HHB audition...pics!

[DRon knife]

Hi guy's,I have the lower half off a Hophornbeam tree that I felled a couple months ago. The top half of this tree appeared to have a straight grain,but turned out to be twisted! In my uninformed opinion this lower half also appears to be relatively straight as well. I do plan on splitting this tree anyway but I would like to know what you all think? Your input here will greatly help me to understand what it is I'm looking for out there in the future

 In addition(and I may have really screwed up here) I did find  a good specimen(same time as the log in question above)that split perfect and yielded 4 nice staves,but because they had a slight curve to them I paid them no attention and just left them out in the elements. Now in the interim I've been reading and viewing posts on staves that were far more mucked up than these are,yet people seem too fix these defects and make some very nice bows!! I have brought them indoors now and I don't think the damage is too bad,they have twisted some but not much,and there is a little surface mildew on the bellies(curse of the bottom land I call it),at a glance it doesn't appear that the buggers have gotten to them yet either. so my question to you is,how does one straighten out these staves? or should I even bother with them? As usual the pics aren't that good,but maybe good enough,thank in advance,Ron

[DRon knife]

Now the stave pics.

[Marc St Louis]

If you follow the lines of the bark you will see that that log has some twist as well.  The amount of twist is not that serious and you can still make good bows out of it.  I would kerf and then split.

[Parnell]

I gotta ask - what kinda puppy ya got there?  Looks just like my female did about a year ago...
Mine is a Newfoundland mix.

[Bevan R.]

I think that is a twisted stave pointer

Sorry Ron, could not help myself.

[JW_Halverson]

I suppose I'll be the guy that ends up with the stave the pup widdled on!   

Actually, I'd consider it a "baptized and blessed" stave. 

Send me the worst twist and I'll see if it responds to the heat gun pipe wrench treatment. 

[Marc St Louis]

I suppose I'll be the guy that ends up with the stave the pup widdled on!   

Actually, I'd consider it a "baptized and blessed" stave. 

Send me the worst twist and I'll see if it responds to the heat gun pipe wrench treatment.

It will

[DRon knife]

lol...its a chow lab mix and her name is Baily! So we think its twisted a bit huh? I figured it was cause the top half was, we'll see how it splits.

Jw,I'll send you a beam,but you have to post the whole build !!

Bevan you may be on to something..lol

About the already split staves,I been thinking that I found straight grain once and I'll find it again...I may have already,but I wont know till early summer when I cut it. I am definitely going to try and straighten one or all of those staves,apart from a small twist and a bend to the side(very close to the handle I might add) there in good shape!!

Thanks for the help guys,Ron

[DRon knife]

Well....This is a surprise,I had little faith in that log   That log was a tuff split,HHB is hard as hickory,after the wedges gave split,I had to cut the strands with my chainsaw!

[Bevan R.]

looks like it split pretty straight sir. Congrats!! You got you some future bows!!

[mikekeswick]

Nothing wrong with that.

[blackhawk]

That's about as straight as you can find in HHB....

[DRon knife]

I wish I could say that they were arrow straight but....  That's ok though,JW is going to teach me how to straighten them out,Right JW??  lol!!

Would any one care to chime in on how to prepare these billets for seasoning? The log has been outdoors for two months(propped up off the ground). I didn't see any buggers yet thankfully!!

Thanks for any help PA,RON

[Marc St Louis]

Glad to see you decided to do a bit of kerfing

[JW_Halverson]

Ya done good on that splitting, Ron!  I'll reprise my earlier post, send me any of those and I"ll put some TWIST IN 'EM for ya!