Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: HickoryBill on August 02, 2012, 11:31:01 pm
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...And here is why...I made a good shooting bow from.....Eastern Hemlock....
Here is the story:
Shortly after getting back from the Tennessee Classic a large hemlock in my back yard got struck by lightning..The day after it happened I was shooting my bow out there and noticed the bark on a few of the limbs was stripped off clean...My original idea was to harvest some of the bark to use as a decorative backing, similar to birch or cherry bark( which I did) ;) ;)
While harvesting the bark I noticed one pristine limb that was just screaming "Make me into a bow" So I cut it, peeled, and sealed it... I noticed it had really tight rings like 30 -35 rpi. I left the sapwood on and treated it just like any whitewood.I let it season for a couple months and then let it dry out in my car with the windows up for a couple weeks..A week ago I straightened it out as best I could with dry heat and oil( What a joke)...and started tillering...
I finished tillering the bow yesterday and spent today shooting it in...I turned out a hair over 50#@27...66 tip to tip and 1.75 wide tapering to 1/2 tips....It took .5" of set
Things I learned:
-Is hemlock easy to work..Yes
-Is hemlock easy to straighten...Heck no!!!
-The dry wood seemed to tear when working with a rasp....Scraped well
-Hemlock sands well and looks beautiful
-Is hemlock durable as a bow wood( I'll get back to ya on that) Although after several hundred shots, no splinters, change in tiller, or fretts
-Will hemlock make a fast bow...Heck yeah..the wood is physically light
-Will hemlock make as good of bow as Osage,HHb,or yew....probably not (although this bow is pretty sweet)
- Was it fun...Oooohhhh yyyeeeaaahhh...I love experimenting ;) ;)
I'll get some pics up as soon as I get her prettied up( or she blows on me....)
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Hemlock, Well who'd have thunk it? Look forward to seein some pics. Nuthin wrong with experimentin a little bit. Ive been experimenting with some privet for the last couple months.
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I think the reason this bow held together is the dense ring ratio....
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Oh boy, get them picks a coming >:D
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I wanna see 'em too! I love to see something new.
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Makes me think about some super dense douglas fir branches I've been seeing on big old DFs. Similar ring counts, (30+ per inch) and seem hard as nails compared to the trunk. Looking forward to your picks.
Gabe
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Can't wait to see that one!
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I think the secret lays in the fact that you used a limb and not the main trunk. Limbs usually have much tighter grain and stronger wood because of compression wood. Did you use the lower or the upper part of the branch?
I'd definitely like to see some pics!
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Great story... I think the secret was, you were jus thavin' fun ;D
yeah, and we ant pics, we want pics... I'm all Olympic'd out. Just saw the last GB archer get knocked out... no wonder he had all sorts of cr4p bolted onto his bow >:D
Del
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Very interesting....I too want to see some pics.
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IN FOR PICS!!! I'd love to hear how it turns out long-term.
We have a ton of Hemlock on my dad's property in North GA. Some of the biggest, most beautiful old growth hemlocks are getting the Chinese woolly adelgid beetle* and slowly dying, it might be nice to harvest some limbs and preserve at least a piece of the beautiful, ancient trees.
*(Google it - its slowly killing off the Hemlock stand in the Appalachians)
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I'll just give this a little bump. I saw one of these trees for the first time about a week ago. It looked a lot like Yew to me. Where are these pics, and what has become of this bow in the last 2 years?
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The bow starTed fretting and lifting splinters after about 200 shots..shot great and fast for what it was..an expierament.hemlock works but not real durable..at least IMHO
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Love to see it
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Thanks for the quick replay. Sorry to hear about the bow :-\
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Do you have pictures of it?
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maybe if overbuilt it might last
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It looked a lot like Yew to me.
Known in some areas as Trucker's Yew. >:D >:D >:D
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Let us know how it goes. I understand Socrates had a run in with hemlock. :) Jawge
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Man I was hoping to see this one,read it all and then the big let down. :( ;)
Pappy
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It looked a lot like Yew to me.
Known in some areas as Trucker's Yew. >:D >:D >:D
Lol! JW ..you have counted coups upon me! Ouch! Blackhawk and I both tried Western hemlock at the classic. Neither attempt worked out to good. I still have some more so I might try it again someday. I was hoping to see this one all finished up though. Bummer. Josh