cherry red oak or maple as a backing?

[blades7558]

i was wondering if any of these woods would have good tension strength. i made a hickory board bow under weight at 45# and want to get about 10 pounds more out of it. i know i can temper the belly and reflex it a bit to give me 5 to 7 lbs more but i think a cherry backing would also add some flare to it would it work?

[adb]

I wouldn't use cherry as a backing. Bamboo, hickory, ash, & maple are all tension strong, and make excellent backing material.

[n2huntn]

 I vote for the Maple

[Ryano]

None of the woods you mention there are as tension strong as hickory so none of those would really be a good choice to back hickory with....but if that's all you have to work with then I would go with the maple. Hickory it's self is generally the best used as a backing wood since it's not all the great in compression. I've made several hickory backed maple bows that turned out well, never tried it the other way around though.

[half eye]

Blades
     Ryano beat me to it. The hickory is very tension strong (thats why a lot of guys who use it will often trap the backs). If your maple is hard maple and close ringed you may consider a belly lamination with the maple. You'll have to probably re-do the grip and fades but hard maple is really good in compression. Made a few belly lam'd bows lately using the maple as the lamination and they worked out pretty darned good.  Just another way to maybe solve the dilema, is all.
     If backing is they way ya want to go then it seems like you might be better off using a hickory backer on the hick bow.
rich

[blades7558]

ok i have some extra hickory i can throw on the back. its an english style dbow with a crowned belly so belly lams would be difficult. what do you think about rawhide as a backing to in crease poundage?

[Hrothgar]

Rawhide won't add any weight to the draw, but an alternative is a layer or two of satin or linen, stretched tight and glued with Titebond II or III.