Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: DRon knife on January 04, 2012, 05:17:28 pm
-
Some logs I recently felled.The hop hornbeam was felled a month ago and the hickory was cut yesterday.The ends of the hop horn were sealed with wax awaiting splitting(which I'm looking for opinions on my approach and drying options),that hop hornbeam is the straightest log I've ever seen!
-
I've got some serious wood envy going on >:D
-
I had a small and very straight HHB log given to me a couple of years ago. I split it in half and wasn't sure if I could get two bows from each half. After some good advice from the guys on here, I tried splitting the half again. I started in the center and drove a hatchet into it. I was able to split it evenly to each end resulting in two good staves that I was able to make bows from. I still have the other half of that log. I don't have access to HHB so I am saving it for a rainy day. Good luck with it.
-
Ya stixman,that's some good looking wood,I do plan on sharing,I just wanna split them and see what I get..I know where there are more of the nice hop horn too!!
@outlaw,I had good luck splitting the last one I had,in fact it split perfect and was the easiest log I ever split,a 5" log produced 4 nice staves,only the tree wasn't perfectly strait and I decided to find one better.The staves are available if your into straitening them,they are green with the bark on them I'll thro up some pics
-
I could be wrong and its hard to tell from those pictures...but that doesn't look like hophornbeam to me,it looks like elm bark...n if it is that's all good too.
Hey clint ...I now know what to bring with me if I make it to the classic ;)...stuff grows like weed here
-
A agree with blackhawk, kinda looks like red elm bark...would love to see the wood on the end, the bark on both can look real close
(http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j380/thadsoy/photobucket-2132-1325718408087.jpg)
Hhb
-
Now that I look at the pictures a little closer, that bark doesn't look like the bark on my HHB stave. The bark on mine is smaller strips kind of pealing off. Looks a little bit like cedar bark.
Hey Blackhawk, bring some HHB and we will work out a trade. I will be bringing osage and maybe some hackberry.
-
HHB is very variable across and within its range I've seen it look like that.
The wood will tell the truth though.
-
Its HHB,trust me!! the leaves an seed of the tree litter the grove!
-
Good enough, nice haul ;) love working with hhb
-
I wanted to add that the HHB is so straight because there growing on an island of a small seasonal brook,others in the area resemble the pic posted by Soy.
-
Nice Haul! I wish we had more HHB growing around here. All the ones I find I find look like a barber pole.
-
Looks like Elm of some type to me. Good bow wood but not HHB. :)
pAPPY
-
Looks like what we would call hornbeam in the UK. Doesnt look like elm as the leaves are not asymetrical.
-
I have about 20 HHB tree's within 50 feet of my backdoor. I have never seen the seeds you see in your grove? The bark on the HHB up here is scaley, silvery colored and has ends peeling off on the bigger 5-6" plus trees. Almost like a small scale hickory. No mattter what it is or isnt, its dang straight and will make good bows for sure.
-
I have noticed the back of the leaf tells the true story. Hackberry, all the elms and various hornbeams have very similar leaf shapes and sizes. The vein count or spacing on the back is what matters. It may be American hornbeam, but Hop sure doesnt look like that in my books. I have lots of tree books in color and b/w. Im a bit of a tree freak nowadays, well beyond bow wood.
-
Show us a close up of your end cut. I'm surprised everyone is being stubborn about what HHB looks like based on the trees they see. Very variable like I said.
I could show a pic of a silvery shaggy barked one growing right next to one with the bark broken into small rectangles and that slight white fungus like growth that those trees often have..
The tree is called Hop hornbeam because it produces hop-like seed clusters.
There will be no mistaking the end cut with any Elm, that's for sure. The split log will also reveal the characteristic brittle punky inclusions of grown over knots with dark extended streaks around them.
-
If it's elm, good luck splitting it.
-
Now look what I did...sorry for starting a wood id debacle..lol :laugh:
Im not saying it isn't or is...just by looking at your kinda hard to see n tell pics it doesn't...I've been up n down the east n all over the midwest where it grows,and yes I've seen slight differences geographically. Open up that woodgrain and we'll know for sure ;) now you have to to put this at rest,and so one of us can say "I told ya so"...lol :laugh:....is it just me or do I enjoy the stubborn disagreements amongst bowyers(as long as it don't end in fistacuffs)... :laugh:
What a stubborn lot we are 8).... ::)
-
I'm not sure how to say this but the nay Sayers are right,I should of ask your opinions and not been so stubborn and adamant,after all you guys been at this a wile,lesson learned! The tree's were all together and after an hour or so the answer was right there in the tops of the tree,the HHB's retained some of their seed wile the tree's that had me confused didn't, sorry bout that guys! I saw a few good HHB's and brought two back with me,take a look! the last pic is of the mystery tree.
-
:laugh:... ;D.... its all good,no big deal man,we all make errors n live n learn ;)....AND..I told ya so..lol :laugh:...I still think its elm
And that one IS HHB you cut...not bad looking either ;).....HHB is at at the top of my whitewood list for bow wood :)
-
Yup, thats the real deal. And quite straight and clean for HHB. Very nice find.
-
My first and only HHB tree I cut turned out to be elm.
-
Now that you got some HHB, feel free to send the other my way. >:D
I will store it for you, see if it bends, that kind of thing.
-
Wicked cool guy's thanks!!:-[I'm back to the yard now splitting the hickory because it check after only one day,It has a slight twist to it so I'm having trouble.
-
I thought that guys were saying that the trunk which clearly is HHB wasn't actually. No real opinion on the mystery tree.
-
Splitting hickory is always a lot of fun! >:D
-
Those are different pics Pat. That wasnt HHB in the first set. The last set is a fresh HHB he just cut after realizing his error in cutting elm.
-
I made a mess out of that hickory,I suddenly realized why I had a friend cut the last one into boards!! I ended up snapping a chalk line and running the skill saw down it just to save one stave..bummer!!
-
Cool,looking good now. :) Hickory can be tough,just be sure before you cut one for a bow the bark runs straight up the tree and not spiral around it and they will usually split straight. :)We split a lot of Hickory,I always cut in early summer and they may be the reason it splits better,I do it because then I don't have to deal with the bark,it slips right off in the early /Mid summer but very tough to get off in the winter. :)
Pappy
-
Sorry bout your bad luck splittin hickory. Maybe next time try startin in the middle and workin your way out to each end, sometimes it will split straighter that way. I quit cuttin whitewoods in the wintertime a few years ago when I realized how much easier the bark comes off of them in the summertime. Maybe you'll have betterluck with the HHB. :)