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Lemonwood /Degame

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jameswoodmot:
Hiya. Couldn’t find anywhere for introductions here so I bought I would jump straight in. After the “big scare” I realised how much I valued this forum as a resource, I’m very happy to see it back up and running, thank you to everyone who worked on it.

I am in the U.K. and the majority of information on bow making online is from he US, there is some overlap in woods but it’s getting harder and harder to source foreign timber here.

One wood I can get is lemonwood but I’m finding it hard to learn about. It’s too expensive for me to just experiment with. However, I’ve since learned because of its provenance it can be hard to get in the US.
It is often used as a belly wood on laminate English longbows, I would like to make a bamboo backed reflex/ deflex bow.
My first bow as a child was a Slazenger bow from lemonwood, I would also like  to make my partner a light poundage bow of similar design but I have a few question;

For the laminate, would lemonwood be comparable to Ipe, can I use similar dimensions and proportions or would it be best to treat it like a white wood? Is the growth ring orientation important?

For the light poundage self bow (30lb max) I would like to recurve it, google says lemonwood is very good for steam bending, tbbII says it’s terrible and needs chemical treatment to bend it, any ideas?
As with the laminate, how important is growth ring orientation?

I’m usually very happy to just try and see with white woods but as I said it can be so hard to get premium bow wood I would like the best chance of success I can get!


Here are some of my other bows (I’m just finishing number 5 and 6)

Thank you!

superdav95:
Love the look of these bows very nice indeed.  Welcome to pa!  I’ve not worked lemonwood but have heard from others it make very good bows.  I bet it would be a great candidate for boo backed for sure.  Just make the backing very thin and find a good consistent slat of boo strip.  The hardness of the backing strip can easily overpower the belly wood.  Lots of guys on here build boo laminate bows.  It appears that lemonwood has hardness similar to hickory so I would say from my experience with bow backed hickory you’d be fine.   Not sure about heat treatment on your lemonwood so tread carefully on that.  Best of luck with your build

Pat B:
Welcome to PA.  :OK
I've  made a couple of lemonwood bows. Both were American longbow style and backed with hickory. Both bows turned out quite well. One thing about lemon wood is it is susceptible to fretting so be sore your tillering is spot on. From the looks of your bows I don't think you will have a problem.

Del the cat:
I've used it, it is almost homogenous with very little obvious grain, works well, fine for an ELB with boo, Hickory, Ash etc as a backing. Not as hard  or splintery a Ipe.
Del

bjrogg:
Welcome to PA

I don’t have any answers to your question but I like the full draw on the bows you shared. Nice work and thanks for posting

Bjrogg

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