Middle Earth Ranger Forum

So during my hiatus, I wasn't completely out of ranger mode. I was speaking to my geography teacher the one day and he mentioned longbows. He showed me his and said it was made of hop hornbeam. I had never heard of this wood before so I did some research on it and its actually really good for bows! My friend (sadly not a ranger ) just so happened to have several of these trees in his back yard. We cut one down together and split it down the middle. It is very very very dense wood so I think it has potential. He cut his down with a bandsaw (blek) and I decided to do mine hatched and draw knife only. Now it is slow going so dont expect hundreds of pictures because there wont be much to see but I do have one of the stave right after we split it and I will take one of the semi shaped stave tomorrow.

Here is the split log
http://prntscr.com/79gwir

Hornbeam is also called ironwood sometimes. There are a fair few trees with that moniker. With hornbeam it is well named; the wood is so dense and hard it is considered less than ideal for furniture...but it does make a very good bow. We have it growing all around here, mostly on the hillsides.

Eledhwen

I have a 7' x 3" dia. sapling of the stuff I cut last month currently slow-seasoning indoors to eventually be a quarterstaff. Quite dense, indeed.

Here is some of my progress. It still has quite a bit to go but my arms can only handle 2 hours of chopping every two or three days. My hatchet is really heavy

http://prntscr.com/7a7hq2 Belly of Bow

http://prntscr.com/7a7i0t Back of Bow