mahogany?

[sailordad]

   hi everybody,
it's me again, with another question. I was at the local lumbaryard today. I was in there looking for some boards to make bows out of. I'm not real sure of what the minimum dimensions of the board(s) should be,such as thickness, what kind of cut should the board be. And last but not least.
Would mahogany work and if so which is better, AFRICAN,PHILLIPINE, or HONDURAS mahogany.


                                                                    thanks again,and I promise I'll try not to ask any more q's for awhile.

                                                                                          Tim

[Rich Saffold]

Tim, None will work. It's a bad combination of too low a density, and the short irregular fiber which makes up the wood..

Look for a straight piece of hickory, red or white  oak,maple, walnut etc. Keep asking questions, and there are some tutorials posted on this site, and a couple others...

Rich

[sailordad]

    Thanks Rich,
I appreciate your advise,and will keep looking for boards.

                                                           Tim

[venisonburger]

I will agree it isn't a good bow wood, but, I did have a successful bow a year or two ago, made for my brother it was successful in that it didn't break, my brother isn't a traditional shooter, so it sits as a decoration so I can't comment on the longevity of it. it is very chrystalline in structure. I shot it to break it in. Maybe I just lucked out with this one.
VB

[Sidewinder]

Get you a good red oak or hickory 1"x2" board with the grain on the back running paralell to the limbs with no or very little grain runout. Build you a 2" wide at the fades pyramid with even limb thickness and tapered  from the fades to the 1/2" tips and you will be a happy camper i can assure you. With Hickory it could even be a lttle narrowerer at the fades. What draw length and weight are you shooting for?  I got lucky on my first board and accedentily picked one with good grain, but thats the key to choosing the right board is paying attention to grain direction in realtion to being paralell with the limbs.  If you can get that right your starting with a durable foundation for your back. I have failed to do that recently and learned a valuable lesson I hope not to repeat. For me I was a little confused by all I had read concerning bow building and minimized this point in my wood selection. Now I know better. So take it from a fellow rookie when I tell you that. The pyramid design described above is a fairly un-complicated design to tiller.Your taper is on the sides instead of belly tickness so its a little easier at least in my humble opinion to tiler first time out.    Danny

[Rich Saffold]

Venisonburger, That is impressive, you pulled it off, but it shows even what is considered "non-bow woods" have exceptions in them.. I have seen some real fast poplar bows made by the S. Cal crew, and they all know its limited for how long it will, or won't  last..

Plus you obviously did everything right to keep it in one piece..And this challenge of tillering "borderline" staves makes good bowyers better since its such a fine line between success and explosion..

Rich

[Badger]

I think all of the asian variety mahaganies are not useful as bow woods. There are some south american varieties which are not true mahagany that can make decent bows. Santos mahagany, honduran mahagany are two that I have had some success with but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy any of it. Steve

[Coo-wah-chobee]

                       West Indies Mahogony grows down here in the south. We call it southern mahogony. I have made bows from it but they have been bendy handle d- bows. They last about 1 year then the belly starts ta chrystal. They make good huntin' bows fer that time. Have made them as short as 62 " and aound 52-54 lbs. I would have ta agree with Rich they are considered "non- bow woods " but as said it will work ifn ya get a good piece fer about 1 year.The rest of the mahogony family I cannot offer an opinion on, never used em.......bob

[Sidewinder]

I'm thinking I want to build mine with wood that will last longer than a year thats for sure, otherwise its like a throw away. I think sometimes we see the beauty of a particular type wood in some other non-functioning form and would like to think it would be a good bow. My idea of a good bow is one that will shoot for several years or more and if a wood as pretty as mahogany won't hold up longer than than a year, I'll just enjoy it as an end table and make my bows out of something else.  Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll pass on trying that one.  Danny

[koan]

The only one I can tell you bout is Philipine...its not real mahogany...on this side of the ocean we call it luan...they make those cheap, ugly interior doors that wont take a finish consistantly out of them. Ifn you buy one of those 30 dollar samuria swords the scabbard is made from it....not much use in it imo....Brian

[mullet]

   Like Bob said the only one I've seen bows made from is Southern Mahogany,"China Berry".The one I saw was sinew backed flat bow about 2" wide. Performance wise,it wasn't too impressive. I wouldn't go out of my way to get it either.

[Justin Snyder]

I have tried Brazilian mahogany and South American mahogany. I got as far as cutting out the bow and I could see that it wouldn't work.  The wood was not going to hold together.  Justin