Is It Worth It?

[ChristopherO]

A friend of mine said he had a few pieces of bamboo flooring left from a job and wanted to know if I wanted them.  Sure.  Then it dawned on me, "What if they are the toasted kind?"  Yep, they were.  
Is is worth it to make a bow from them?
Maybe a thinner core with a belly lam of osage or such?

[Pat B]

You can back it and make a pretty good bow. I have made a few with hickory backing. The toasted is probably better boo flooring for belly wood because the toasting helps increase the compression strength. Pat

[ChristopherO]

Thanks Pat,
I've just read that some say it will be too brittle.

[Pat B]

Brittle isn't necessarily bad for compression wood. You don't want brittle wood for backing but for bellies it will be OK. You could even back it with paper, rawhide, sinew or cloth like silk or linen.     Pat

[ChristopherO]

Thanks Pat for answering my questions.  I was thinking either Hickory or Boo.  Another project to keep me misdirected.  :D

[Jeremy]

The carmelized boo flooring is weaker in compression than the natural.  It fatigues quicker and takes more set.  It doesn't even have the compression strength of red oak (same goes for the natural color as well).  I've made some nice bows out of it, but you have to keep its limitations in mind when you're laying out the bow.

The one nice thing about the boo flooring (natural or carmelized) is that I haven't been able to get it to crsysal or fret on the belly, even in torture tests.  The stuff is damn near indestructible.  If it were only better in compression...

[Springbuck]

I gotta correct Pat, sorry.

  Most of the bamboo flooring made is pressure cooked if it is carmelized.  I wish it was actually "toasted", but like Jeremy said it is actually slightly weaker than the natural.

  However, I have made a bunch of bows from it.  It's still OK.  It takes set, but boofloo seems to keep good spring even when it takes set.

  I use it all the time as a middle lam in a three-lam, and I use it alone.  Like Jeremy said as well, it is almost impossible to get it to completely collapse, so you can get a little crazy with designs.