Bamboo backing as opposed to?

[Badger]

   I would be curious as to the results others have gotten using wood backings other than bamboo? I use primarily bamboo backing. I like the reliability of bamboo but I am getting tired of dealing with the inconsistencies in thickness dependent on how it grew. I like to be able to taper out my belly lam by eye for the most part instead of running to the tiller tree every 5 minutes. My fastest bows have been bamboo as far as I remember but only by a small margin and I have done so many more in bamboo than anything else the odds would favor it anyway.

    Over the next few months I plan to work more with hickory, maple, white oak and maybe ash backings. When I stop to consider that I am loosing a little working limb under the nodes I should get less set with a regular wood backing.

   It would be interesting to others experience here.

[Del the cat]

I mostly do self bows but my backing of choice would be boo', the only reason I don't use it more is that some archery societies don't allow it for some competitions 
Of the other woods, I'd choose Hickory or Yew sapwood (if I happen to have a long clean piece cut from a stave with V thick sapwood)
Del

[PEARL DRUMS]

I like hickory. I like the ease of uniformity in glue bows and I like the ease of wood backing. Boo is a pain in the arse to get flat and fairly consistent. I don't test my bows so I cant tell you which material is faster. I've built about 10 boo backed bows and just as many hickory backed.

[DC]

I've only done a few of each, boo and hard maple. I think boo is better by a small margin in performance but I like the appearance of boo better.

[Pat B]

I prefer hickory also. I never found boo to be reliable and with all the trouble prepping it I rarely use it. I don't test the speed of my bows either but from shooting I can tell hickory backed bows are slightly less fast than boo would be. I think the ease of backing with hickory makes up for the difference.

[Bayou Ben]

I agree with wood backings being much easier. 
I trust boo more though.  I've had the occasional splinter with boo but other than that I've never had a catastrophic failure with it.  I've done 20 or more bamboo backed bows and only a handful of hickory and maple backs.
The hickory backed ones were tough but seemed to be a little slower than boo.  I've tried maple 3 times, and 2 of those times the bow exploded unexpectedly.  One of the ones that blew was a maple backed ipe tri lam that was the fastest bow I ever made. Was shooting high 180's fps @ 54 lbs, 10 gpp.  Because of that I will try maple again, just hopefully I can get it cut myself so I can trust it more.
Steve, I ran across an old thread where you mentioned that you got a hickory tree cut up to your specifications, and were able to get 100 or so backings from that tree.  I was wondering how did those backings work out?  It was interesting to see how you had the tree cut, basically flat sawn 4x4's.   

 
 

[willie]

I mostly do self bows but my backing of choice would be boo', the only reason I don't use it more is that some archery societies don't allow it for some competitions 
Of the other woods, I'd choose Hickory or Yew sapwood (if I happen to have a long clean piece cut from a stave with V thick sapwood)
Del

Yew sapwood. Tell us a bit more about what your experience with it is. I have long wondered if a backing that has more stretch would be the way to go for some bows. Seems like a good choice for "balancing" with the belly,  if one is using a more typical belly wood.
Doesn't boo shine when used with stuff like ipe?

[willie]

I agree with wood backings being much easier. 
I trust boo more though.  I've had the occasional splinter with boo but other than that I've never had a catastrophic failure with it.  I've done 20 or more bamboo backed bows and only a handful of hickory and maple backs.
The hickory backed ones were tough but seemed to be a little slower than boo.  I've tried maple 3 times, and 2 of those times the bow exploded unexpectedly.  One of the ones that blew was a maple backed ipe tri lam that was the fastest bow I ever made. Was shooting high 180's fps @ 54 lbs, 10 gpp.  Because of that I will try maple again, just hopefully I can get it cut myself so I can trust it more.
Steve, I ran across an old thread where you mentioned that you got a hickory tree cut up to your specifications, and were able to get 100 or so backings from that tree.  I was wondering how did those backings work out?  It was interesting to see how you had the tree cut, basically flat sawn 4x4's.   

Cool experiment backing ipe with maple. I can see where the maple might be overworked. was the crossection rectangular? Maybe a flat back with a well rounded belly is in order, or some reverse trapping? how thick was your maple backing?

[Bayou Ben]

It was almost rectangular with the belly rounded more than the back.  The maple was a hair over 1/8" and tapered to just over 1/16".  I have another one glued up exactly the same but is has a thicker maple back.  We'll see how that one goes.
I found a few examples on here of maple backed ipe bows.

[bradsmith2010]

the fastest bows are most likely to blow,, you are getting every thing out of them,, each time you shoot,, so its probably a good combo,,

[willie]

I have another one glued up exactly the same but is has a thicker maple back.  We'll see how that one goes.

please let us know, I think you are going in the right direction

[Dances with squirrels]

I prefer bamboo. I like the performance and the look. I wouldn't necessarily say hickory is easier, all things considered. I guess if you buy it already cut and ground it is, but it only takes about a half hour to have a piece of bamboo ready to glue up, so that's not a deterrent for me.

[upstatenybowyer]

I'm not the most experienced w/ wood-backed bows, but I will say that a thin, home-made hickory backing must be hard to beat. I'm a huge advocate of making them myself cause I control all the variables. Not to mention I've got plenty of hickory growing on my property. 

[Marc St Louis]

I have tried Bamboo, Maple, Hickory, Ash, Elm and a couple more as backings.  I would have to say that it would depend on what the core is when I choose a backing, I never use a hardwood on a dense tropical.  For performance I wouldn't be able to positively say that Bamboo performs better because i think it has more to do with choosing the right backing for the core.  I have come to not trust Hickory as a backing, possibly because I can't cut my own.  Maple on the right core and the right design will give top performance and I've yet to have a Maple backing fail on me, I am quite picky as to which tree I cut for backing material.

[Badger]

     Ipe is cheap and easy to get so I tend to experiment with it a bit more than I do osage. I have used maple, red oak, white oak, and hickory with good luck. Lately almost all the boo I have found is not all that straight so even when ground flat it still has thick spots.