Elm backed ERC

[GB]

I finished this a few months back; from a mostly heartwood board that I backed with 1/8" slat of elm.  It's still holding together, maybe if only because of the epoxy and the elm backer.  Maybe ERC is one of those odd woods that works better in board form with a backer?  Pretty as it is, I'd take an osage stave over it hands down.  I took some thin pieces of it and gave them the ol' bend test and it does seem pretty elastic.  When they broke, though, it was always into multiple pieces.

I made it longer and wider than my usual bows, 68" long and 1 3/4" wide at the fades.  It still turned out to be my lightest bow at 14 1/2 ounces.  I glued in 3" of reflex and it holds 2 1/4" of it after putting a few hundred arrows through it.  It's about 42#.  It is some pretty wood.  If it does blow up, I'll post pics of the carnage if I survive.

[Matthias Wiltschko]

This is a really beautiful bow with a great design for such light wood. You just gave me hope for my future ERC bows with bamboo backing to survive some 1000 arrows.

[sieddy]

That bow looks great. The profiles are really nice and the wood colours are Very striking!   

[Pappy]

Very nice bow,nice work, but keep in mind in that thread we were talking Self bows. I have seen a lot of ERC backed or lam bows that worked out nice and shot very good.
   Pappy

[missilemaster]

Beautiful!  There is hope after all

[blackhawk]

Beautiful!  There is hope after all

Cody... I think you would do well with a good piece of ERC. You are the exact opposite of how you approach bow making from pearly. You are the most patient and thorough perfectionist bowyer I've ever met. And I'm not just saying that to say that. Just make sure you back it and make it the appropriate dimension for the intended bows stats.

Glad you posted this Greg...a very timely post in defense to another thread roaming on here right now.

[GB]

Thanks for the compliments and comments.  It means a lot to me coming from this group of bowyers.  I didn't mean to stir anything up or make any comparison of my lam bow to an ERC selfbow.  Just had been reading some posts where others had some concerns about trying ERC because of its habit of sometimes going kaboom.  I always felt the same way until I saw Simon's superb boo backed "Purple Haze" and the terrific one that Marc made for the PA magazine awhile back.  A lumber yard near me carried ERC and I found a nice straight board that I could cut a slat from and have it knot free, not even a pin.  I thought a light, tension strong backer like elm would be a good choice for my skills (or lack thereof).

I've admired and have been inspired by so many of the bowyers on here.  I decided to modify my original post 'cuz my intention was just to show what I had done with ERC and that (so far) it had worked out.  Thanks, Pappy, I really didn't know that the lam bows are common and hold up well.  Maybe I'll stop flinching at full draw now    I thought of my original post title as just a clever riff on the other post.  Clever ain't always my strong suit.

Thanks again and good bow making to y'all.

[adams89]

very nice bow, cedar looks beautiful!

[Sasquatch]

That is a beautiful bow! Love the elm backing.  Awesome tiller also. All this talk lately about ERC  >:Dmakes me want to do a build along or something. 

[Roy]

I guess it's ok.

[adb]

That is a beautiful bow! Love the elm backing.  Awesome tiller also. All this talk lately about ERC  >:Dmakes me want to do a build along or something.

Do it. Show us what you got.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Great bow! That 1/4 sawn ERC belly looks sweet all polished up.

[adb]

Pristine looking piece of ERC. Very nice. You should take note there Christopher... so you don't waste more time on more of that crap you were using. 

[Springbuck]

Gorgeous combo! I'm interested in the backing.  What specie and how did you get the backing?  Just from a board?

[wizardgoat]

Nice bow there. I gotta think elm would make a great backing