First Tri-lam! (Purpleheart, Hard Maple, White Oak, all boards!)

[familyfriendlyname]

Hello all!

I hope you are all doing well...

As my first post, I ask advice for an ambitious (to me at least) project!

From my local hardwood dealer, I picked up the aforementioned woods, however I have run into some questiona.

The boards are all around an inch thick. They are about two inches wide too.

For the purple heart, I will end up splicing two halves together to make a core "blank" and use that as a template to cut out the backing and the belly wood.

I plan on a White Oak back, Purpleheart middle and a Hard Maple belly.

So here are the problems:

1.) The boards have straight grain on their length, but are quarter sawn so from the front, they look like this [/////]. Would this be fine for a laminate warbow? The angles are more like 30-40°, not exactly like [/////]

2.)All boards are an inch thick. I was thinking, that I make the purpleheart core like a boardbow, a little thinner maybe, glue on the backing and belly and plane both out until they are pretty thin. Or the second plan is, make two slightly thinner than normal boardbows from white oak and purpleheart and glue them back to back and have white oak as the back.

This is gonna be a little tough, so any advice and guidance is welcome. Thanks in advance!

[mikekeswick]

If you have a drawlength and weight in mind I can give you dimensions for the blank.
I would suggest using ipe/osage/pau amerrillo as the bellywood. Maple will work but its much, much better for a core or backing in an elb but it will work fine for a flat belly. If I had to use maple for the belly it would also be the back.
The orientation of the rings in your boards doesn't matter what is vital though is that the grain is straight along the length of the board. Most important for the backing, next for the belly and not hugely important for the core but still desirable.

[familyfriendlyname]

Hello Mike,

I realized I made an accident in the post- those are the woods I currently have on me from the dealer...

I will try a traditional draw under the ear, 32", and from the white oak-purpleheart-rock/sugar maple combo I wanna try going over 100#, 130# if possible.

[mikekeswick]

For that weight I would be googling 'ipe decking boards' and getting one sent to me! You can pick up what you need for not much money and it will make a huge difference to the outcome. Maple likes a wide flat belly eg. the opposite of what you will be trying to do!

[familyfriendlyname]

Hm. So if I do proceed with the stuff I have (purpleheart, white oak, rock/sugar maple), what combo can be made, even if it becomes a 50/50 (or whatever ratio) bow?

I heard white oak is very good in tension.

[mikekeswick]

White oak is good in tension but you would need to match it with a wood that is great in compression.
If you had to use what you have then I would definately make the belly flat and maybe consider a 74 inch flatbow with a mildly working handle as opposed to an elb.

[familyfriendlyname]

In an earlier post, you said that if you use Maple in the belly, to use Maple as a backing too.

Could a Maple-Purpleheart-Maple sandwich work?

[familyfriendlyname]

Hm. I did a little research and found that flat bellied warbows do exist.

But if the flatbow/pyramid bow is the only way, can they be made tall (6' to 7') and thick to get a heavy poundage?

Edit: I would like to get 100# +, no matter how ugly it looks so long as it's reasonable durable.