Ipe questions

[loefflerchuck]

James(olhickory) was nice enough to gift me a nice piece of ipe for a bow. Someone asked me if I could make a heavy south American style bow. 85" long and 90# draw at 31" and a round cross section. I know a few trees that can make this bow and made one like this of ash in the past, but I have never worked with ipe.
 I have heard ipe is weak in tension and makes a good bow when backed. Thats all I know. To the ipe people out there.- Is this possible or a waste of time? It's a nice 2x2 piece and by shaving the corners I could maybe try to find a ring for the back, but would that be better than cross cut grain?
 90# @ 31" with 85" to work with with a D bow bend is not asking much. When you add back and belly strain of a round cross section that adds a little challenge, but plenty of species of wood would not have a problem with that. What about ipe???

[bubby]

It depends on the board, I've seen epe selfbows on here a few times so i know it can be done

[bubby]

Chuck sent you a link in a pm

[loefflerchuck]

Bubby, that link has all the info I need. Thanks, and I'm going to give it a try.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I see no reason it wont work Chuck, if the ipe is spotless. Grain swirls and pin knots have a tendency to fret and collapse. I would back it with grade A hickory or boo. It will take a surprisingly small amount of ipe to make a heavy bow like your after.

[PatM]

I think he wants to make it authentic to the SA culture. Part of the key is keeping the wood  at a much higher ,moisture content than we would consider optimal.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I'd be skeptical if I didn't start with a sawn or split full stave.

[bubby]

I sent chuck a link to an epe selfbow justin snyder built it was a heavy draw weight bow and looked like board stock but i didn't read the whole thing

[PatM]

 Chuck wants to make it authentic to the shape as well. It's one thing to make a rectangular bow like Justin did and another thing to make it round.

[loefflerchuck]

Thanks everyone. Pat, I was working the wood and thinking the exact same thing. With a draw knife the wood was flying off, dry as can be. I may rehydrate it, however it has a floor tiller on it now. I used a draw knife to shave the square board sideways to get the grain running like a stave, then pretended to attempt to chase a ring(hard to find). I think I came close though. The drawknife also showed me where the grain ran off near the tip. Now the bow will be 78" and maybe just 28" draw to be realistic. If I can get a bow out of it I'll come back to this and post it.

[Carson (CMB)]

I will be watching this post for the finished bow.
Did Legionnaire do a similar build a couple years ago?

[loefflerchuck]

Not sure Carson. Sounds like something Cesar would do. Not going to get all the power I wanted. 79" tip to tip It's drawing 62# @ 27". Give me till monday or so to post some pictures with 28+" draw.

[Limbit]

Ipe differs a lot between trees and species. Some of it is higher in tension. I was using a 64 inch ipe bow that pulled 48#@28'' for a while before it lifted a splinter. Didn't blow up. Just lifted a splinter. When I bought boards from another supplier, I couldn't even laminate the stuff without it blowing up. Confused the hell out of me till I read threads on PA from bowers who almost exclusively make Ipe self bows. They said the tree encompasses a variety of sub-species that have radically different properties. Seems like that just from looking at different boards too.

[Lukasz Nawalny]

I work on ipe permanently, great wood, but like all know - in compresion. I have made 2 ipe selfbow, one was broken after some time. Ipe selfbow is possible but pointless for me becouse of poor performance, poor shooting comfort compare to for example ipe/bamboo backing. Ipe is just to heavy - when you make bamboo backing you have higher draw weight with much lighter limbs

[Parnell]

I made one successful Ipe selfbow that was 66" long.  It eventually blew up.  A good piece at that length with a low brace height?  I agree on the humidity factor.  The wood seems at it's best, much healthier down here in the humid summer, I think.  Perhaps you should keep the bow in your bathroom!  Bring it down here and we'll try to put you on some of Florida's finest feral monkeys!