Lots of people make some great bows w/ipe. I have read and seen some on posts here and other sights that are great shooters. Saw one that was 70" 3/4"wide and 3/4" thick w/bendy handle--shot a 500g arrow 190ft/sec.(Made by justin synder--posted at primitive archers site.) Others I have seen are shorter i.e.60"-- the one thing they have in common is that they are all narrow bows--around 1" at fades. I just kind of trashed one I was working on today-70" 1 1/8" wide, hick backed. I was looking for 50#, but suddenly developed a hinge while tillering, and by the time I got things worked out, Iam down to about 38#-- Getting this wood to bend goes slowly and than suddenly bad things can happen. Iam pretty much a rookie to this bow making, and this is only my 3rd. attempt w/ipe. First one, hick backed,50#, but pretty sluggish. Second one was silk backed--blew up while tillering. So you can see Iam no expert, but I can tell you that ipe has great potential if you know what you are doing. High compression strength, makes for narrow, fast shooting bows. Clean oils off w/acetone before gluing backing. Good luck, - Iam definitely going to keep trying--I'll get a good one eventually.
Topic: IPE can you makes bows with it (Read 890 times)
