got hickory

[broketooth]

i just got a hickory stave from a fellow tg member. i wanna make a new selfbow out of it. ive never attempted hickory and i want to do this right from the beginning. i have made other attempts at selfbows but they ended up in the burn pile. the other woods ive made attempts on were osage and mulberry so the sap wood had to go. not so with hickory to my understanding. i will post pics of the stave later thankyou batman for the hickory. very cool  

[Roy Steele]

Hickory is my favorit white wood.Just keep the moisture content down and you will build yourself a nice selfbow.I have a hickory bow I killed 9 bucks with.It was all time favorit bow.Hunted with it for 5 seasons before I retired it.that was 12 years ago and I still take it down every now and then and shoot it.

[George Tsoukalas]

Love it. My site has info. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[broketooth]

is the bark on hickory really thin, brown stuff im assuming is the cambium underneath?

[Pat B]

The wood you want is white white! Bark and cambium are not.

[broketooth]

mr pat , am i doin right by using the draw knife to take the bark off , or should i use a tool that is not as agressive

[formerbutcher]

I use a draw knife. You can leave some of the cambium on it for camo if you want. I'll try and post a pic of one i'm working on.
 

See if this works.

[formerbutcher]

Here's another one.  

John

[broketooth]

i spent a lot of time using a pocket knife scraping a lot of the cambium off am i still good to go

[formerbutcher]

Sure !

[Pat B]

The wood under the cambium has ridges and valleys that you have to consider. A draw knife will work fine but work gingerly when you get near the back. John's pics above will show you what you can expect when the bark and most of the cambium is off. If you don't like the traces of cambium on the back you can remove it with a pocket knife or goose neck scraper. I don't mind and prefer the streaks of cambium showing. Works as natural camo.

[broketooth]

i still plan on using a rawhide backing.but i was wondering . when i soak the backing materialin cold water is there any way i can use some kind of dye in it so i dont have to stain the actual wood