Peruvian Walnut (Picture Added)

[Wooden Spring]

So I was in the toy store on Saturday (Atlanta Hardwoods) and I picked up this beautiful piece of Peruvian Walnut...  I've never made a bow out of this wood before, but it's specific gravity and crushing strength put it on par with red oak...

Has anyone made a bow out of this before?

I'm just curious if I build it as if I'm working with red oak, will it will yield similar results? I hope it works, because at $9.00 per board foot, it's CHEAP compared to some other woods I'm used to using! (Purpleheart, Jatoba, Ipe...)

[Badger]

  Never used it John but I have found a big percentage of central and south American woods are prone to chrysaling. Ipe and massaranduba are noted exceptions to this.

[tattoo dave]

I tried a couple bows from it. Both from the same board. I'm thinking I either under built them, or the wood is just a little brittle. Both snapped into a bunch of pieces. Hopefully, you'll have better luck. I guess, I would say maybe overbuild them a bit. From what I remember both mine were only 1.25" wide, get closer to 2" wide, and maybe it'll work for ya. But I've never claimed to be an expert, just sharing my experiences. Let us know what happens.

Tattoo Dave

[PatM]

Kkeep in mind that Peruvian Walnut is one of the few South American woods that actually is true to its name and not named just because it looks like something we are familiar with.
 The pieces I have seen  have been virtually identical to North American Walnut wood.

[tattoo dave]

Good to know Pat. I still have some in the shop, maybe I'll give it another go. Keep us posted spring.

Dave

[PatM]

Walnut was a pretty popular American bow wood before glass. It was usually backed with hickory or fiber backing. I would back it with something.

[Wooden Spring]

I'll be backing it with hickory, inducing 2" of reflex, making it 1.5" wide to midlimb, then tapering to 1/2" nocks. It'll start out at 9/16" thick at the fades, tapering to 1/2" where the parallel limb meets the taper, and then 1/2" thick to the nocks. That'll get worked in somewhat during tillering.

BUT...

I've just picked up some REALLY nice hickory, so I'm gonna give a go at an English Longbow. I've not built one of these (successfully) before, so I thought I'd stick with the Golden Mean for dimensions and go from there. (that's 1:1.618) Which places the bow at 1 1/2" wide by 15/16" thick. So, we'll see...

Talk about an addiction...  Does anyone else build 4 bows at once just because you're trying out new things? This is like crack. But, without the drug.... And jail time... And side effects... 

[Wooden Spring]

OK, so I got fed up with working on an english longbow... Apparently I can't wrap my head around it right now, so I went back to what I know, and I set to gluing up the hickory backed Peruvian Walnut....

So the picture can be titled simply: "Bow in infancy" OR "If you think you have enough clamps... BUY MORE!"