Cost effective black riser material?

[bornofmud]

Anyone know of any black riser materials that don't cost a fortune?  I was originally thinking of using ebony, but it is extremely expensive and I read it doesn't work great in bows because of how oily it is.  So then I check into using micarta, but it is extremely expensive in pieces big enough to make a riser out of.  I looked at a couple other dark woods, but most of them are way too pricey to be a standard go to material for black risers.

So does anyone have any ideas?  Can I ebonize maple to make a black riser?  If so, does the dye or ink soak in enough that it would still look black after shaping the riser? How is wenge? Does it look black?

Thanks!

[heartlandbowyer]

Are you making a one or 3 piece take-down.

Takedown would be able to be stained after shaping and sanding. A one piece would be tough to dye after its shaped because dye would bleed into your core lams.

Wenge is dark but not as dark as it sounds you want. It does look good though. Wenge would look sweet with a chunk of black phenolic in it.

Good luck.

[Crooked Stic]

If you are makeing a 3 piece it could be stained or even painted. A few light coats of Krylon then spray clear over that. I just stained a one piece riser after final sanding and had to do the limb edges also to make it look decent.

[typical2]

I have seen black impregnated wood for risers.  I think it was birch.  Being impregnated it was black and dense.  I saw it at the Kalamazoo trad bowhunters expo a couple years ago.  

Anybody know where to find this stuff.

Eric

[bornofmud]

It would be for a one piece design, otherwise yeah, I'd just dye it. I was hoping the dye went deep enough into the wood that i could just rough shape it, dye it, then do the glue up and finish the shaping on it, but it sounds like that won't work.  So basically I can paint it black very carefully, or look for black impregnated wood?  Wish they made actionwood in all black!

[Dmaxshawn]

Why not use phenolic its less expensive than any ebony out there.

[talkingcabbage]

You could try what I'm gonna do, and that's to use a vacuum chamber. I want a piece of blue for my brothers' bow, but no one sells blue wood. So I'm making a vacuum chamber and going to use a wood hardener and dye to impregnated the wood clear through. I'm not sure if the wood hardener is necessary, its more of a carrier for the dye. But it will help to stabilize the piece of wood I'm using.

[Bodork]

What about african blackwood?

[bornofmud]

Phenolic is too expensive in a riser size.  Say I wear to make one out of .25" laminates, at $20 a piece it would come to $120 dollars for the size of riser I need.  I would get one and a half risers from it, so 3 risers for 240 dollars, which is way too much. African blackwood is around the same price in 2x2x24 (I need 1.5x2x22).

I think I'm just going to use wenge. It's easily available and relatively inexpensive, and it's dark enough, who knows, maybe I'll like it better than a pure black haha. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Walt Francis]

I wouldn't use wenge by itself, it should have some re-enforcement.  Also, it is pain to fill all the open pours when using it for accents, I couldn't imagine filling a complete riser.

[bornofmud]

AH i figured out what to do! I'll do an I beam lamination. Some type of wood in the middle (can change it depending on the limb lams)and phenolic on the outsides.  If i do it right, I should be able to do it with two strips of phenolic and a piece of wood, totaling to about 50$ a riser, which is somewhat decent. Would look cool too with the wood post only being visible where the arrow shelf and sight window are cut.

[bornofmud]

Man! the wenge is no good either huh?  Guess I have little choice but to do what I outline above haha.

[typical2]

I think wenge makes great risers.  I make short risered longbows but it is dark, and good looking.  I didn't find the grain that difficult to fill.  I used 2their coates of superglue sanding between.  Seals and fills grain nicely.

[Troy D. Breeding]

Wenge makes outstanding risers. If you want it really dark make sure the sides are edge grain. If you want alittle more character use flat grain on the sides of the riser.

Yes, filling all the pores is a pain. However, in my book if you do it right it can really show the pride you take in your work.

Troy

[Dmaxshawn]

wenge is great for risers

[typical2]

Here it ziricote.  Very dark brown.

[Crooked Stic]

This place has a charcoal silvertone Dymondwood that is almost all black.
  web page

[Bow-n-Head]

Try Bob Lee for impregnated Futurewood/Durawood.  I bought some from him a few years back. He possibly still sells/makes it.

[Dmaxshawn]

I use a lot of ziricote.  I love that stuff  one of my fav riser woods

[LittleBen]

I love wenge. Getting ready to glue up a wenge riser for a 3 piece with a curly maple I beam. Will be hickory backed wenge limbs with curly maple wedges.
Go wenge!