woods compresion and tention question

[65x55 swedis]

i was wondering what are some woods that handle tension good and other woods that handle compresion. just wondering what people think are the best for each catagory. i normally work with hickory or red oak and even yew when i can find some. just seeing what are some other options. thanks

[Tortoise]

I favor hickory for tension, partly because it's easy to work with, and osage for compression. Osage works like magic. That's just me though.

[mikekeswick]

Tension - hickory,white oak,maple,elm and ash.
Compression - ipe,osage,hawthorn,greenheart,yew (but low bend resistance so needs to be thicker than most woods),spindle,hornbeam and black locust if you're careful

[PEARL DRUMS]

Osage

[Hrothgar]

Tension: hickory, bamboo ( a grass), white oak
Compression: ipe, osage, locust, kentucky coffeebean, red mulberry

[loefflerchuck]

I work with compression woods and sinew.
Top 3 compression woods- Incense cedar, yew and juniper

[65x55 swedis]

incense cedar what is that is that just really fine grain cedar?

[adb]

For me...

Compression strong: osage, yew heartwood, ipe, bloodwood, yellowheart, jatoba, lemonwood.

Tension strong: hickory, maple, ash, elm, bamboo, white oak, yew sapwood.

[H Rhodes]

For tension strength I favor hickory, pecan, and elm - in that order.  Pecan is probably my personal favorite.

[mighty joe]

For tension strength I favor hickory, pecan, and elm - in that order.  Pecan is probably my personal favorite.

i may be cuting some pecan limbs in the next few weeks. now i know what to do with them. thanks

[65x55 swedis]

is maple a tention wood or compresion wood?

[Hrothgar]

65x55
Maple is more of a compression wood. After MLB did their experiment 2 summers ago with maple wood bats and the way they tended to explode when they broke, its probably not a good choice for a backing. Just my opinion.

[adb]

65x55
Maple is more of a compression wood. After MLB did their experiment 2 summers ago with maple wood bats and the way they tended to explode when they broke, its probably not a good choice for a backing. Just my opinion.

Not in my experience. I've made many maple backed bows, including a 90# tri-lam warbow. Maple backed osage is also a favourite. I think it's an excellent tension strong wood. It does also excel as a compression strong wood, if kept relatively wide and flat. It's my favourite wood for selfbows also.

[dwardo]

Think the term Maple is too wide a term to be used in passing. Some use the term for the whole genus Acer.

[Weylin]

I agree with Dwardo. Vine maple and big leaf maple are two totally different animals.