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Walnut, advice and opinions?

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swotavator:
well since i have walnut, and it won't pair well with hickory, i think my best bet is to go get maple for it.
Then, for the hickory, i will have to find another core (ipe, lemonwood, osage, etc).  thats the project for the weekend.
i definitely wanted a very stacked and rounded crosssection, so i think with balance between the core and backing, i could get that with both of these (though i will shift the neutral plane towards the belly for the walnut one).

swotavator:
Well,
I went to the yard, and there wasn't much good belly wood.  Wasn't sure about cherry and white oak to pair with a hickory backing, so i looked at the tropicals.  They had churasa, tigerwood, teak, mahogany and wenge.  I have heard the most about wenge, and i am not sure if the other stuff is good, so i  bought a wenge board.

Right now i am glueing it up (with about 1.5 to 2 inches reflex).  the boards are 7ft.  i drew it out so that it will probably be about 78-79 inches nock to nock and about 38 cm wide in the handle.  the hickory is about 3/8 inch, and i will heavily narrow, thin, and round that, and i intend on the wenge being about 7/8 inch thick through the handle.

I will save my other hickory strip for if i ever find osage, lemonwood, or ipe.  Might do a tri-lam with walnut in the middle.

Anyways, does anybody take issue with the dimensions I am going for?

swotavator:
Well, the hickory backed  wenge is going well, but I also just acquired some ipe.

Here is a quick question:
If I intended on making a hickory backed ipe bow, what reasons would there be to make a tri-lam with something between the hickory and ipe?  Since ipe and hickory are amongst the best in compression/tension, wouldn't adding a middle lam just take away from the power/weight ratio?  Would it affect the speed of the bow? 

Besides looks, the only reason i could think to put something between ipe and hickory would be to allow a thicker bow for the same weight (in which case, i might consider this)
The woods i have available for a middle lam are:
Red Oak
Hard Maple
Walnut
Hickory
Wenge

mikekeswick:
Remember that ALL the compression and ternsion work is being done by the first couple of mm of wood. The core is doing nothing other than taking a bit of sheer and being a spacer. So theoretically low sg woods are best for cores. Basically use whatever core you want or think would look nice. Why do you think a core will 'take away from the power/weight ratio'?

Ipe will make a 100lb bow at 1 inch wide...just...goto 1 1/8 th if you aren't sure.
 
If Black walnut can make a 50lb bow it can make a 150lb bow but it's width will be quite different. I think a lot of people get stuck on using certain dimensions then if a wood chrysals at that width you here things like - oh it will make a 50lber but....

Ian.:
You make it sounds easy Mike, it really isn't an easy task to make a 130+ bow that performs well. What woods have you used to make very heavy laminates?

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