I am going to order a longbow soon and I realy like the looks of walnut in the limbs. Now,should I order it with bamboo as a core wood or is walnut good by its self? Thanks for your help. John
I had a recurve that had Black walnut limbs and was very smooth drawing and really looked good. Not sure about on a longbow.
Maybe you can Pm Kennym or he may chime in. I know he did some testing on his Rd longbows and I believe one of them had walnut cores that performed well. I think that thread was in the bowyers bench.
Bob
I have walnut limbs on my H2 and love them
A few years ago I was selling bows for Vince Yak (Shadow Bows). He sent me a real pretty bow with walnut veneers. Long story short...I had the bow strung at the Muzzy shoot so people could try it. In the sun the limb simply delaminated. I called Vince about it and he told me that Walnut turned out to be very oily wood and he had a number of walnut limbs fail in the heat. He stopped using it in his limbs. I do not know if the wood can be "cured" in some way but I don't think I will ever own a bow with walnut in the limbs based on that experience and Vince's troubles with it.
I would go with bamboo for a core, veneers of what ever pleases you.
Bill, that's wierd. Never heard of walnut doing that before.
I have a Kolomi long bow that was made by Lynn Harrelson. It is bamboo back and belly with walnut core. It is the smoothest long bow I have. It is not the fastest, though. I have seen walnut bows shed their sinew backing as fasr as it could be applied. The bowyer had to use lye to degrease it so the sinew would stick. Bill
I've used walnut on several recurves never had any problems,it preforms quite well.
I had a Marriah Thermal with walnut limbs, it was a good shooting bow. I never had any problems with the limbs.
Thanks guys. I will go with the bamboo cores.
Tom: I'm not a bowyer but here is a pic of the bow. It had a walnut core...not veneers...and you can see how it simply let go along the walnut glue line and according to Vince it was a common problem for him. He had to replace a number of bows and the one constant in the bows he had trouble with was what is in the picture....glue failure at with the walunt lams.
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a322/Arrowworks/brokenshadow.jpg)
I'm a big fan of bamboo. Dirty or otherwise.
According to Bill Howland, walnut is one of the best woods for a core wood, along with wenge, I have to agree, I have a Quest with custom verticle laminated wenge/walnut cores and it is smooth, quick and quiet.
Danny
Seen several Elburg's with walnut on the belly,red elm on the back,looked pretty good.
I had an Elburg that Harry made in 95 for me that was just like Randy described...
should have never gotten rid of that bow... it was the only bow I ever got to order and have built for me...
Jaguar Express, 60" 63# @ 27" and tillered for 3 under... I'd love to have it back...
Jonathan
Thanks for all the info. I am going to order a longbow. Cocobolo and Bocote riser, Bocote over Bamboo or Bocote over Red Elm. Not sure yet.
I had a longbow with Black Walnut limbs. It was very smooth and very quiet! I do however prefer Bamboo or even Action Boo limbs. Pound for pound they are hard to beat for smoothness and cast IMHO!
-Leonard-
I had a longbow with black walnut limbs under clear glass. It worked great, sold it this year and as far as I know it is still flinging arrow.
I'll use fancy walnut in thin veneers under the glass but not in the core. I preferr red elm,hickory, actionboo or maple. over the years I have seen and heard of too many glue line failures with walnut. I do not think its all walnut but theres that one piece of wool LOL. Just not worth it. The pic that was shown here is definately a glue line failure. but Was it bad glue or was it because of an oil in the wood. Who knows?
The thread by Kennym in Bowyers bench is very good. If people can used Coco Bolo veneers they can't say Walnut is to oily. Their is a failure of the glue up in preparation. I have never had Walnut fail in A Bamboo backed glue up or Coco Bolo for that matter and have made several bows of each.
Merry Christmas
Well, I'm not a bowyer but those I respect most tell me it's an excellent core wood. The glue is as much a common denominator as the walnut in those bow failures. It's akin to having a scotch and soda, a vodka and soda, and a gin and soda and concluding that it was the soda that made me drunk! :biglaugh:
Not sure why walnut would fail ,,as said before,each board you cut lams from is different.
Bocote and cocobolo are very greasy,just try to get finish to stick to a riser made from them. I've made a bow with bocote lams,just wirebrushed and blew the lams off,it is still shooting in AK as far as I know.
The 3 bow failures I've had were
maple core(bad glue joint,loss of clamp pressure)
red elm(bad glue joint,glue starvation,epon-versamid,Binghams said red elm soaks that glue in and can starve)
red elm (super long draw,shorter bow??)
Sixby noted walnut burns easily,but purpleheart seems worse to me,and I go from 50 grit on most woods to 36 on bocote and coco to prevent belt clogging.
The test bow I'm workin on now may shed some lite tho with p-lams and tip wedges,it may work the mid limb harder...???
All just my observations,yer mileage may vary!
Merry Christmas guys!!
Bamboo as a limb core is a better choice--you can still have the veneers for the walnut look.
Good info guys, but I am getting scared, I was thinking of going with the black walnut on my next bow, but after reading some of these threads makes me wonder.
It depends on the design of the bow. Some bowyers swear by walnut as one of the best and others swear at it.
I tried it once and had the walnut come apart right down the middle of the lam.
Mike
Thanks everyone for there input. going with a bamboo core. Now I just got to figure witch bowyer to use. I havent bought a custom bow in about 11 or 12 years.