world record attempt

[fishfinder401]

..I have a 220#'er wytch elm, but it's allready sold/traded.. I have plans to make more bows this heavy, but I have 4 kids so I'm not working as fast as I want to

-I have a 150# osage soon ready for Eirik D, and I'm working on a 190#'er wytch elm for Gibbs. I also have some bows ranging from 120 to 170# that I will finish during spring. Hopefully I'll have time to make myself a bow soon too

Anyways, a maple core might be a good idea. They use maple as a core in hornbows between the horn and the sinew, so it should do god as a core in trilams. I wouldn't know where your closest boo supplier is, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

What wood do you have access too? There must be some native wood you can use for warbows..?

if i was to use a stave i have black locust, and at a property we have a few hours away we have ash and rock maple, i'm planning on getting some of that next time i go up, but for now i wanted to try a tri lam bow, as i don't have to dry it  and a lacal lumber place has ipe, home depot has the maple and now i just need to find the bamboo, im having trouble finding over 72 inches, and at that its already more expensive than the ipe,
thanks for the advice
noel

[fishfinder401]

i think i have a place were i could get hickory, would it be fine if i just used that instead of bamboo, and if i do use it, what type of grain do i look for, i have seen it with the grain stacked from side to side and top to bottom, so i'm not sure which is better?
thanks
noel

[Ian.]

It depends if you can take it to a single growth ring or not a 1/4 sawn hickory back will be fine, if you can take it to a single growth ring then that would be better.

[fishfinder401]

It depends if you can take it to a single growth ring or not a 1/4 sawn hickory back will be fine, if you can take it to a single growth ring then that would be better.

ok, that gives me some options then, especially now that i know what i am looking for

[nidrinr]

-And try BL. Especially with a heat treated belly I believe it to be excellent for heavy bows. I've only worked one piece of BL, and even though that is coming out a flatbow 80-100#, it feels like it manage a longbow design up to 150# maybe more.

[Ian.]

Can you clarify what BL is the only thing I can think of is Black Locust

[fishfinder401]

Can you clarify what BL is the only thing I can think of is Black Locust

-And try BL. Especially with a heat treated belly I believe it to be excellent for heavy bows. I've only worked one piece of BL, and even though that is coming out a flatbow 80-100#, it feels like it manage a longbow design up to 150# maybe more.

thanks for letting me know, i actually have some i am going to be cutting soon to start drying, Ian bl in this case im pretty sure does mean black locust. the one i think i will be using is around 15inches across and has some nice sized rings. when i do use it, should  leave some sapwood for a back, because i know the heartwood is very good in compression but im not sure about tension
thanks
noel

[nidrinr]

yep, black locust.

[Pat B]

Black locust has good tensil strength.  I have left a few rings of sapwood on locust bows but I knew it was sound and they were in the 50# to 60# range, not 150#.

[fishfinder401]

Black locust has good tensil strength.  I have left a few rings of sapwood on locust bows but I knew it was sound and they were in the 50# to 60# range, not 150#.

so if i were to attempt even a 100 bow with bl, should i just go very wide and long? i really don't feel like pulling wood out of my arm, and is it good if the rings are thick, as the tree i might be using i have a cross section cut out because we needed to know when it was planted for something, but the rings i am thinking of using are around 1/4 thick, the thing that confuses me is that on the cross section we cut, the center with the 1/4 in rings split out almost completely from the rest, and after the split the rings are only like 1/8-1/16, what could have caused this, or was it just a coincidence
thanks
noel

[nidrinr]

growth rings on BL should favor the late growth rings as much as possible over the early growth rings. As long as you heat the belly, I don't think you need the heartwood.. The one I've tried is almost without any heartwood at all, and I would definately try it for a 140#'er. Might be the heartwood is better in compression, but I've never had BL with heartwood to try

[fishfinder401]

growth rings on BL should favor the late growth rings as much as possible over the early growth rings. As long as you heat the belly, I don't think you need the heartwood.. The one I've tried is almost without any heartwood at all, and I would definately try it for a 140#'er. Might be the heartwood is better in compression, but I've never had BL with heartwood to try

once i check this tree and make sure it will work, if i get allot of stave's, we might be able to make a trade so you can try tome heart wood, but i'm not exactly sure of the condition inside as some of the trees near it had ant problems, i really hope this one doesn't
noel

[nidrinr]

-Sounds great! I have both wytch elm and very dense ash to trade. (The local ash is not at all like your average ash in the states. I've had ash up to .93 SG)

[fishfinder401]

-Sounds great! I have both wytch elm and very dense ash to trade. (The local ash is not at all like your average ash in the states. I've had ash up to .93 SG)

ill let you know when i find out about the staves, and ash that dense i thought some ash i had seen near my house was dense, but i know its nowhere near that, thats like ipe dense

[Markus]

Here is a 247 pounder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNKeYXzki8