Question about reducing core wood
I have decided to start on my second horn bow and am pondering a few things before starting.
I have finally found some hop hornbeam and before reducing it down for the core laths I though I would ask how you guys perpare the outer surface of the lath before bending. When I made my first bow I bent the wych elm laths with the outer part of them the untouched surface exposed when I removed the bark. I did this to keep the tension strength up for the sharp bends. Well they bent very well with no splinters at all but when it came to preparing the belly surface ( making it flat ) I had a lot of material to remove before I got to a flat surface across the width of the core to accept the horn. So this time I would prefer to 'decrown' the lath and have a flat surface more or less ready for grooving and horn gluing.
I cannot really see a problem with 'decrowning' the lath before bending but would like some advice before I ruin my hard won hop hornbeam!
Thanks
I have finally found some hop hornbeam and before reducing it down for the core laths I though I would ask how you guys perpare the outer surface of the lath before bending. When I made my first bow I bent the wych elm laths with the outer part of them the untouched surface exposed when I removed the bark. I did this to keep the tension strength up for the sharp bends. Well they bent very well with no splinters at all but when it came to preparing the belly surface ( making it flat ) I had a lot of material to remove before I got to a flat surface across the width of the core to accept the horn. So this time I would prefer to 'decrown' the lath and have a flat surface more or less ready for grooving and horn gluing.
I cannot really see a problem with 'decrowning' the lath before bending but would like some advice before I ruin my hard won hop hornbeam!
Thanks
A well done decrowning should work fine. But I would estimate hop hornbeam to heavy for a hornbow. Cause its a dense wood too,precoat it heavily with a thin solution of hide- glue(1 time glue up to 10x times water).
Michael
Michael
Thanks thats what I thought! I got the hop hornbeam because Adam recommends it in his book. I know what you mean by heavy I can hardly lift the log! When you talk about using thin glue to coat it I presume you mean when it's come to gluing on the horn because it is dense use many coats of thin glue?
Yes, many coats of thin glue.
Michael
Michael