South Indian 55lbs at 29 inches

[Bamboo-Bows]

South Indian with Lemonwood core. 55# at 29”. Lemonwood is amazingly fine wood and good to work with. It is used as a belly wood in Longbows quite often. I found a board at the local hardwood supplier, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Although it is a good bowwood, it can be sensitive to pressure so there can be no mistakes with tillering. I noticed this with another bow that dit not make the cut. Ipé or Greenheart is another story. They can take more beating.

When it does work out, the bow is very smooth to draw and still has power and speed in it.
In this bow the core was built using the lemonwood on the sides, bamboo cores and purpleheart centre. This is visible in the nocks. The bow has a bamboo backing and belly.

I am all out of lemonwood at the moment, so might get more. What are your thoughts on lemonwood. Good bowwood or too soft?


IMG_3192 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr
IMG_3163 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr
IMG_3150 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr
IMG_3201 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr
IMG_3219 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr
IMG_3221 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr
IMG_3224 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr
IMG_3225 by Bamboo Bows, on Flickr

[Santanasaur]

Very graceful curves and profiles. Stunning bow

[Pat B]

Very nice bow, BB. Nice curves and finish. 
I've used lemonwood a few times. My most successful was a hickory backed lemonwood ALB but I had a boo backed lemonwood fret so I ground the belly down and added an osage belly making it a tri-lam.

[Flntknp17]

WOW!  That is a really beautiful bow.  I really like the profile both strung and unstrung. 

[bradsmith2010]

beautiful,, congrats

[DC]

Very nice. These intrigue me

[Stixnstones]

Now that is a beautiful bow....

[Rākau]

that is another absolute stunner, any particular reason for using 3 different woods for the core in these bows?

[PaSteve]

I really like the unstrung profile of that bow. Everything about it is very well done.

[Hamish]

Another really nice bow.

Lemonwood, is a good belly wood, holds up to compression well. No real benefit over many other medium weight hardwood timbers for a core though.

[Hrothgar]

Nice design, nice. Have always heard good things about lemonwood. From what I remember I think lemionwood was the wood of choice for Stemmler bows  in the 1940's -50's.

[Bamboo-Bows]

that is another absolute stunner, any particular reason for using 3 different woods for the core in these bows?

I thought the lemonwood might be too soft as a core. That is why I put in a strip of Purpleheart to compensate for this.

[Trapper Rob]

Good looking bow

[Aaron H]

Beautiful bow, well done!

[bownarra]

Cracking bow there Really very nice.
Regarding lemonwood it isn't a great bellywood. Not bad but definately not great. When it comes to core wood it doesn't really matter. My preferred core woods are black walnut, maple, chesnut and boo flooring. All chosen because of the medium - low density and great gluing properties. If I were you with these bows I'd go down the lighter core route, you may pick up a few fps due to the lighter core.