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Core wood?

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JonW:
It seems that Maple is the core wood of choice. I don't really have access to Hard Maple. I would have to procure it from someone else. Probably not a big deal though. My question is what other types of wood would be tried if you were in my position. I have a lot of Sassafras that I was going to practice making cores with.

Pat B:
I think mulberry was a traditional core wood.

mikekeswick:
Mulberry was used for the tips not the bending limbs. It is ring porous.
You want a diffuse porous wood with great gluing properties,obviously great steam bending ability and less than 0.70s.g.........which = maple!
Also vitally important is that the grain is flawlessly straight, no pins,no wiggles and definitely no twist.
Other woods that I have used are european hornbeam and cherry prunus avium. the cherry was fine for a while but eventually the core broke. I have also used osage for a couple of 'mini' half scale Turkish bows (ring porous but it's osage!). I wouldn't recommend it for a proper bow though.
I have had such a hard time trying to get suitable core wood that I have started to grow tartarian maple (what the Turk's used) and will be growing them up pipes like forcing rhubarb.

james parker:
actually, mulberry was used by the Chinese in certain bows for limbs, as was bamboo, Korean bows also use bamboo,
I personally have used those,and hickory also,, the first five Turkish bows I ever built I used hickory as a core and mulberry for the tips.. after inspecting a Chinese bow, the core was mulberry and the tips were of two different larger ring porous woods ,
 so I think (certain) larger ring porous wood can /has been used for larger horn bows . with the stresses spread out more evenly throughout the limb,,= larger bending radius, compared to the shorter bows with a much tighter bending radius=knee
mike is defiantly right about proper grain qualities and choice
note: I have dissected several ancient  broken  horn bows, a crab bow, a Turkish bow,  and a few others and broken bows of my own,, after looking at the most bending sections of the limbs a noticeable amount of wood breakdown was evident, I think the more the stresses and the more the bows were shot the more the amount of wood ( cell) breakdown in that area,all bows showed some breakdown to a degree +/-

mikekeswick:
James - that's really interesting about the wood showing signs of breaking down in older bows.

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