Hello,

I've been very successful (thus far!) with ash self-bows. But now I should be able to get my hands on some new wood (trees, actually). I plan on making them based on the classic pyramidal flatbow design.

Should I expect anything different with hickory, hophornbeam, black locust and elm?

I already know that hophornbeam can be a bit more narrow than ash. What about the others?

Thanks a lot, this information could save me from learning things the hard way!

Loa

id suggest hitting the library and getting the appropriate bowyers bible or perhaps someone knows a good old book you might be able to find concerning making bows from trees .

welcome to tg , someone will be along shortly to assist you...


-hov

Pretty much all the woods you metioned will require similar specs to your ash bows. HHB being the exception, and maybe the BL could be a touch narrow and a touch shorter. Elm, Ash and Hickory are all in the same family I believe. I can tell you a 1/4" here and there wont make or break your various wood bows, bad tillering will!  

hi,

here is the elasticity values from my database about your woods. any value over 1.40 is good for bow making.
id|Name|elasticity
33|Locust Black|2.05
24|Hickory Bitternut|1.79
25|Hickory Nutmeg|1.7
26|Hickory Pecan|1.73
27|Hickory Water|2.02
28|Hickory Mockernut|2.22
29|Hickory Pignut|2.26
30|Hickory Shagbark|2.16
31|Hickory Shellbark|1.89

Hello,

Thanks for the info guys. I've read the (Bowyer's) Bible from volume 1 to 4, but they don't go into specifics like: "hophornbeam bows can be a little narrower than ash bows.

Loa

I believe the general "rule" is, the higher the elasticity of the wood, the narrower the bow can be.

Look in the design portion of the TBB and you will find general width guidelines for all your mentioned woods, Tim Baker put it together.

All different woods will have their own unique characteristics and quirks about them. Books can give you the baseline info which is good, but nothing beats real world experience by working with them. The key is to go slow until you know how the wood will react to what your doing.

There will always be a certain amount of trial and error involved so I start with more wood than I know I will need, length and width just to be sure I have enough in case I screw up then the whole project isn't a total loss.