Bamboo Backed...what?

[Crick3t]

I've been making my own arrows for years now, but I'm fairly new to bowmaking.  I've made a self-backed hickory longbow, and an osage one, and they both worked out well, so I'm looking into moving up to the next level with something a bit more intensive, hoping to get some better performance out of my work.

My question is, what all can you back with Bamboo for satisfactory results?  Bamboo and osage or hickory seem to go together like peas and carrots, but I'm severely intereted in Ipe as well.  However, my real question is, why doesn't anyone talk about Bamboo-backed yew?  Is there something that isn't compatible about the two materials?  Or is yew just too expensive to be worth it?  Has anyone done this?  How'd it perform?  Was it easy/hard to work with?  Does it glue up in a form well?

Thanks for tolerating a few newbie questions; any feedback is much appreciated!

[Jesse Peltan]

You can back osage, ipe, hophornbeam, hornbeam, birch, and pretty much any other strong compression wood. I think people don't use yew because it is expensive.

[dutchwarbow]

I disagree with Jesse.

You don't want to back whitewoods with bamboo. They will be crushed. Especially the ridiciously compression weak birch.

Osage, Ipé, bloodwood, Massaranduba, and Yew are good bellywoods. Anything else with an s/g of over .9 will also do the job.

Nick

[Art B]

You might try building up the compression on white woods with some heat tempering first. Then glue the boo on. Bet it'll work.

ART

[Crick3t]

If both are tillered in exactly the same way (hypothetical, here) and to the same draw weight, which should I expect better speed/stability out of, between Ipe and Yew?

Thanks for the input, everyone!

[Pat B]

With everything else equal, the belly wood with the lightest physical weight will probably be the fastest.

[Jesse Peltan]

Actually birch is super weak in tension and needs to be backed. It does a pretty good job in compression. A thin backing would probably work.

[northstar]

What style of limb design works best with birch?The birch bows I have seen were very wide flat bows.  Would english style D bows work?

[OB]

To answer your question, I have a BBY bow, and the guy who helped me build it, John Strunk, is yew's biggest fan!  I have read that it is expensive, and needs a little care if being used in freezing temps.  Hope this helps.

[Crick3t]

I'm thinking I'm gonna try Ipe first, for the sake of being cost-effective.  I love my bows short...really short.  This one's going to be the longest bow I own...54-56".  If this thing shatters during tillering, I don't want it to be something expensive, first time around.