Hickory bow design suggestions

[Fox]

Soo, I have a hickory stave it's pretty straight, it's got probly an inch of reflex, and it's about 2" wide and  75" long split from a pretty good sized tree. I would like to make a bow of hunting weight im thinking a recurve of some kind. My draw is 26". What's all of your opinions on design?    Thanks.

  -fox

[Pat B]

For a recurve I'd go 66" long, 1 1/2" to 2" wide out most of the limb then taper to 1" wide for now. Once you bend the recurves and get to low brace you can reduce the tip width to 3/8" or less.

[PatM]

The old Ben Pearson Deerslayer design is as good as any.

[Fox]

Alright thanks guys. Another question... So I cut it in winter and I am having trouble getting the cambium off I put it in a hot shower for 20 minutes or so and that didn't work. How should I get it off?

[artcher1]

If your wood was cut this winter I'd leave some extra width for lateral shrinkage. For a finished recurve bow, I'd want 1 3/4" finished width myself. Anything from 60" to 66" will work @ 26" for a nice hunting weight bow. You can use a drawknife to remove the cambium layer, but with hickory, you don't have to follow a growth ring. I often take a ferrier's rasp and smooth up a hickory's back. But if you like a camo effect, you can leave a bit of cambium here and there for that using a drawknife. Good luck...….Art

[Fox]

Wow you don't have to follow growth rings with hickery?? Phew that's helpfull. I cut it last winter so it should be pretty dry.

[artcher1]

As long as you don't have any knots to worry about you're fine. I even slightly concaved one hickory and it turned out just fine. Hickory is used for backing bows and it's cut flat, quarter and biased.....Art

[Fox]

Oh right course... Thanks again archer.

[Fox]

Another question... What do you guys recommend for beginner hunting waight? I've shot bows since I was pretty tiny  and can probly draw to about 65 ib but not sure what the easiest waight to start hunting with would be.

[RyanY]

I think one should always try and follow a growth ring, even with hickory. I wouldn’t violate a ring just to flatten a back. Just use the outer most ring as the back. The cambium can easily be taken off with a draw knife and scraper.

[gutpile]

I draw about same.. mine are no longer than 60"... and recurved last five inch of limbs.. static tips... if in south .. must be below 12% and kept indoors . 4 inch handle 1-1/2 fades 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 wide to about mid limb and from there to 1/2 tips....gut

[Weylin]

I think one should always try and follow a growth ring, even with hickory. I wouldn’t violate a ring just to flatten a back. Just use the outer most ring as the back. The cambium can easily be taken off with a draw knife and scraper.

I agree. no reason to violate the rings if you don't have to. take most of the bark and cambium off with a draw knife but stop sort of actually touching the top growth ring with the draw knife. Then you can switch over to a goose neck scraper and carefully remove the cambium that's left. If you're wanting to be even more careful than that you can pour boiling water over a section of cambium and scrape the wet cambium off with a spoon and steel kitchen scrubby. That will be even less likely to violate the ring but will take more time. I wouldn't follow the advice of rasping the back down flat. You might as well buy a board at that point. Nothing wrong with a board bow, but why violate all those rings and decrown a perfectly good stave if you don't have to.

[Fox]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I took the bark off and used a orbital sander to get most of the cambium off, didn't violate the rings much (I think)  I am in VA so not to far south. I dont have a moistet meter, but the stave was cut last March, and has been in my house near the wood stove for probly 2-3 months ... I put it in the shower to tryan take the cambuim off but I'm worried that was a bad idea raising the MC to high, not sure though...

[Weylin]

Get the cambium off, lay out the bow and rough it out so it's bending a bit at floor tiller. Chances are it still has some moisture to lose. Once you get it to that point weigh the stave on an accurate scale with small units and write it down. Check the stave once a week for a few weeks and see if it's losing any weight. Sometimes you can even feel the moisture in a stave when you cut down into wood that's been unexposed. It feels a little cool to the touch. You'll kick yourself later if you start bending it while it's still too wet. Be patient and make sure it's good and dry. You may consider heat tempering the belly if you're planning to shoot it in VA. Look up Marc St. Louis' heat tempering process. 

[Fox]

Okay thanks will do.