Want to build an almost all wood bow. Questions

[BenBow]

I'm seriously considering a tri-lam bow but I'm concerned about what I can locate around here for straight grained wood. The best I could find was some hickory that has a few run outs on it can I get away with backing it with silk?

[fujimo]

dont you have osage down there-
what about mesquite(sp) i believe it makes good bows.
offer  some mezcal in trade for wood- sure Roy will trade  ya!   :D  
you wont need to back the hickory i think, i have hickory backed bows here with quite a few runouts and they have been shooting for years.
if the wood is thick enough , 1/4 saw it so that there is no runouts!!!
cheers
wayne

[BenBow]

This is New Mexico osage
       
I'd have to go back up to eastern Nebraska to get osage. Not much here except juniper and pinon and neither are good.

[fujimo]

wow... that looks nasty!!!

[fujimo]

juniper is very good bow wood
a very quick search revealed lots of info- just one link...
  http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/reply/328496/t/Juniper-selfbow-.html#.VO_NUfnF-pE

[BenBow]

I'd put it under glass but it's like eastern red cedar

[BenBow]

It gets so dry out here I've seen cattle eat the tips off of these. See a lot of dead cattle too.

[LittleBen]

Hickory can handle some runout, obviously less is more in this case. How about a pic of the wood?

Fujimo had a great idea about sawing up the wood to reduce grain runout.

For the core, any maple, or elm, or oak, or walnut, or probably any other hardwood is fine. Pick something that looks nice and isn't too heavy. I've used hickory, doesn't seem to slow things down appreciably.

For the belly, personally I like to use stuff that is fairly dense andprimarily use ipe. Also have used jatoba with good success, shedua with success on a lighter bow, and wenge as well. Obviously just like any other wood bow, the lighter the belly wood is, the wider it needs to be.

If you can get ahold of hickory, you could make the thing out of three lams of hickory. That will defiantly work, just should be made a bit wider than an Osage or ipe bow.

[macbow]

Benbow look up Ed Scott of Owl Bows.
He is about a hour south of you. He would show you his little shop and how he build his bows.

He stores all his bows and wood in a box with a humidifier.

My granddaughter and her family live in Rio Rancho.

[Roy from Pa]

Pink silk would look cool... You could show it to all your bud's..  

[BenBow]

I only use pink camo Roy. Oops time for more  

[Roy from Pa]

PBR is the bow builders energy drink...  

[Bowjunkie]

That could be.... cuz any time I drank it I felt like running...

...to the bathroom.

[Roy from Pa]

Ya wussy...    LOL

[Roy from Pa]

What I don't understand is..

What is an almost wood bow?    LOL

[BenBow]

What amazes me is that they still make pbr. Maybe Roy has a huge stash. It could be worse I remember Schlitz beer that you'd end up with some thing that rhymed with it.
Roy I want to add phenolic to the tips so I can use ultra cam string so it's almost an all wood bow.

[LittleBen]

Ben,

I use BCY 8125 and 8125g almost exclusively on my bows and I've found that hardwood overlays are more than sufficient.

I like phenolic too, but if you use good dense wood like rosewood or something, the string won't cut through. I use a lot of horn also.

Most of my experience is with relatively light 40-45# bows, but I have one recurve for hunting that is near 65# and has only maple and king wood overlays with no sign of damage to the tips using a relatively skinny 8125 string with minimal loop padding. I pad the loops with 8125 also but I've done it without and I'm not sure padding is necessary either.

[BenBow]

Thanks Ben and everyone for your encouragement

[Zradix]

I've used good buffalo horn tip overlays with 8125 strings.
absolutely no problems..the horn doesn't even look worn.
Mostly with the low/no stretch strings, the problem is sometimes the string starts to cut into the wood grain.
With a bow limb..that grain is right inline with the cutting force and the string splits the wood like a mawl.

The horn does not have grain to split..so it works well.

This is in a 48# bow...might be different in higher poundages.

...at least the horn is a natural material if that makes any difference to ya.

[kennym]

Galen, you can use black phen and a sharpie and just tell em it's horn! Covers up the linen lines.....  :D