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What advantage is there in multiple laminations?

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markinengland:
I just got back from the Batsford shoot. Brilliant event and amzing to see a longbow shot of 450 yards! I wasn't feeling too well and missed out on the opportunity for some good bow making talk in the beer tent. While I can make a bow, it seems I can't cook without poisoning myself! I thought I would try and have a discussion here that I missed out on the other night.
While at Batsford I saw some nice war bows. Some lovely self bows, some laminated bows. As access to good wood for self bows is limited for many bowyers and customers laminated bows are becoming increasingly popular. Some of these laminated bows had five or more laminations, some three, some just a belly and backing.
I wonder what the performance advantages of any more than two laminations are?
Thoughts?
Mark in England

grantmac:
From my somewhat limited knowledge: the idea is to have the backing being very tension strong, the core(s) as light and strong in shear as possible and the belly very compression strong. Usually compression strong wood is very heavy, so you want to have as little of it as possible to keep the bow light. The core just acts as a shear-web to space the belly away from the back.
That said I might be totally off, I also don't see the point of more than 3 laminations except for a different look.
      Cheers,
             Grant

stevesjem:

--- Quote from: markinengland on May 26, 2008, 07:28:11 am ---I just got back from the Batsford shoot. Brilliant event and amzing to see a longbow shot of 450 yards! I wasn't feeling too well and missed out on the opportunity for some good bow making talk in the beer tent. While I can make a bow, it seems I can't cook without poisoning myself! I thought I would try and have a discussion here that I missed out on the other night.
While at Batsford I saw some nice war bows. Some lovely self bows, some laminated bows. As access to good wood for self bows is limited for many bowyers and customers laminated bows are becoming increasingly popular. Some of these laminated bows had five or more laminations, some three, some just a belly and backing.
I wonder what the performance advantages of any more than two laminations are?
Thoughts?
Mark in England

--- End quote ---
That was Jeremy Spencer' s flight shot of 432yds

Cheers

Steve

markinengland:
Thanks Steve, I only added 18 yards!
Grant.
I think very much as you do. Tension work is largely done at the surface of the back, compression largely at the surfce of the belly. The middle or core of the bow essentially is non working and simply connects the working surfaces of front and back.
What I cannot understand is why some people put heavy timbers into the core.
Mark

grantmac:
Mark:

I can't seem to understand the heavy core theory either. I just got my hands on some ERC and I think it will make a nearly ideal core wood. I can forsee a Hickory, ERC, Ipe ELB in my near future; not a warbow but something light and accurate for the backyard. The only way a heavy core would work is if it is very rigid wood, but even then it doesn't make sense. To me it seems like the core is mearly a shear-web which spaces the backing from the belly. A 5-lamination bow just seems to have a lot of glue, which doesn't really do any work and just adds weight.
I wonder what sort of lamination are setting these flight records?
    Cheers,
           Grant

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