How to choose a good piece of Hickory

[Frosty the Bowman]

Hey can some one give me some advice on how to tell if a piece of Hickory is a good piece for making a board bow or not.

I know with Red Oak you look for tight, striaght grain with no run offs.

Is it the same with Hickory?  I found a piece of the best stuff this store offered and I thought it looked good because it had no knots or other defects in the grain. Looked to be enough to make two bows.

Thanks

[Roy from Pa]

Yup same thing.

[TimBoA]

Hickory is supposed to be more tolerant of minor grain violations.  So far my experience bears that out 100%...my red oak board bow that looked "good enough" broke while doing final tillering, while the hickory one I did after that seems good (so far...).  I believe that is what they call a small sample size though!

[eflanders]

Hickory often shows more grain character than red oak does. This isn't a bad thing but you must be sure it is straight (no run-outs).  Lumber store boards often do not have good grain direction for bowyering because of the way the boards were milled so be very choosey when selecting your board.  Also, watch out for any "pinhole knots" in the board which are quite common in hickory.  These little buggers have caused me problems in the early days far too often.

[Pat B]

If you have a specialty lumber company in or near your town try them out. Most places will allow you to pick through the stacks if you put everything back better than you found it.
  A few years ago I bought a 2"x8"x10' hickory board for $30. I cut it to a 6' and 4' piece and made staves and backing strips from the 6' piece. I gave the 4' piece away to a friend that needed it but I got lots of wood for staves and backing strips for my $30 investment.
Home improvement stores buy whatever lumber is available. Specialty lumber companies are looking for wood that cabinet makers and fine woodworkers can use.
 Check your Yellow Pages and let your fingers do the walking. d;^)

[Frosty the Bowman]

I was looking at a wood specialty store, and the piece I had found was as far as I could tell free from nots, at least the middle 6 or 7 feet, it was a long board, 10-12 maybe.

It was nice and wide, maybe enough for 2 or 3 board bows. to me it was the best piece they had, the ends had knots, but no way around that as the store will cut it but has to have 4' salable board left. That would cut into my good center section.

Can someone post a pic for a refrence for me of a good hicory board please? That would sure help.

The same store carries all kinds of hardwoods, domestic and exotics like Zebrawood  :D  
They can even occasionally order me yew and osage lumber as well.

Thanks guys, I appriciate the help.

[okie64]

Hickory is  harder to read than other woods mostly because the rings are so tiny, especially the earlywood rings. Try to avoid the heartwood part of the board, it will be much darker than the sapwood and it is usually more brittle than the sapwood. It will tolerate more violation than just about any other wood Ive tried.

[k-hat]

All my hickory bows have had heartwood, some a lot of it, and were outstanding.  I've gotten pieces that were pretty much the middle of a large tree, and cut "straight", but had a lot of islands and such. check this thread:

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=006040;p=1#000000

Hickory is awesome as far as durability.  That doesn't mean ignore the grain and such, but what is acceptable with hickory will blow other woods to smitherines.

By the way , i've made 3 or 4 nice bows from pieces like this with no issues whatsoever  

[Pat B]

Check out George Tsoukalas' site. He describes just what to look for in a board for building bows.

[okie64]

You got me Kevin. Since that time Ive had splinters lift on a couple different hickory backings and they were all heartwood backing strips, I stay away from it nowadays. Im guessin the qualities of the heartwood could vary from different species of hickory too.

[k-hat]

Hmm, don't know what to say there.  Maybe it was the batch?  I think i have some heartwoodish stuff on hand, i'll hafta see if i can rip some backing strips and give them a try.

[okie64]

It coulda been a bad batch Kevin, they were boards from a lumberyard. Thats the main thing I like about cutting and handling my own staves, I know how they were handled from start to finish. With boards from a lumberyard you just never know what theyve been through.