Black cherry recommendations, And boom she goes

[Marc St Louis]

As I said before, BC is finicky wood.  Great with the right design but not so good when strained too much.  I made a short highly strained sinew backed BC recurve many years ago.  It had so many chrysals after finish tillering that it looked like a jigsaw puzzle.  I pretty well quit using it after that experience

[WillS]

Ah, chrysals are just a bit of decoration

I've got a 110lb elm bow that I shoot constantly with chrysals over the entire belly.  Still only got an inch or so of set and shoots nicely!  It's those big single ones sitting in a hinge that complicate things...

[Marc St Louis]

Ah, chrysals are just a bit of decoration

I've got a 110lb elm bow that I shoot constantly with chrysals over the entire belly.  Still only got an inch or so of set and shoots nicely!  It's those big single ones sitting in a hinge that complicate things...

Unless you are making the bow for someone

[WillS]

Very true.  That is frustrating.

By the way Marc, have you read/experimented with the Scandinavian form of heat treating, known as malming or "maelming"?  I've started looking into it, as it was Daniel posting on PP many years ago who first mentioned it.  He said it took a 160lb elm bow up to 210lb, and the process involves heat treating with pine resins, taking up to 10 hours.