the start of something special(hopefully)

[sailordad]

well i know i said ia wasnt gonn post anything about my trade bow
but what the hell,i changed my mind 

this is a hhb stave,its 66"ttt,1.75" full length right now
it took numerous hours to remove the bark and cambium (with a pocket knife)
i wanted as much off as possible to show the texture of the back
the shape is how the stave split out,it was 3" wide its entire length
so i made a jig with a pencil in the middle of it to follow the natural center of the stave
then made it to this width,i dont plan on trying to straighten it or take the natural twist out
the twist may come out during tillering,and as far as straightening it
why,i lay a string from tip to tip and it drops just ever so slighty to one side of dead center on the handle
i may stain the back of the bow but i plan on keeping the belly natural
unfortunatly it will loose most if not all of the nice darker heartwood thru tillering
but the the white wood is realy nice too

heres some pics




 




thanks for looking

                                                                            peace,
                                                                                   tim

[Elktracker]

OOOOOoooooo AAAAAAaaaaaaaa Looks like thats gonna be a gooden glad you decided to share your work with us all

[Lee Slikkers]

Saweeet!  I like it and the curves...

[toomanyknots]

"unfortunatly it will loose most if not all of the nice darker heartwood thru tillering"

Noooooooooo... , I've been making my mulberry bows with the sapwood on less wide on purpose to try to keep all the heartwood I can. It can be hard with a shorter bow, unless you want a 56" bow that pulls 100#! 

[sailordad]

thanks guys

tmk, ya doing that with this would make the bow less than an inch wide
        theres not much dark heartwood to start with,and this is still .8" thick
       

[DEllis]

that back will be beautifull, can't wait to see more of this one.
Darcy

[Pappy]

Looks like a good start,great looking piece on HHB. Should make a great bow. Never made one with that much heartwood.   Usually by the time I get it roughed in to bow size, heartwood is all gone. 
   Pappy

[ohma]

looking forward to finish on that one.

[NTD]

Looks good Tim.  I think HHB will hold up fine down here in Tucson

[ErictheViking]

looking good. agree that the back will look sweet.

[John K]

Nice Tim, looking forward to more pics 

[sailordad]

thanks everyone

Pappy, iam 99.9% positive that there wonr be any heartwood left by time its finished
if there is any left it will be in the handle area

[Dvshunter]

I've never worked hhb so this may sound redundant, but couldn't you just chase a few rings down and keep some heartwood in the bow?

[sailordad]

I've never worked hhb so this may sound redundant, but couldn't you just chase a few rings down and keep some heartwood in the bow?

nope,not possible
atleast not be me
hhb has fine rings,peole who like yew talk about high ring count per inch
they wish yew could have this kind of ring count 
the growth rings are very very fine,like frogs hair,and tight together
atleast on hhb from here in minnesota
i will try and take a pic of it from another stave from the same log
i will post it later

[barebo]

I can vouch for the high ring count for the HHB here in central NY also. It's a painstaking task to get the cambium out from those undulations on the back !! I just split a 12" log (big for HHB) and got some amazing staves - made my first recurve from one and can't wait to start another. It really responds to the heat gun, and I boiled my tips and it bent amazingly well. Best Whitewood for me, and I love maple for flatbows, but it doesn't compare.