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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: Meleon on May 15, 2016, 09:11:00 PM
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I'm about to start my first glass bow and I'm in the process of building a Lam grinder.
I have at my disposal; red elm, yellow birch, maple and red oak. All 2" thick.
Anyway my plan is a one piece recurve somewhere in the range of 40-45#.
So my questions are, which would be my best options for lams?
Should I be safe with a one piece riser?
Thanks
Jamie
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Since the wood only contributes 12% to the overall power of the bow, pick the prettiest wood, especially if you plan on using at least one piece of clear glass. If your yellow birch is the darker heartwood, you might go with some lams of that and some of the maple, for the color variation when seen on edge.
I build bendy-handle bows (recurves and flatbows both), so can't advise you on riser construction.
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I'd use maple or the red elm- both are good core woods
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Mapleor red elmfor sure both are proven core woods can't say about the yellow birch. It would probably be okay as well as the actionwood lams we used to get were made from birch.
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I have only used red elm or Action bamboo for laminations. Is the Maple you have "Hard" maple? if it is then it should work well too. Adding Multiple laminations in your riser will add strength to it.
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This is a riser block I made using hard maple and black and red fiberglass. (http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt46/Robertfishes/todds%20riser_zps0a5o8rr7.jpg) (http://s596.photobucket.com/user/Robertfishes/media/todds%20riser_zps0a5o8rr7.jpg.html)
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I'm not sure if it's hard maple or not. At the moment it's a rough sawn plank with no leaves left on it. Lol
I'm kinda leaning towards the elm.
I was really hoping to get away without laminating the riser. It's harder to get bow building stuff in Canada and none of my woods are very contrasty.
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I'm not sure if it's hard maple or not. At the moment it's a rough sawn plank with no leaves left on it. Lol
I'm kinda leaning towards the elm.
I was really hoping to get away without laminating the riser. It's harder to get bow building stuff in Canada and none of my woods are very contrasty.