Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: DC on January 30, 2019, 11:10:07 am
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How strong is Hazel in tension? Would it stand a Yew belly? I have a Hazel bow I screwed up. I also have a couple of thin slats of Yew.
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From what I know it is very strong in tension and weak in compression. I made a 90 # bow from a sapling with more or less circular back and completely flat belly and it held up fine
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crysals? I reckon its got to be worth a go, could be an excellent combination, but, hopefully Del will chime in on this
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I haven't worked much Hazel and this piece worked well with a spoke shave but a scraper didn't work well at all. Anyway I used the spoke shave. You can really take wood off fast with a spoke shave and soft wood :-[ :-[ :-[ After chasing out a couple of hinges it went in the corner.
My Yew scraps are only 1 3/16" wide and 1/4" thick. The Hazel has a high crown. It's going to be a real guessing game to know how much to thin out the Hazel. I guess I'll make it a comparable thickness to one of my backed yew bows.
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It's on my to do list as I think they would be well matched :)
Del
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Heat treat the belly.
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I did that before I threw it in the corner ;D. Right now it's all glued up and I'm giving the epoxy time to cure.
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I did a couple of hazel/yew bows about a year ago, and was very impressed with the combo. One was 120lb with an almost dead flat hazel back, and went off to a customer who I think is still shooting it on and off. The other was lighter, about 80lb I think and was a spliced yew belly with highly crowned hazel back. I was experimenting with tied on nocks at the time and ballsed it up twice so ended up scrapping the bow but it was fine until then! I didn't heat treat the belly, but the yew was exceptional - the really tight, dark English stuff that starts to look like teak with some oil and sunlight!
I was quite reluctant to let the heavy one go as it shot better than a similar bow with a yew belly from the same tree and an elm backing which surprised me.
On both bows I kept the belly fairly rounded but not quite as round as the typical Victorian D section. I trapped the back much like you do with a heavy yew warbow, leaving quite a narrow strip of the hazel running down the back but I would imagine it would work just as well with a more modern/Victorian laminate style with full width backing.