First hickory stave build. Advice please!!!

[Keith Wolfe]

Cleaned up the splinters and dirt on this hickory I got about a week ago. Most expensive wood I've  ever bought for.just one bow so this is for me!!! I'm clear on everything except.... do y'all sand down the ripples on the back i like them but didn't know. Got it on etsy, probably from a member here. I love it!!! $90 or something like that.

[Forwardhandle]

I wouldnt touch the back if it where me , hickory makes a great bow pignut or shag bark & pecan is all I have every used my first bow I ever made was hickory it had the worst tiller of any bow and yet 30 yrs later it still shoots that is if I wanted to rattle my teeth out 

[Pat B]

You'll not get a better back than the back under the bark. Do as little to it as possible. Light sanding before you add a finish is OK but I wouldn't do any more.
I think you paid too much for that hickory stave but I haven't bought a stave in a long time. I did buy a 72"x4" osage stave at the Tenn. Classic last year for $50 and it was cut 2 years before.

[Keith Wolfe]

Oh I'm sure i did pay too much but I wasn't in the shopping mood. I can get a 2nd narrow bow out of it too. This dude does know what he's doing though, from Illinois, supposed to be a true hickory, not pecan which is another reason i got it. ihave plenty of great hickory pecan. That's my go to. At least you get what you expect and hope for so for myself, I'm in.

[Flem]

I would not touch the back. Besides, it looks way cool with all those warts and ripples!
Thats a nice looking piece of Hickory you got there!

[Pat B]

Pecan is a true hickory. Same genus, different species just like pignut, shag bark, etc.
 It is a nice clean piece of hickory. Lots of potential there for sure.

[Keith Wolfe]

I know pecan is a hickory. Just wanted best densest. Hardest, highest specific gravity hickory i could get me hands on. I know pecan. Just sayin, heres nice hickory im glad to have. Cant get anything but hickory pecan and  i do. I wanted the hardest and supposedly toughest. Look at the charts and pecan is great but isnt that. Any questions?

[TradBowyer]

I cut my self bow building on hickory since I have a ton of it behind my dads house. couple suggestions...keep the limbs no less than 1.75" wide and get it dry. Just leaving it out to stabilize will not do it. I've taken heat from saying this in the past but I stand by it. Hickory soaks up moisture more than most woods and unless you get a drying box or some other way to drive the moisture out, the best you'll get it down to is about 12% and it will take lots of set and shoot very poorly. You need it no more than 6%. I always use a moisture meter when I'm working with hickory. That being said, hickory is very good self bow wood. It can take some mistakes and still shoot. Like others have said...don't touch the back. leave it as is. keep us up to date with how its going.

[Pat B]

I agree with Tim. Hickory is the only bow wood I know of that can handle 6% M/C and it preforms best at the lower M/C. It becomes a slug when worked at normal bow wood M/C.

[Forwardhandle]

I think with hickory it depends on how dry the wood was when made & how the bow is stored I usually have my staves inside at 50% RH for a minimum of 1 yr I have some staves inside for 3 yrs now but I have never exsperienced slugishness like was said when the bows are stored at 50% RH I do notice that my hickory/sinew bows usally pic up a few pounds in the winter , I think when dry it would take a while in high humidity to effect the internal RH !

[TradBowyer]

Forward...I know it would seem that way but it's not. Without a moisture meter you cant see it. For example I have a stave I'm working on now. It's been roughed out for at least a year. I had it sitting in my air conditioned house which is under 50% humidity right now. It pegged at 14% on my meter. I had to put it in my drying box for 2 days to get it down to 6%. If I leave it out for a day it sucks moisture right back up. Hickory is it's own wood lol. To get optimum performance you have to treat it differently. Like I said...optimum performance...you can take a stave and make a bow but I think that is why some people give it a bad rap. Just my opinion

[Forwardhandle]

Im sure hickory performs better at low RH but I live in the mid west and like you said its always going to go back to where it wants at ambient RH , honestly I never had a issue whith hickory being slugish stored like I do , the guys in the desert climates probably could squeake some exstra FPS