bamboo and wood performance

[-Achilles-]

Howard Hill bows are pretty famous for using bamboo like the big 5 had 5 boo laminations...but wouldnt a bow be faster if it had 5 wood lams instead?...whats the difference?...wouldnt all wood be a faster bow?

[Van/TX]

Speed comes from design not material used.  2 lams of maple sandwiched between 2 lams of fiberglass with the right design will be just about as fast as you can get.  And don't forget the Big 5 had a lam of fiberglass on the back and belly    ...Van

[-Achilles-]

well I meant the fiberglass on the front and back to go without saying

[Van/TX]

Yep.  I doubt the Big 5 would be faster with 5 lams of wood vs bamboo.  Not a bowyer but bamboo is pretty light.  With that much core thickness it probably makes a difference with bamboo...Van

[-Achilles-]

well the reason that I thought it would is because the bamboo doesnt seem as springy as the wood...by the way...I'm sooo much cooler online too...LOL

[Kevin L.]

Bamboo lam bows feel "smoother" to me than wood lams. I know, as a material, bamboo is higher tensile strength than almost all woods. I've refinished rods from the 'Teens and '20's with tips less than .064", that were still fishing strong.

Kevin

[stickwithastick]

I have 2 Hummingbirds (1 longbow 1 recurve) with bamboo cores they are the smoothest bows I have shot, including foam core ILF. I have a Morrison, and a Das I can interchange the limbs on them. for those I have a set of Hoyt G3's foam core and carbon and a set that came with the Das Dalaa they are maple and carbon. Both are nice limbs but the bamboo on the Hummingbirds I'll take hands down,