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130lb hazel experiment

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WillS:
I cut this hazel last year, and wanted to see what it was capable of (or not).  I ended up making it a touch too narrow for it's depth, and as a result it took slightly more string follow than I'm usually happy with (1.5") but generally it came out ok.

The tiller isn't perfect, I might flip it over once it's settled a bit (or give the bottom limb a good deep heat treatment) but I was more interested to see if it would just fold up at this weight, and it handled itself well.  No sign of any chrysals etc.  I find that the UK hazel I have access to is very hit and miss - some of it will take really heavy weights and some of it just won't, regardless of density and dry weight but it does tend to be consistent within small areas of woodland, so this is quite promising for the proper bows I'll make from it next. 

This one is a hair under 38mm in the handle, by 35mm deep so for the next one (which will be around 150lb) I'll probably take it over 40mm at least. 

The belly was toasted a couple of times, once during a straightening session and once at around 20" of draw length, just to temper it slightly and preempt any set (but clearly making it too narrow just overrides any gentle toasting!)

Cow horn sidenocks, oil finish and I left some of the cambium on which gives a nice streaky appearance.

DC:
Very nice! What diameter log did you start with?
And bow length?

WillS:
I think the log was about 6" diameter, I got two heavy staves and some laminating strips from it. 

The bow is 77", so longer than it needs to be (I was going to make it a more sensible 74" but chickened out, not knowing what this stuff was like!)

peacefullymadewarbows:
Beautiful bow as always. Goes to show it was a viable meane wood after all. I really like your burn mark.

meanewood:
Nice bow Will

Like the streaky back, I'm doing the same thing with the Hawthorn bows I've made recently.

Did you use a rectangle  profile, with the corners rounded off?

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