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Walnut & hackberry

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Justin Snyder:
I think Pappy told me this when I was in Tennessee, but I cant remember.  Do you use the sapwood on walnut and hackberry?  Anyone ever use the heartwood of either?  Justin

Badger:
    Walnut the sapwood is preferable but looks great with a sapwood back and heartwood belly. Hackberry you can use any part of the wood starting right under the bark, hackberry is the most bendable of all american woods if you want to get fancy and make some recurves, you can bend it into circles with a little steam. Steve

Coo-wah-chobee:
                        Tough to get walnut(black) here. Most are cut down and sold for furniture. Had a small piece once didnt have much heartwood so I used sapwood. Was ok bow,IMHO eh ! Hackberry is in elm family but theres a coupla species, one is good one is not so good. Made one from sap n heartwood once, was a really nice hard hitting bow, JUstin...............bob

Pappy:
What Badger said.You really have to keep Hackberry dry,kind of like you would treat Hickory
and tiller carefully it will get away from you fast.Exercise a lot between scraping before you move on. :)
   Pappy

GregB:
I've only made one hackberry bow, but it turned out nice. It is really light in physical weight in your hand. Make sure you cut the limb thickness prior to floor tillering a little thicker then you would for osage or hickory. A finished hackberry bow 1-1/2" wide of a specific length and draw weight will be thicker with the finished bow then the same width osage or hickory bow of the same length and draw weight. At least that was my experience with the one I made.

So start out thick, and take it slow. Exercise the limbs a lot between scrappings like Pappy said. ;)

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