Core wood preference ??

[BOWMARKS]

I am in the process of getting a NewWoods longbow.
Chris makes his bows offering 3 different cores

Hard Maple

White Ash

White Elm

Which one would you go with and WHY ???  I have never had any of these and am looking for something that is not going to "STACK" up on me at my anchor.
 

Guess my first question about stacking was wrong on this so which one and why will do,

Mark

[Hermon]

I have never felt that the core material had much to
do with a bow "stacking".  Always considered bow/limb design was the major factor in stack.  Of the three mentioned I would pick maple.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by Hermon:
I have never felt that the core material had much to
do with a bow "stacking".  Always considered bow/limb design was the major factor in stack.  Of the three mentioned I would pick maple.

I think Hermon is right about this, But.... you will feel a difference between rock hard maple & bamboo cores due to the difference in compression ratings of the two materials..... Not much... but its measurable.

I have no experience with Ash or elm so i can't help you there bro.... Maple is good stuff though. i use it a lot in recurves.

[Bigjackfish]

I have two Bear recurves 1962 and 2013 ,both are maple cores  it has worked good for over 50yrs

[Orion]

I have no experience with Ash.  Elm is physically lighter than maple.  I'd use it in a longbow.  Recurve, either.

[WESTBROOK]

I like Elm, but never heard of "white elm", just Red & american. Ash would be good too, Steve Turay uses a good bit of ash for cores, mostly elm though.

[Brianlocal3]

I'm an elm guy in a longbow. I say elm and don't look back, it will be great

[jeffg]

I believe the core wood isn't more than spacer on glass laminated bow. On self bows and laminated no glass or carbon ect. the core wood is the bow. That being said  what ever wood you like the look of.

[Horsey]

In a longbow, the choice of core wood is more important than in a recurve.  The limbs are thicker and therefore take on more of the stress (particularly compression stress on the belly side of the bow) than in a recurve where the fiberglass is doing more of the heavy lifting. The strength properties of hard maple are really good in both tension and compression and given its reasonably light weight and consistent grain, maple would be my choice.  It is my "go to" limb core.

I'm no help! I only have bows with bamboo cores.

Bisch

[Ron Vought]

I like either yew or bamboo but did have a combination of both woods in a few on my longbows. I had bamboo sandwiched between layers of yew. May have been the smoothest drawing bow.

Ron

[Mike Mecredy]

elm is hard to beat.

[Frenchymanny]

All my bows are bamboo cored, but that's a grass.
Sometime I wonder about a yew cored fiberglass bow...

F-Manny

[Hud]

Elm would be my choice. A rule of thumb is a 68" length for a 28" draw in a conventional longbow, and a 62-64 length in an R&D design for a 28-29" draw. If the bow is unusually stiff through the riser and 1/3 up and down the limbs in a conventional longbow, you may find it stacking. A good idea is to ask the bowyer, his recommendations for your bow if your concerned about stacking.

[V I Archer]

My next bow is set to have a yew core.  That said of the options you listed, i would go with maple.  It has been a longstanding, reliable bow wood.  

However, if i ever get the time/urge/gumption to build abother board bow, I'd like to trt ash.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Yew wood makes a great smooth drawing core. So does old growth douglas fir.

[Echo62]

I had a Great Northern with ash cores once. It was a sweet shooter.

[warden415]

Westbrook,  white elm is just another name for American elm..also sometimes  called piss elm

Red Elm is also called Gray or Slippery Elm


I have used elm, and maple as a core but mostly bamboo or actionboo.  Not a whole lot of noticeable difference  in a glass bow.

The only core I have had that I wouldn't use again was Osage orange.  I attribute that  to the sheer heavier physical weight