List of wood species to avoid

[DeployableBowyer]

Hi everyone,
      I thought it might be a good idea to start a list of wood species that we have learned to avoid using in a riser or limbs. A lot of this probably pertains to laminated longbows and recurves more than self bows, but I think we can all take something away from it, and maybe even save a new bowyer from a bad mistake. I will start...

Padouk - all species - I have never had much luck with this wood and have crossed it off my list of usable species. It is a pretty hard wood, but it seems to have horrible shear strength and ends up as a broken bow in anything over 55# for me. I would suggest to only use it as static riser overlays where the wood isn't required to work. On the other hand, I have seen it work just fine in a light weight self bow when it was backed with bamboo. I stay away from it completely though.

Birdseye Maple - A pretty successful bowyer once told me he doesn't use it in a riser where it would be the fade-out wood, because he believes each "eye" is a weak spot. I haven't had any problems with it so far though no matter where I use it.

Ok, your turn...

[Ragnarok Forge]

I would add, Ipe based on it's highly toxic characteristics and new bowyers often not knowing to protect themselved and getting very sick from wood poisoning.

[scottq]

Originally posted by Ragnarok Forge:
I would add, Ipe based on it's highly toxic characteristics and new bowyers often not knowing to protect themselved and getting very sick from wood poisoning.

If you are talking nasty woods, then add walnut to the list. It contains a natural herbicide and its dusty has caused many a woodworker to develop allergies quickly to it.

Cocobolo is also a bad one. All of the high Silica content woods like teak are terrible for you. Silica is an abrasive, and in your lungs it causes damage. Over time its known as Silicosis, which is very similar to the damage done by exposure to asbestos.

So always have some form of dust collection going, and even better invest in a good dust mask. An air cleaner is an easy thing to build with just a box fan and some furnace filters.

[Moen]

Always use dust mask. Always! All species are harmful to your lungs. But yew, wenge, laburnum, green heart .. etc are also toxic as well. But there is one thing that we did not think much about. And it's epoxy. By skin contact, the epoxy can provide powerful allergy. And once you have allergies, you'll never get rid of it. I have a friend who has it and he can not get into my yard before he gets reaction to the epoxy. The body swollen powerful, and he has pain.

[NightHawk]

Scottq,

  Would you post a build-along of that air cleaner using furnace filters and a box fan? That sounds interesting to me and maybe something I could build even though I have five thumbs on each hand lol