The Unbelievable strength of a G-10 reinforced riser

[Kirkll]

 I know a lot of bowyer hate working with G-10 for a number of reasons. It's tough on bandsaw blades, and requires a good carbide tipped blade. The other down side to this material is that it doesn't move like wood does in different humidity and climates. So the materials you marry it to has to be bone dry. Even taking special care, you end up having to refinish one here and there after shipping to a dry climate.... But.... I flat out refuse to give up on this material, and just spend a bit more time before spraying the finish and make sure they are heated to about 90 degrees overnight to make sure that wood is done moving....

The stuff mills very nicely with high speed router bits in the milling machine, and very nice for ILF riser work... 

Here is a Sasquatch Special i just finished up that is a perfect example of why i love this stuff so much.  This is a 21" long riser 66" length that has a 90# draw weight at 31.5".  There is absolutely zero deflection in this riser. The G-10 is stronger than steel in both tension and compression properties. I have another bow just like it that has 110 pound limbs with no worries.

[Jon Lipovac]

How thick of G10 are you working with and where are you currently sourcing it?

[Birdbow76]

Kirk, you must be doing your pushups to pull 90–110# draw eights. And I was also wondering if you have a good source for thicker pieces of G10 or phenolic?

[Kirkll]

Trust me brother…, I am NOT getting these heavy bows to full draw myself by hand.
I use a boat wench on my tiller tree to get the draw weight and balancing done, and use a peg system on the side of my bench for stringing these things. The only way they are tested is using a shooting machine.

My source for G-10 is local. There is a Professional Plastics company about 30 miles from me that carries it in 4’x8’ sheets in 1/4”, 3/8”, and 1/2” thickness. I typically buy the 1/4” and 3/8” in various lengths that are 4’ wide. I buy the cut off’s they make on full sheets.

The stuff is still terribly expensive. I rarely get out of there without dropping 4-500 bucks for a couple 2’x4’ pieces. But…. It lasts me a year or two depending on how orders for bows are coming in and if they want G-10 I beams. If I had to rely on having it shipped, the price would be considerably higher too. This stuff is heavy.


I’ve had guys ask if they could buy it from me, and I won’t sell it myself. Btw… if you could find it thicker than 1/2” I would be surprised. I think I bought some scraps before in 3/4” , but it was a weird translucent green color. I ended up painting it black. I’ve  built a solid G-10 riser laminating the stuff together  a few times and they were seriously heavy risers. Really expensive risers too.