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Tri Lamination Warbow help

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Del the cat:
Sometimes you'll find Yew with damaged or rotten sapwood. Or stuff that's too bent/twisted etc for say a longbow but which is fine for bellies.
Del

mikekeswick:

--- Quote from: Del the cat on January 25, 2015, 09:28:49 am ---Sometimes you'll find Yew with damaged or rotten sapwood. Or stuff that's too bent/twisted etc for say a longbow but which is fine for bellies.
Del

--- End quote ---

Exactly right, most of our yew is useless (or close!) for self longbows but a reasonable amount of that is fine for laminates eg. you cut a straight board out of it then back it with something to get back the tension integrity.
Elm may also work for a belly and you actually have a chance of finding it in board form  ;)
Dimensions will vary depending on what wood you acquire. Once you've got your wood then we can help more with dimensions.
How many longbows have you made?

wiking:
yea of course if you have pieces like that available its fine but unfortunatly i dont.

ah okay i was actually wondering about elm, is that wytch elm youre talking about? how does it compare to Hornbeam for backing?
I can get a lot of these woods in plank form, like 100mm or wider in a range of thicknesses starting at 26mm and going up, length is also no problem.
so what do you mean by ''Dimensions will vary depending on what wood you acquire.'', if i already know what kind of wood i wish to get?
I havnt made any yet these will be my first attempts, i dont mind failing, its a learning process and evereyone starts somewhere, i dont want to start by making other types of bows either

thanks for the help guys :)

Ian.:
I really wouldn't even both using those woods. You don't really learn anything from a bow failing due to poor wood, best bow maker in the world could't make it work. Where are you in the world? Some places can find good common woods but it will be much cheaper and rewarding for you to use good material from the start. The only thing we can tell you for certain is dimensions are less important than physical weight, use Badgers mass calculator and minus about 3oz for a warbow, don't start tillering until you are at that weight.

mikekeswick:
Yes I know that woodyards will have them listed as being available but you need perfectly straight grain to try and hit those weights. I spent the last few years making mainly elb's (as a business) and well know the problems you are going to run into  ;) I've been to pretty much ever good hardwood yard in the country over the years. A lot of them talk the talk over the phone! I'm just trying to give you a bit of a heads up here not trying to put you off....if you stick at it long enough you'll get there but bear in mind that you are starting off by making it very hard for yourself.  ;)
Wych elm is probably one of the better elms. I've used a lot of small leaf and wych.
If I had to use native hardwoods for a 100# @ 32 bow it would be an ash back, cherry/oak core and a hornbeam belly but as I said getting it is the problem.
A backing of 3/16th - 1/4 inch
Core of 1/8th
Belly of 1 inch
It would be 1 1/4 wide for the center 24 inches. From there I would start a taper to 1 inch wide 12 inches from the nocks and from there to 5/8ths wide at the nock.

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