homemade actionwood

[stickmonkey]

Does or has anyone made their own actionwood for lams?

[kennym]

Not yet but been thinkin,wonder what glue they use in A-wood......

[stickmonkey]

Bill Howland says that he uses smooth on all the time. Also says that the developers say the strongest bond is made by allowing it to cure 24 hours then add the heat. So my understanding is to check moisture, form the billet, let set for 24hrs, cut lams, glue up.That will create the strongest bond it can.

I have access to a sawmill and wood presses so I began to think about making some.

I have often wondered why maple, birch, and boo are the only "action woods" that I know of. I have a large abundance of walnut, cherry, elm, hickory and osage strips that could be made into veneers and then glued into a billet using the wood press.

The idea behind the "action wood" is too have a more consistent product, is it not? If that statement is true then the engineered billet should be of equal or better quality than natural wood.

[kennym]

I imagine cost and availibility ,plus maple and birch don't have many knots?

Do you have kiln dried stuff? I'd think that would be mandatory....

[stickmonkey]

Yes it is all kiln dried.

[stickmonkey]

being able to engineer a knot free billet using woods that are prone to have knots is even better reason to give it a shot, for private use that is  

[Shaun]

Hard maple and white birch are not only generally clear (knot free), they are very uniform (homogeneous), strong and machine well. There is a lot to be said for hard maple and especially the homogeneous quality that makes the outcome predictable. This is the reason it was used almost universally for mass produced bows.

Other woods mentioned would give fine results and may even be stronger in the case of osage and elm.

Knot free is good for machining, but wood with knots is actually stronger than clear wood. Boat builders selected knotty white cedar for added strength.

[Jason Scott]

I bet it is an availability/cost thing. Maple and birch are probably used in another industry like the furniture business or something and the scraps sold cheap enough to offset the labor it takes to laminate actionwood.

[Horney Toad]

In the case of old Bear bows, i reckon maple was use for it's light color as it would stain well.

[stickmonkey]

Regardless of why they switched I have made a billet of hickory and cherry action wood.It was much easier than I first thought it would be,not to mention extremely cost efficient. Now I can experiment at a fraction of the price and get on with improving my bow design. Big ty  

[hova]

i wont believe it till i see pics...

[mater]

You sould get a better quality than you buy at suppliers. Actionwood is made from veneers of a log. Its cut from the circumference. Not cut pieces like boards. When they lay it flat, one side would be in tension and the other in compression. With pieces cut like boards,there would be no internal stresses.
 A few years back, I think it was Fedora that was working with this kind. There was talk he was going to start manufacturing it.