Primitive Archer

thats a cool piece  of wood JD  i like it.

I have not made a selfbow from Hornbeam. But I once thought about using our (european) hornbeam for laminates - a cheap local alternative to IPE, Yew and Osage I hoped. Shoots fast, takes almost no set. Good deal.

In my laminates it worked great for lower weight bows but always frets in weights above 40+. So finally no approval for my laminates . When selling bows only bomb proof material is good enough. I wonder if hop hornbeam is tougher....

I like them clean but they are not all clean. Real bowyers can build both with success.

That'll do just fine, Jimm-O, just fine indeed!

I just gotta laugh about this bow because I got some newbie on F/B telling me real bowyers never touch anything but the top-quality woods. Hey Jim, sorry to hear you have been demoted from the ranks of "Real Bowyers". Don't worry, you are in good company.

Amend that to say, "boring bowyers," and he's got it.

Around here we have water birch, which is a weedy shrub, but makes nice walking sticks. And we have paper birch, but not much. I might have to see if I can sneak off a piece of paper birch from the National Forest

Wish you could hook up with one, John. It would be great to see you again.