# So does whats the best wood for making a recurve???



## Bowhunter321 (Jan 23, 2009)

If its got sights and its metal its not archery to me!!!:elch::archery:


----------



## elk country rp (Sep 5, 2005)

i suspect most folks would say osage is the best. i haven't used it yet, so i can't tell ya what it's like.

my personal favorite right now is hickory backed ipe. i haven't had any trouble bending reflex into bows of hickory/ipe & they hit hard. i'm not a huge fan of fiberglass, so i concentrate on wood/wood or even wood/wood/wood bows- trilams are a kick in the pants, too. check out the build along forum for a few different bows & wood combinations.


----------



## J0nathan (Jan 10, 2009)

a fiberglass laminated recurve, or a wooden static recurve?


----------



## Chris Wilson (Aug 16, 2005)

for an all wood recurve, osage. For a glass lam bow, some of the best performing recurves I've shot used simple maple action wood in the limbs.


----------



## kegan (Aug 28, 2006)

As was said, for shport, highly stressed selfbows, Osage is the best choice. For sinew backed bows, hickory, yew, juniper, Osage, white oak, hophornbeam, and a number of other good white woods work. For laminates, maple action or bamboo is the best.


----------



## Dave T (Mar 24, 2004)

Interesting that your first two posts had nothing to do with your question.

As to the original question...my experience is that for laminated limbs the answer isn't wood but grass. Bamboo makes for the smoothest, best performing laminated limbs for either a recurve or a longbow.

Dave


----------



## LBR (Jan 1, 2004)

Depends on who you ask, the bow design, what it was designed around, etc. I don't have a lot of experience with all-wood (self)bows, but I have an osage and hickory selfbow (longbows) that perform equally well (different designs). I've never made or owned a recurved selfbow.

In laminated bows, IMO the limb wood in a recurve doesn't usually make much of a difference. If it's a wide, thin limb the wood isn't doing much--the glass is doing the work, the performance comes from the design. In a narrow, deep cored limb (longbow), my pick is yew every time.

Yew has the desireable characteristics of bamboo--light weight, fast recovery--without the undesireable ones, in particular the nodes. The nodes can be a weak point, and add to the labor required to make it into a lamination.

I'm not a bowyer, and don't claim to be, but I have talked to a lot of bowyers and that's what my favorite bowyer has said--after extensively testing bamboo against yew, he doesn't offer bamboo limbs. He's still experimenting with "actionboo", but so far it has no advantages over yew, at least in his designs.

There was a thread on tradgang not long ago, where a lot of bowyers chimed in on yew--seems it's very popular with many of them. I don't recall any saying they don't like it.

In the riser (still talking laminated bows) I like a heavier hardwood--cocobolo, bolivian rosewood, etc.

The old "standby" limb woods, that most any bowyer will use, are red elm, maple, black locust, and actionwood.

Chad


----------

