Longbow core wood?

[two4hooking]

Yew might like it.....
 

[Bear Heart]

Black walnut is in two of my longbow limbs

[NBK]

Any durability issues with the walnut?  Bear Heart, how would you compare the walnut to other cores?

[JamesKerr]

Hard rock maple action wood, bamboo action wood or yew.

[Bear Heart]

Black walnut has been trustworthy,  smooth,  and hard hitting in my limbs.  I trust it over my bamboo limbs. Andy McCoy at Bezaleel Bowworks, who is building another set of limbs for me right now,  said it is his favorite.  My first set was carbon on the outside with black walnut cores 54#. My new limbs have black walnut cores with zebrewood veneers 60#.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

For longevity and good all around performance i think i'd go with hard rock maple.... the action wood maple has proven to be excellent in RC bows.

 i've built bows with just about every kind of cores you could think of, and had good luck and performance from a lot of them. You can get a softer feel to the draw with softer more homogenous woods. and pretty snappy bows from walnut and zebra wood that have a more brittle nature...... i just think in the long run good old maple is hard to beat.... kirk

[Zbone]

Aside from Sixby, who else likes hickory?

Sixby - What flavor you prefer, Pignut, Shag, or Shell bark?

[Sixby]

No preferance, I just know that some of the quickest glass bows built were using hickory cores. My experience with it has been that the weight of the bow comes in consistantly heavier than it does with the identical stack of most other core woods and that it is extremely tough stuff. But then so is maple and usually maple is lighter in weight.

God bless, Steve

[Dan Bonner]

I too have built bows with  a lot of core woods. The fastest  recurve I ever built had two zebra lams under clear glass with no veneers. I have had two walnut core bows blow up but both were carbon belly and back. I built two double carbon Osage core LBs that are still shooting but Osage may defeat the purpose of double carbon because of weight.  I have never had any problems with maple or elm. Aboo is my go to lam because I like the feel of the draw and it seems to make a quiet bow. It is also very consistent about hitting weight. A lot of old bowyers love action maple and I still know one guy who lays up his own because it is not commercially available.

Bonner

[Kris]

The bow you are building begs for boo.  Boo is strong (fibers run the entire length of the bow) durable and light in mass.  A 68" bow would do well by bamboo despite you wanting to try something else.  Anything else for a 68" bow is getting "heavy in the limb" IMO.  Osage or hickory would be a last choice for this reason.

Yew would be my second choice.

See you at Rib Mountain in August?

Kris

[NBK]

Kris, good point there.  I'll talk to Dave for the final word.  Just trying to get something that doesn't need veneers and plain unstained boo just doesn't flip my switch.  Probably wont make it to the shoot in August as I'm taking the family on a much needed vacation.

[Robertfishes]

Dryad Bows used to use "Dirty Boo" it looked really nice! For my homemade bows I have only used edge grain red elm and amberboo tapers.