Self Bow woods

[Jaenak]

I'm working on a project bow right now that had the limbs naturally deflexed by 0.75 inches and 1.5 inches.  I noticed the other day that if I took the bow, put the bow flat on the ground with the deflex pointed down, put my right hand on a spot about 8 to 10 inches from the tip of the limb, grabbed the bow handle in my left hand and gently bent the bow about six inches in the air (measured from the handle to the floor) and held it there for about 3 minutes with the limb tip on the floor and the bow limb bent around my right hand pressing gently but firmly against the limb, I noticed that after I let it up and measured the extent of the natural deflex, I can reduce it by 1/16th of an inch every time I do that.  I did that to the one limb that was 0.75 inches deflexed a couple weeks ago and so far it's held the same and hasn't reverted back.  The other limb that was 1.5 inches deflexed, I've got down to 3/8ths of an inch.  This self bow is solid hickory.  I'm afraid that if I can do this in a few minutes to correct a natural deflex, what is the bow going to do if I shoot for about 1 hour a day for a week?  One hour and 12 minutes for an inch and a half versus 7 hours in one week.  What I'm afraid of is that over the course of however long due to natural use, if the wood is this responsive to permanent bending, the bow is going to adopt an unheard of deflex resulting in an almost unusable bow.

I remember hearing somewhere that Hickory is famous for being heavy, tough as nails, a bit sluggish, and "takes a nasty set".  I can attest to all those points except being "sluggish" since I've never shot a hickory bow before.

I know this is asking alot but do any of you know of a wood that's strong in both compression and expansion (due to the rigors of being a self bow), responsive (instead of being sluggish), and is very very resistant to "taking a set"?

I'm not terribly familiar with all the types of wood people use in making bows and I know there's many many people here at the Trad Gang that are WAY better than me.

[George Tsoukalas]

Hickory likes to have a moisture content of 6-8% which is pretty dry. I think its reputation for being sluggish and for taking set is because people are trying to work it wet or are not keeping it dry. It's not a really good idea to bend selfbows backwards. I think your piece may be too wet to be a bow. Hickory is one of my favorite bow woods along with osage, black locust and the oaks. Jawge

[Roy Steele]

Two things will help you out with hickory.Start out with a well seasoned stave.And you build your bow I put mine in my hot box each time I'm done for the day.Put it on as low a temp.as it will go.This will do to things it will stop it from soaking up exture moisture from the air.And keep it as low temp.as you can get.And it will keep it around 6 to 8%.and won't let exture moisture it in it.I've built at least 15 hickory bows this way.
  Next don't leave your limbs bent for over a few seconds at a time.The more stress the more string follow same the moisture to much and you have string follow.
  Build yourself a tilling board with a pully system with a scale at eye level.So when you tiller your limbs are only bent for a few seconds while you look at them at eye level this helps.And when finished hot box now I'm not saying for weeks at a time.You'll have to be the judge to that or buy a moisture meter.
  Hickory is my favoret white wood.If your bow starts with a little reflex It will have a little reflex a or have very little string follow.
  All or my hickory bows are this way my favoret all time bow was a 64"26"@61#s I kiiled 9 bucks who know how many doe's and small game,shot it 1oo's of thouands of times.I still get it out and shoot a few arrows through it once in a while.And it's 14 years old and still has less than inch string follow.
   Build your hickory bow like this and you can't go wrong.Remember and inch of string follows is'nt that bad In a selfbow most think its better to have a little.PM me if you have any questions.

[Jaenak]

hmmm...
I never thought that it might still be too wet.  Thanks guys, I'll look into that avenue.

Also, is the purpose of a hot box to dry out the bow?  I've only heard of hot boxes being used for laminated bows when gluing up the laminations.

[Dano]

In humid climates, it's a good idea to keep selfbow wood in a hot box just to keep it dry, not really to dry it, but keep it dry while it is worked, especially hickory. When I lived in Illinois I kept my hot box at 90 degs. which should keep wood at 8 or 9 % MC. You can get a thermometer and humidity gauge and use this calculator,in this link. Here in Nevada, I need to get the moisture back up.   :rolleyes:  

 http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/emc.htm

[The Gopher]

I agree with Jawge, i love hickory, but it needs to be drier than other woods. get it dry and you'll be suprised what you can do with hickory...and waht hickory can do for you. Also i don't think there is a better (tough and available) wood than hickory for building board bows.

[John Scifres]

Your bow's design will help you attain the goals you set.  In other words, you must design the bow for the wood you have and not force a design on a piece.  Wood varies greatly in its characteristics.  

A good, overbuilt design for hickory, is 68" NTN, 4" rigid handle, 2" fades, 1-3/4" wide for half the limb tapering to 1/2" nocks.  Take the length down to 66" and the width down to 1-1/2" for exceptional hickory or osage.  Your first few will have between 2 and 4" of set.  Careful tillering and experience will help with that but you can assume 2" of set on any bow you make.  Starting with 2" of reflex, natural or heat bent in, will ameliorate this.  Once you build a few like this, you can start getting closer to the margins on design.

Dry wood, selected well is assumed.

[Dano]

Well put, "ameliorate" Dang nice word John.