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Black Bamboo - Purple Heart - Osage Orange Carriage Bow

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SteveT.:
I cannot be sure from your picture of the black bamboo, but it looks to me like what we call "poppyseed" bamboo. In the past I have harvested all my bamboo from a stand of Madake bamboo ,used for making Yumi's, and bamboo composite bows. Amongst the culms, there were some which had a fungus growing on it, which looked like poppy seed. It is a valued material for making special bows, but only used on the belly side. It is not good in tension. Your black bamboo could be a different variety, as there are so many varieties of bamboo. There are also many other factors which could cause the bamboo to lift like that. Moisture content, how the bamboo was dried ( in a kiln vs. slowly drying in the sun over months) and how thick the backing is on your bow. I prefer to make mine as thin as I can, and take it to knife edge thickness when gluing to the back of the bow. Your bow is beautiful and I really like the combo of purpleheart and osage. Creative way to save the bow. Best wishes.

Lehtis:
I have no real information about the species and origin of this bamboo; ordered it from Denmark. Looks like they have some mold or fungus because of their inner surface is a bit grayish/blueish. Anyway, I´ve made two well performing one piece longbows (78 lbs @ 28") from two of the best black bamboo slices I got but both of these takedowns have had problems showing splinters and the first one is currently non-shootable. Actually, I have plans to sand the black bamboo backs away and replace them with common moso bamboo. A bit thinking required how to secure the bamboo slice ends near the takedown sleeves. Nock ends are easier. To be seen next January.

Lehtis:
The bow with rawhide backing seemed to work fine... but after some time it started to make tiny noices during drawing. Propably TiteBond III cracked on hard bamboo back. So, I decided to rasp and sand the backing and top layer of black bamboo away; some 1/3 of the bamboo´s thickness. Then thin moso bamboo slices on with SmoothOn EA40. Let´s wait and see what comes out.

Lehtis:
Both "Mom´s Chopping Board" and "The Leatherback" (now ex- ) with new moso bamboo backs. Nex week end, hopefully, some scraping, sanding, tiller and poundage checking. Let´s hope the best.

superdav95:
Some good progress there!  You’ll be happier with the mosso I believe. 

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