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Tri Lamination Warbow help

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wiking:
Hi guys

First post haha go easy on me, been shooting warbows for a while and always wanted to make my own.
Iv got an ash stave for a selfbow im making but I want to ask for some help with Tri lam warbows.

I want to make a 100#32 tri-lam and one 75#32 tri-lam.
For the woods used i want to use native european trees and want to use an Ash back, Beech core, and european Oak belly.
Iv never heard much about Oak bellys, some seem hate it and some think it would be good, what do you guys think? do you have an alternative?
also what should the thicknesses of each of the laminations be?

thanks for the help, Iv only shot self warbows so i have no example to go off of.

Del the cat:
Only European Oak bow I've seen was a flat bow that had an awful chrysalled belly.
The main reason for building a laminated bow (Other than timber availability) is so that you can use appropriate woods for the laminations, which I'm not sure you are doing.
Sorry if this sounds negative, I'm not into laminates and maybe my prejudice is showing :laugh:

How much bow making have you done? I don't think a warbow is a good start point.
Del

mikekeswick:
Del is right forget that combo for an elb it won't work very well at all. The oak will almost certainly chrysal....i've tried! Oak will work for a bow BUT you need a wood that is weak in tension to back it with and you must use a flat belly.
You need something dense/great in compression for the belly of 32 inch draw elb's.
If it had to be native i'd go with hornbeam/yew belly and an ash back with anything for a core.
You just won't have much joy trying to find planked quality native timber for a lam bow. 

I strongly suggest you get some ipe (Silva Timber), some maple for a core and either ash/hickory/bamboo for the back. I can help you with contacts for all the above.
Once you have your wood sorted then you can think about thicknesses.

Benedikt:
If you want an european wood as belly, you could try european hornbeam (catrpinus betulus), pretty pressure-resistant wood.

wiking:
Yea well i sort of thought that about the oak which is why i asked, so thanks for the Hornbeam suggestions guys ill look into that.
for me yew is too good to be wasted on a lam bow :P
plus i want to do something different than the standard combos that have been done hundreds of times before like hickory, purpleheart, lemonwood ect.

so going with a Ash back, Beech core, and Hornbeam belly, what would be approximate thicknesses for the laminations??
Iv read somewhere on here that the back and core lams both end up being 1/8 thick most of the time? and obviously the belly gets tillered for the desired draw weight.

thanks for the help guys

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