Best belly wood with boo backing?

[Easternarcher]

Other than Osage, YEw, or IPE...Looking for something to try...maybe hickory? HArd MAple??

[snedeker]

Bulletwood (Massuranduba), another pretty readily available S. American wood works great.  Boo'usualy considered too much for maple.

Dave

[Justin Snyder]

Boy you might as well ask who is the smartest in a quantum physics convention.    I like osage, but I think any good dense wood will work good.  I'm going to try an ipe when I finish some of the other projects I have going.  Justin

[Ryano]

Hickory is a poor choice for belly wood. It tends to fret easily under compression. My brother makes some nice bamboo backed Iron wood (hophornbeam) We've also had decent luck with good hard maple. Been wanting to experiment with Elm but haven't got around to it yet.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

..................guava er persimmon.........bob

[medicinewheel]

gentleman!  -  i just happend to have an incredible experience with ipé which was applied to the belly of a bamboo-backed blackcherry bow in the works: a spot of the ipé-bellywood of only 1/16" in thickness was not glued properly and got folded badly while tillering! it did not show a hint of a fret at all.
i tried to superglue the spot which did work only partially and the bellywood got folded even worse; still didn't fret. - i'd say that's hard to beat...
frank

[Badger]

      Ipe is not prone to fretting but it will fret, you got lucky with that piece. I use a lot of Jatoba with boo, also prone to fretting but if you are careful and go wide enough it wont. Steve

[Easternarcher]

Hickory is a poor choice for belly wood. It tends to fret easily under compression. My brother makes some nice bamboo backed Iron wood (hophornbeam) We've also had decent luck with good hard maple. Been wanting to experiment with Elm but haven't got around to it yet.

I woulda thought that hickory would work, but I'll trust ya on that.
Iwas just given a 5" dia. log of hornbeam last week by the landowner of the parcel I hunt. I told him, I'd build him a bow as appreciation for that privelege, so maybe boo backed hornbeam then...also, I'm supposed to be getting some elm logs from the parks dept. in town.  I may try elm too.

I'm afraid that IPE, YEW and OSAGE are unheard of around here....I'd have to ship it in, so I think they're out for me.

[Ryano]

Im not saying it wont work but there are better choices out there for belly wood. Ive even had good luck with black locust, which can frett easily if misstreated, but with the proper thickness ratio it seems to work good for me.

[Easternarcher]

Im not saying it wont work but there are better choices out there for belly wood. Ive even had good luck with black locust, which can frett easily if misstreated, but with the proper thickness ratio it seems to work good for me.

Hey, Ryan, or anybody for that matter....Do you guys have some type of design that might work for a boo backed hornbeam?

Ryan, can you give me an idea of your Jatoba limb design?? I'd like to try another one with boo instead of hickory backing this time.

[snedeker]

Another possibilty that raises its questionable head is black locust.

[Easternarcher]

Another possibilty that raises its questionable head is black locust.

Yup, I thought of that too. If I could only get my hands on some....

[Ryano]

The one's we make are like the ones on Dean Torges's video (hunting the bamboo backed Osage) with a few modifications but thats a good place to start. Just make sure you get you bamboo thin I like 1/8" at the handle(measuring from the crown) tapering to 1/16" at the tips. Remember to keep the belly core at around a 3 to 1 ratio belly to back and you should be fine.

[Easternarcher]

The one's we make are like the ones on Dean Torges's video (hunting the bamboo backed Osage) with a few modifications but thats a good place to start. Just make sure you get you bamboo thin I like 1/8" at the handle(measuring from the crown) tapering to 1/16" at the tips. Remember to keep the belly core at around a 3 to 1 ratio belly to back and you should be fine.

So, if my boo is 1/8" at the handle, then the bellywood should be 3/8" at briser fade and 3/16" at the tips?
Ryan, how about the width for Jatoba 1.5" at fade? or more??

[Ryano]

Your going to want to start out with about a 7/16" slat and taper from where your riser ends to the tip about a 1/8" this gives you room to tiller as nesasary.(we use a 13"riser block)  This should give you good results for a 66" and down bow. 60#and lower draw weight.