Hickory D-bow

[WindhoverMark]

I've been really enjoying making bendy handles and this one is my favorite so far. It's a short piece of hickory I harvested out of a fenceline. It had already been topped so all I was going to get out of it was 63". I split it in half and made two D-bows out of it. With this one I was trying to maximize efficiency by applying the mass principle. It currently weighs a hair under 1lb which is still 3oz heavy. But I was starting to get nervous that taking anymore off would destroy the bow (the limbs are only 1.25" wide).
After heat treating it shoots 52# at 28" and still holds a very slight amount of reflex unstrung. My leather work isn't the greatest, but it'll hunt.
Of the woods I have worked with so far, hickory is absolutely my favorite (my osage is still seasoning). I can understand why it has the reputation it does. It's super forgiving to the beginning bowery and dang near indestructible.

[superdav95]

Congrats on that bow.  Looks great!  Bend looks very good too.  The cook looks good from the pics.  Makes a huge difference for hickory. 

[TimBo]

Nice - that is a good looking bow!

[PEARL DRUMS]

A more square pic fully drawn pic would make it easier to see your extra ounces. From what I can see your mid limbs need more movement, they are a bit flat. I bet its close to the 3 ozs you are looking for.

[BowEd]

Hickory IMO can be a top notch type wood.Nice bow you made there while paying attention to details.
In the future not quite so near handle or round in the handle bending on these D bows.You can get away with no hand shock with hickory but when making the same bow from osage more than likely there will be some.
The osage will need to be a more eliptical type bending bow because of it's density.

[WindhoverMark]

A more square pic fully drawn pic would make it easier to see your extra ounces. From what I can see your mid limbs need more movement, they are a bit flat. I bet its close to the 3 ozs you are looking for.

I think I can get closer on my next attempt. I really started paying attention to mass pretty late in the tiller on this one and like I said, was just a bit too worried I was going to end up ruining the bow so I decided this was a good stopping point.

Hickory IMO can be a top notch type wood.Nice bow you made there while paying attention to details.
In the future not quite so near handle or round in the handle bending on these D bows.You can get away with no hand shock with hickory but when making the same bow from osage more than likely there will be some.
The osage will need to be a more eliptical type bending bow because of it's density.

It's a pretty sweet shooter (for a bendy), handshock is suprisingly light. But I am shooting fairly heavy arrows with high FOC. Not sure what you mean by "round in the handle" bend, does that mean continue the circular tiller through the handle?

[George Tsoukalas]

Mark, very nice bow. Looks like the bottom limb is tillered well. The top may needs more movement  mid limb on.

But if she balances in the hand at full shoots well. I probably would leave it.

Jawge

[PaSteve]

Nice job on that bow. Good luck hunting with it.

[Aksel]

Nice bow!

You could reduce mass by making pin nocks.

[Pappy]

Looks good to me, I like hickory also, very good bow wood if treated right.
 Pappy

[M2A]

Sometimes those fence row hickories can be a real nightmare with twisting/interlocking grain. Good looking bow you got there. Nice job working with the character.
Mike   

[Buckskinner]

That is a sweet looking bow and pretty clean for a fence line tree!  I think I would tighten your flemish loop a bit if it were me, at least the one shown.

I'm a rookie but really love the hickory and am blessed that they are very plentiful around here.  I actually just had to cut a large one that fell over a backroad, over 30" diameter and didn't take any staves from it, I have more than enough already.  I did cut the prime section at 7' just in case I change my mind...