Walnut cores lifespan, durability, and feel?

[Ruttinghard]

Hello, looking for any insight and experience with walnut cores. I know hard maple and bamboo have been proven to last decades. Just to clarify, I’m talking about the cores/lams of glass laminated bows. Anyone know if walnut is “as guaranteed” to last that long? Or as likely to survive years of hunting, a dry fire, resist limb twist, etc as maple/bamboo? Any other thoughts on the feel or sound compared to the other woods would be appreciated too, thank you!

[Bow man]

In the 15 years we owned ST Joe River we did a bunch of walnut. Had it most of the personal bows Tracey built me. never had an issue and all those bows are still out being shot and being used to hunt

[kennym]

I built some test bows with black glass and the entire core of aboo, hard maple, red elm ,and walnut.

Speed diff was none, weight made was red elm and aboo same, maple a couple lbs heavier, and walnut 3 lbs lighter than aboo.

I hunted with that bow for a few years and think it was the quietest bow I've had.  Makes me wanna build another one. LOL

If you go here, the yote at top and the deer to right of him is that bow...

https://www.kennysarchery.com/hunting-photos

[Ruttinghard]

Thanks David and Kenny! Does the walnut look okay under clear glass? Or too dark and plain? Hard to tell from that pic Kenny if there’s a different limb veneer on there. The quiet is especially intriguing to me, I’m obsessed with getting as silent of a bow as I can.

[kennym]

4 lams of edge grain walnut so all you see is the edge under the black glass.

Flat grain can be awesome under clear glass

[Ruttinghard]

Oh good to know. Are there any performance/durability differences with the edge vs flat grain?

[Bow man]

Yes beautiful under clear glass. just be sure to look over glass well defects will show with that dark wood

[kennym]

Oh good to know. Are there any performance/durability differences with the edge vs flat grain?

I built 2 60" D/R bows last winter.  Cut lams from same wide board of hard maple. Came in near exact weight and was exact fps .

The only diff I saw was when I laid them on their belly on bench, the flat grain had a 1/4" less curve to it.

In other words 1/4" more springback off the form.

And for sure look the glass over, whitish streaks are horrible on walnut...

[kennym]

Oh good to know. Are there any performance/durability differences with the edge vs flat grain?

I built 2 60" D/R bows last winter.  Cut lams from same wide board of hard maple, one in edge and one in flat grain. Came in near exact weight and was exact fps .

The only diff I saw was when I laid them on their belly on bench, the flat grain had a 1/4" less curve to it.

In other words 1/4" more springback off the form.

And for sure look the glass over, whitish streaks are horrible on walnut...

[Possum Head]

Good read!

[stillhunter]

I built takedown recurves back in the late 80's with walnut cores and to my knowledge they are still in good shape. When I built my "ECLIPSE" bows in the 90's I put colored glass on the back and clear on the face but would use a different lam on the face with walnut with more swirly grain. The clear glass was horrible years ago. I built a d/r bow this year with walnut with green back and it is beautiful. Some say the core doesn't matter much but what is the fun in not being creative. Ordered a lot of different places for lams over the years, OMC, Fedora, Robertson, Elberg, etc and KennyM,s components are first rate.

[Ruttinghard]

Thanks everyone. Not to hijack my own thread, but does anyone have experience with soft maple instead of hard rock maple? I know the hard maple is “the maple” used for bow lams. Does soft have a shorter potential lifespan? Or worse performance? I have a friend who had a bow of each from the same bowyer, and said the soft maple was smoother and he preferred it to the hard.