Ipe selfbow?

[Kegan]

I recently got a wonderfully straight grained ipe board from Rick T., and was wondering about making a selfbow (well, cloth backed, but still) from it. I can cut it to two 1 5/8"-1 3/4" wide staves, 1" thick, up to 72" long. I know Justin made a nice D bow, but I was thinking a stiff handled flatbow pulling about 75#. With a cotton backing, would it hold up? I have very little experience with ipe, so I don't know what kind of tension strength it has. All help is much appreciated

[Justin Snyder]

If it has good grain it should hold up without cotton. If it has a cotton backing, it wont be a selfbow.  I made mine a D-bow because it was 3/4" wide.

[Kegan]

Thanks Justin . The grain is straighter than alot of red oak I've used, and I'm a fan of non-laminate bows. I'm happy to hear it's possible!

[Rich Saffold]

Kegan,  I've made plenty of pyramid and elb style Ipe selfbows over the years, and they perform as good as any bow cut from a board. Just make sure to keep the outer limbs slender since this wood is much heavier than the native woods..

As far as tension strength goes look at the lpe backed laminated bow I have posted..it's on page 2 now I think. The back of that bow takes a good load..

Rich

[ricktrojanowski]

Kegan
I met a guy in Ct. that had a really simple non bendy handle ipe self bow (no backing).   It was probably about 64" and about 1 1/2" wide at the widest point of the limb.  The limbs were flat.  It had a little follow and he was still shooting it after many years, and the ipe was less than perfect.