Wood color/selection help (new questions)

[mwosborne]

Hey guys,

I found a picture on the bingham website and I dont know what it is about it but I love the coloring of the bow. I dont know why and it is so simple. Here is a link to the pdf it is located in (sorry if this isnt allowed if so I will remove it):

  http://binghamprojects.com/firsttimebowyer.pdf  

It is the bow on the take-down recurve page. I couldnt figure out what wood or dyes were use to get a color like this and I finally contacted bingham about it. Unfortunately this isnt the actual bow color it is just a black and white picture of a bow.   :(  

Does anyone know a wood/dye/stain combination that could acheive a color similar to this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Roy from Pa]

Looks like angle cut actionwood in charcoal gray to me.

[mwosborne]

Thsnks for the imput. I would love to get something that looked like this. Any other suggestions on what wood I could get to have this look are greatly appreciated. The actual bow pictured is just a balck and white photo taken of one made from bocote. Thanks guys

[Glunt]

Page 6 of the paper catalog shows in color - yep bocote.  To get grey with that much grain you are looking at staining something that is a light base color with good grain.  Off the top of my head, the right piece of hickory might work.  Just finished my brothers hickory floors and some pieces are very figured.  Angle cut charcoal actionwood is a choice but the "grain" is very uniform.

Staining maple lams would work but finding that heavy figured grain in a lighter colored wood is the issue.  Birdseye or ambrosia (wormy) might work.

[Glunt]

This link has some grey bows.
  http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=1;t=088073

[mwosborne]

Thanks for the advice. I had thought of grey action wood but it doesnt have that same grain look to it. I guess if I dont get any more suggestions I am gonna have to just try to find a ligth wood with nice grain and try to stain it to that color. Any advice on a good stain for that color?

I recently found some nice samples that wood make what I consider to be nice bows. More target bows then actually hunting as they wont have very natural colors. I am not sure the wood is usable though. Has anyone experimented with using spectraply or dymalux on bows? Thank for any information. I am hoping that this is doable because it would be fun to have a unique bow on the first one since it most likely wont be my daily shooter after I make a few more.