cedar for a board bow?

[pintail_drake2004]

Hey yall, i have found a good deal on cedar boards and it got me to thinking if it would be good for a board bow? Would it be ok to recurve or reflex? if so, would yall post some pix.
thank you
pintail

[Pat B]

If it is Eastern Red Cedar then yes you can make a good bow from it. You will want to back it. Hickory(you could add reflex), rawhide, silk or linen will make a good backing for it. With sinew you could add reflex. I've never recurved ERC.   If it is Western Red Cedar, forget it.  Pat

[Dave2old]

I second Pat. "western red cedar" in fact is juniper, and it's just too soft, even with backing. Dave

[**DONOTDELETE**]

If it is in fact ERC, "Juniperus Virginiana"
 http://www.gpnc.org/eastern.htm  you can also back it with a 1/8 inch backing of clean Hard Rock Maple which is not as strong as Hickory and wont crush the belly wood .

I like to use 2 or 3 layers of edge grain maple veneer as backing laid down with TB 3. Real pretty and you can glue down the stave as reflexed etc as you like if you are careful.

[pintail_drake2004]

great thanks yall

[Sal]

As Ragi posted above, eastern red cedar is a Juniper, very good for bows.  

Western red cedar is NOT a juniper, therefore not as good for bows.