i cant scrape it with my nails, and the draw knife doesnt quite dig into it noticeably more than the whiter wood. the density doesnt seem to differ so much, though, there are some thin brown strips about a 1/16' wide at most, if not smaller, and they do not seem to be cracks. it does add a nice pattern to the wood though. pretty. 

p.s. the money was found by some kid who was fishing or something along a newly dredged river in washinton, i believe, 20yrs or so later. i remember reading something about an older woman who, after her husband died, said that he resembled a picture of DB that she had seen, and the FBI analyzed a picture of him and he was remarkably similar to the sketch of him that was given by a stewardess.

[dbcoopersurvivd]

im also curious, how should i, or should i, even, break in the bow before recurving it?

[zeNBowyer]

DB Cooper,  makes  me  wonder  about the  millionaire who was  never  found  in  his  plane  wreck  in  Cal  a  few  years ago:)

[Pappy]

I usuall at least get them to brace and sometime shooting before I recurve or flip the tip,witch is what I do most of the time.It sure make it easier to get it braced without the tips flipped.You can
do it anytime but if you do it first be careful because it is really easy to get it to light as you are trying to get it braced,it feels heaver than it really is because of the reflex. Same is true with any high reflex bow. If the wood ant punkey it should be fine.Is it fresh cut ,or when it was cut put in a dry place as soon as it was down or left out for a while,Hickory will dry rot really quick if not treated properly.
   Pappy

[coyote pup]

If it's hard and your thumbnail ain't digging in, you should be fine. When I make a hickory bow, I try to leave as much heartwood on as I can, just because I like the look and I think it makes the bow less prone to string follow.

[dbcoopersurvivd]

i know this may be a newbie question,  , but what does string follow through and to brace mean exactly? ive been reading the bowyers bible on google books and some of the pages are missing, and i havent found a good definition of those terms yet.

[J05H]

"to brace" means to get it bending enough that you can get the final string on it or "brace" it. String follow is how much the bow stays bent toward the archer after it is unstrung. String follow is often confused wit set, which is damage to the belly fibers causing a permanent bend. Say you start with a stave with 2" of reflex. If, after tillering, your bow has 1" of deflex, then it has taken 3" of set, but has only 1" of string follow. Hope this helps. If anyone sees a mistake in my information, feel free to correct it.

Josh