Bamboo = more speed?

[K. Mogensen]

I'm planning on building a solid bamboo bow in the upcoming weeks. It will have a bamboo back, bamboo belly, bamboo riser, and super action bamboo core. My question is, is bamboo really that much faster than wood? I shoot a 45 pound recurve right now with a maple core. On this bow I plan to jump up to 55-60 pound reflexed longbow.

Thanks!

[Ragnarok Forge]

That totally depends on the wood, specific weight, and a bunch of other characteristics of the bamboo and the wood.  the bowyers I know say yes that in general bamboo is faster.  Mainly due to being lighter than other woods that are used.  I have read on here and other places plenty of arguments saying otherwise.

Wes Wallace who makes my longbows swears by bamboo and pushed me gently towards using it when I wanted something else.  He feels it is makes a faster bow with a quicker limb recovery.

[Apex Predator]

Maple is tough to beat for raw speed.

In all honesty, there ain't a noticeable difference in any of them.  The heavier woods utilize less in a limb for a given draw weight.  Bamboo is great, but there are woods that are much stiffer.  Hickory, maple, and walnut are a few.

[Arrow4Christ]

Speaking with a bunch of bowyers in my quest for a longbow, I found that they all had different opinions on bamboo and other limb cores    I think only two I spoke with actually preferred bamboo to another option. My Turkey Creek will have hickory limb cores as the bowyer recommended that over bamboo for the draw weight/length I ordered (65#@30"). The other one I have on order, a Northern Mist Superior, with have all American Elm limbs, as Steve at NM felt that it is at least as good as bamboo, if not a bit better. He said he weighed at equal amount of both and the elm was actually lighter, plus he felt that they had a similarly smooth draw.
In both cases I trusted the bowyer with my decision...I think they know what works best on their bows a lot better than I do!

Craig

[James Wrenn]

Depends on the bow design whether you see any noticable difference or not.Bamboo just like wood can vari a lot in weight and stiffness so there is no garantee that what you use would be any better or worse than any wood.It certainly can not be said it is any better than maple or many other proven bow woods as a general thing for all bows.Some longbows might benefit from it more than other bows if the bamboo is tempered or chosen carefully.I personally don't want it in a recurve limb or any highly stressed designed bow myself.I had rather have elm or maple because I know it don't make 2cents difference and I don't like the looks of bamboo anyway.  

[K. Mogensen]

Thanks guys.

[kennym]

Here is some testing on bows as identical as I could make em that have different cores with black glass....

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=001491;p=1

[wingnut]

you know this is funny.  Because it is all about the bow design.  In our Orion 3 pc longbow, the bamboo we use is 8 fps faster then maple and much softer on the draw.

It's design and component quality that makes the bow perform.  Give up either and you have no difference.

Mike

[K. Mogensen]

It looks like they all perform about the same speed-wise according to that test. That helped a lot. I think I'm gonna stick with the all bamboo. Now I need to think if I want to just reflex it or Deflex-Reflex it...

Thanks all! Helped.

[myshootinstinks]

In my humble opinion, if you cannot see the difference in speed while shooting, in other words if you have to shoot it through a chronograph to tell, it ain't worth worryin' about. I buy B-50 strings for all my bows, FF or not because the difference is so small to me it is negligible. Of course, I understand that starting from scratch you'd want to build the most efficiency possible into a bow.    

[2treks]

Mike said a mouth full.
   It seems to me that any given design will be suited to it's own material. stability,speed,smoothe and quiet. comes from all things working together.
Chuck

[K. Mogensen]

I think I'm gonna stick with the bamboo and just D/R it to get a little more speed. Thanks guys!

[2fletch]

I think that some materials work better in some designs than others, but no one material works better in all designs.

When I was about 11 years old I saved up my money to buy a "panther" bow from a mail order company(about 1954) called Malibu Archery. It was an all bamboo bow with semi recurve limbs. The core of the bow was edge grain bamboo (similar to actionboo) and I believe that was the heart of the bow. This bow was very lightweight and had a lot more cast then the lemonwood and hickory longbows that I had shot previously. That little  40#bow served me well for several years.

I have been looking for one like it for years to no avail. The next bow that I build will probably be an all bamboo semi recurve bow with edgegrain actionboo in the core.

[Ghost Dancer]

I have 2 longbows by the same bowyer.  One with bamboo limbs and one with elm.  I find the bamboo a softer drawing wood, but both generate approximately the same speed.  The bamboo might be slightly faster.

This bowyer believed that elm was a superior wood for limbs compared to most other woods.

[wingnut]

One lesson that I'll share with building an all bamboo "all natural" bow is that the bamboo will follow the string more then wood.  So design more reflex into your press so you get the limb profile you want when your done.  Also make sure you stagger your nodes on belly and back or you make some real stiff spots.

Mike

[sw]

Its been may experiance that bamboo is *NOT* faster then other wood by any noticable margin. Maple and red elm seem to be the faster of the bows that i make.

Bamboo however *DOES* seem to make the bow lighter in hand and smoother to draw in the bows i build. I usually will advise customers of the pluses and minus' of it and let them decide.


Dave