Author Topic: Bow wood and a little more.  (Read 1788 times)

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Offline Chris grimbowyer

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Bow wood and a little more.
« on: February 22, 2011, 09:55:54 pm »
What wood is the strongest in compression and what wood is the strongest in tension. I am assuming hickory for tension but what about bamboo? I know it is not a wood but please consider it. I was thinking of maybe a laminated bow of these two woods or grasses? Just an experiment.

Offline Josh

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Re: Bow wood and a little more.
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2011, 09:57:13 pm »
bamboo backed ipe is a very good combination in the compression/tension point of view.  Besides being a beautiful combination to boot.  :)
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youngbowyer

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Re: Bow wood and a little more.
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2011, 10:06:22 pm »
An awesome combination would be compression yew heartwood backed with tension hickory. Hard to come by though  :o

Offline Chris grimbowyer

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Re: Bow wood and a little more.
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2011, 10:27:57 pm »
I looked up some scientific research and the winner for compression is Black locust at 10,180 PSI. I already know hickory is prettymuch number one in tension and some have told me bamboo is even better. Imagine a BBBL bow? maybe with a perry reflex? Pretty cool I say.

Offline JackCrafty

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Re: Bow wood and a little more.
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2011, 03:03:38 pm »
Hmmm... I looked up black locust and you are right, it has a compression value of 10,180 inch-pounds.  However, just because it can resist a lot of compression, that doesn't mean that the wood is very elastic.

Some other woods:

Ipe 13,010 inch-pounds
Bubinga 10,500
Purpleheart 10,320
Ramin 10,080
Greenheart 12,510
Shagbark Hickory 9,210
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Offline Elktracker

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Re: Bow wood and a little more.
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2011, 03:23:46 pm »
bamboo backed ipe is a very good combination in the compression/tension point of view.  Besides being a beautiful combination to boot.  :)

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JustinNC

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Re: Bow wood and a little more.
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2011, 03:39:55 pm »
HBBL sounds like an excellent domestic choice.

Offline Pat B

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Re: Bow wood and a little more.
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2011, 04:53:38 pm »
Locust is one of the strongest US woods in compression but it is brittle. For straight downward compression it can hardly be beat but for bending compression the brittleness can cause compression fractures(frets, chrysals). Boo or hickory are very strong in tension. I prefer hickory because of the ease of use and durability. I have had mixed results with boo and it takes a lot more prep time. Osage and ipe are two very good belly woods for either boo or hickory.
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