Making all wood take down limbs (and an intro)

[WyomingWhitetail]

Well this is my first post and i figured i would just introduce myself and start asking newb questions since im hoping to be spending a lot of time around here. Now for the introduction. i live in the great state of Wyoming and am going to school for mechanical engineering. I also build guns (working on a flintlock longrifle right now) and rebuild old trucks as well as woodworking and many other hobbies. Been a life long hunter although i have never killed anything with a bow but i did grow up shooting a choke cherry selfbow complete with bailing twine string.

Now for the questions. Im wanting to build a set of limbs (laminated all wood (no glass)) for an old stemmler take down recurve of my dads. Im been trying to find posts on this but im horrible with the search. At any rate my main concern is how important is grain orientation on laminated limbs. Is it like a self bow where if the grain is wrong it will fail or does the lamination help with this. I would also be interested in suggestions for books on this topic or links to posts dealing with this. thanks guys

Now for

[kennym]

Welcome Matt, I won't be of much help with non-glass curves. Only built one as a kid bow and it failed soon after. All maple if I remember.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[LittleBen]

Matt! Welcome to the gang! I'm an engineered myself; biomedical not mechanical but it's great to have another engineer on board!
My experience with laminated bows is this: grain definitely matters but not to the same extent as in self bows. With a laminated bow the most important thing is the grain of the backing. Ideally minimal grain runoff and rings running perpendicular to the back/belly. The belly laminations are less crucial in terms of grain. The belly can actually experience compression fractures without failing (or with failing).
Biggest thing is choice of woods. Let us know more about what you have in mind and I'll try and help as much as I can.
Check out my post called "mission red oak impossible" to see how I dealt with making an all wood laminated limb. I used 2 laminations, back was as described and belly was nothing special except for being the densest red oak I could find I the stack.

[WyomingWhitetail]

Well not sure what wood I want to use just yet mostly a factor of what I can get or have. Im thinking a tri lam limb. I think I have some Osage I could use as well as maybe some hickory. I have access to black walnut too. what about Russian olive I know it's not used a whole lot but would it work as a core or even as a belly. Maybe Osage back with Russian olive core and hickory belly or the other way around. Or mabey walnut for the core. I need to do more research with what woods work together on what configuration and how to go about building the lams. Thanks for the replys guys.

[wildcat hunter]

I've had good success with Osage on Osage on Osage. I tillered the board then added a backing and a belly of Osage ( 1/16" piece worked down to 1/32" ). I put a good straight grain over a bad grain. Worked out ok.

[LittleBen]

Hickory is better suited to back than to belly. It will take more set than osage as a belly wood all else being equal. Generally for a core wood it's considered best to use something which is lightweight to reduce the mass of the limb, but anything you listed would be fine for the core. Considering you're new to the game of making bows, I'd imagine the minor differences in performance form the different core woods will be largely irrelevant to you.
Personally I'd go hickory backed osage, with whatever core you think will look the best.

Consider this however ... if you're going tri-lam you may need to taper the core lam so that when you thin the belly during tillering you don't cut all the way through it into the core. or thin it so much it doesn't match the three layered look of the inner and mid limb sections.

[WyomingWhitetail]

Thanks for all the help on this topic. I have a lot of research to do on what wood combinations work well together. I also need to research the tapers. I was thinking a parallel back lam then taper the core ( how much im not sure yet). Then leave the belly lam slightly thick and final tiller it to weight. Does maple work as a core it would probably be lighter than walnut.