Actionboo-vs-bamboo-vs-yew. Interesting.

[Steve H.]

"...straight grained yew used as a core material was producing faster arrow flight"

I too believe this.  Osage can be a bit "doggy" in a lam bow.

[Ghost Dog]

I think there may be other woods, or combinations of woods with bamboo, that produce exceptional limb performance.

I have a few Dwyer longbows with different core woods/bamboo, and one of the best performing combination out of them all is a two lamination core of sasafrass with two outer lams of cedar. The limbs are light in mass and recover from full draw with a vengence! I also have a Deathwish longbow with a tonkin cane core, with two outer lams of yew that is a sweetheart too.

Of course is is important to ask just how fast your arrow really needs to go. Speed is not a good substitute for talent.  

[john gerrard]

Walt thank you for the reply on osage. Ghost Sasafrass was my next question. I have a Ancient Spirits Sequoia with "frass" outer lams and boo core. When I ordered it I told Tracy to just make me a good looking fast bow. That is exactly what he did. Not only is the sasafrass a good limb wood but the sasafrass he used in my limbs is beautiful the bow pulls smooth as butter and spits an arrow. Brokenwing

[Mike Burch]

ttt.

[Terry Green]

Interesting...looks like there might be a run on yew now.    :D

[Dalebow]

I ordered a Fox breed cocobolo riser with yew limbs and asked Ron should I do a core and he said nope, now when a guy turns down more $$ you know he is being honest:-)

[Redfeathers]

UP!!!

[Ghost Dog]

There is something imporatant that I want to add to my original post.

There are other natural woods that perform well as limb cores other than yew, and as I metioned, some woods with bamboo, and some woods with other woods, make for great performing limbs. Of course limb design will always be a deciding factor, but having said that, the right limb core with the right limb design can make for surprising performance.

[devildog66]

Would not the true test of core material then be in a bow not backed by glass or carbon since those materials have so much influence on the limb speed/recovery?  By the by, my latest bow being delivered as I write is a lamboo core with yew veneers with glass back and belly of course...

DD

[Otto]

The engineer in my screams to know just how significant a speed difference you're talking about, and even more intersting to me is the question, is what you've observed even statistically significant?  I mean your statement of the yew cores being faster by "quite a bit" is entirely subjective w/o a crono reading.  You are correct in that a real test is required.  Frankly, I'd be shocked if the same bows with the same limb design had anything more than 3-5 fps difference in speed using all of the various limb cores you mentioned.  The engineer in me says 3-5 fps diff on a bow shooting 170 fps isn't significant.  As you stated, until you put a crono reading on what you've observed, how valid can all this conjecture be????

[Ghost Dog]

Otto, my post was designed to raise a question based on my personal experience. 3-4 fps difference would not be an important gain, you are right; that could be gained by a better release or a different string material. I was only meaning to imply that a good wood core can produce impressive performance, and that in some limb designs may surpass bamboo/plyboo.

[Kids Pastor]

My first longbow had yew limbs and it was a sweet-heart. I have had many others after with bamboo, red elm, and action wood, but I always go back to yew.

I know that the bow design has more to do with it (smoothness & speed) than limb wood, especially with a glass bow.

So, my un-scientific results would be that I am a yew man:)

[Gator1]

Would like to revive this post...

Have a bow to pick out in the next few months, any one lately, have a Yew Core, or Sasafrass core built?

If so, any feedback on either??

[BamBooBender]

I'm still of the mind that the glass is doing 99.99% of the work anyway, except maybe when it comes to deep cored longbows like Hills, so(apart from looks) the wood/boo in between can only help by not hindering the glass.In other words be as light as possible.

 I mean if you can leave a recurve strung for umpteen years and not lose any performance or draw weight, or at least any measurable amount, how then can the wood be doing any significant part of the work? jmho

[BobW]

Makes me sooooo happy that I have yew limbs on my Crusader.  Once again Chad, you did me good!  

[O.L. Adcock]

Otto, You are asking the right questions and I read a lot of speculation and old wives tales in this thread.

Bob, that 3-4 fps is an inch of draw length, maybe that's not noticeable to some??

95% of a bows performance has everything to do with design and nothing to do with materials.

I have no doubt Yew is lighter on average then bamboo. But "light" is NOT what you are looking for. You are looking for the most stiffness for it's mass. Heavier is OK as long as it's also stiffer.

We tested "natural" bamboo one time and found the laminations you'll get from various sources will vary over 100% in mass weight alone, not counting stiffness. I was of the opinion nothing was better then bamboo and felt like a 3 year old that was told there was no Santa for 2 weeks! :)Actionboo will be stiffer and lighter then 80% of the bamboo you'll find, the other 20% better. Unless you measure and cull out 80% of it, the law of averages means you arbitrarily build some very good ones and some very bad ones selecting laminations at random. I have no idea about yew but if it's like other woods, the same or larger variations will exist. Those testing a bow here and there may well be compareing "good" yew to "bad" bamboo and vice versa without even knowing it and drawing wrong conclusions from it. Unless tested on the same riser, that will throw in a 4-5% variation in itself. Casual observations lead to wrong conclusions that can last for centuries, like the world is flat and everything revolves around the earth..Just casual observations!   ....O.L.

[M60gunner]

I have also read the glass does most of the work and being a person that left a Bear SK strung for a year I agree. But I also agree without a speed machine we can not judge just by sight or where an arrow impacts on the target which is faster.

[cvarcher]

Seems to me Mr. Hill did a lifetimes worth of checking all the woods he could try.Since he dedicated his life to longbows in particular and had the success he did I trust his judgement before anyone elses . He first shot exclusively self yew bows and loved them except for the fact they werent durable and broke.That was a critical thing for him being miles out there.He settled on Bamboo particularly Japanese tonkin as the next best choice. So maybe it took a second seat to yew in speed but it made up for it in durable strength. And Hill never being low in weight had plenty of power no matter what wood was satisifed. Then the Fiberglass came out and he loved the increased performance.Too bad he isnt around to settle alot of arguments.

[O.L. Adcock]

cvarcher, That's a very good example of the design being more important then the materials. Glass and Tonkin, Hill style compared to a glass and Tonkin recurve or good D/R....The Hill will have to be 100# to match the other at 70#!   ....O.L.

[ChuckC]

My (flooring boo) bow shoots fast enough to please me and bamboo is a very renewable resource. Yew is having its problems.  

This is not much of an issue in my book.  But...nobody but me reads my book.
ChuckC