What core is your favorite for a recurve?
Carbon or bamboo
I'm partial to Yew. Only because of its beautiful color.
I love Yew and so far have been happy with the Bamboo in my Fedora. If I had to pick one...Yew would be my choice.
It's Bamboo for me.........
Bamboo as well !!!
Bill
Yew for me.
Bamboo definitely number one. Yew is nice. I actually do love maple also. I've had some sweet shooting bows that had nice maple inside. Still on the fence about carbon/foam truth be told, prolly why I sold my Zipper.
Bamboo but maple is a close second.
Bamboo, bamboo and bamboo! Hven't shot foam or yew so my experience don't count for much on this poll;-) Have shot red elm and maple and bamboo is way superior to them.
Bamboo 100% never had an issue, always worked, Yew would come in second but never Carbon or Foam, never liked the "feel" of either.
Have always loved bamboo, never tried yew. But foam is really, really nice. I did have a problem with a Pronghorn I ordered with bamboo cores a few years back--the clear glass developed splits from both limb bases. Herb replaced the limbs with hardrock maple cored limbs. They are quicker, but not nearly as smooth as the bamboo.
elm
Sounds like yew and bamboo are about equal. There doesn't seem to be much love for foam. :dunno:
Would be kind of cool to do a side by side comparison with bows built as close to identical as possible using different core materials to feel and hear the difference???
Probably been done but I'd like to see it...
Most of m y bows are bamboo but I've tried carbon, foam, Yew and probably a bunch of others.... Problem was they were all different bow designs so I don't think that works well for a test???
Bamboo on most of mine. If I have carbon and I do I will not have a foam core. I love my bamboo core carbon backed but do not care for carbon and foam.
I like Bamboo the best. Not a fan of carbon & foam
Elm is very nice also. Nice grain and makes for a smooth fast bow.
Me for yew.
I have bamboo core in all my bows!
Bisch
I have more bows with bamboo than yew...gotta say I have no preference between the two...just hope I eventually get my Chek-Mate Hunter III....should have some amazing yew limbs
DDave
The 2 Biggest custom bow company uses maple, the bow that has won more Trad competition uses maple also, I think if you put glass over plastic, it probably shoot good, when it really matters, is when self bows are built.My Hickory, and Osage, will make your teeth hurt, but Yew and Bamboo combo, is the ticket, in my opinion...
I think the design of the limb has a lot to do with its feel. The tone on release has varied with wood vs foam but I am not good enough to be able to feel difference in the same bows I have had with different cores. Draw force curves also look similar. Now performance is different with foam being the best for me.
Usually go with the bowyers recommendation as he knows his design.
Probably carbon has the fastest recovery versus weight ratio of all of them..! HOWEVER...for us "purists" bamboo, yew or really hard sugar maple....(i.e. rock maple)...all recover very quickly. I love bamboo...never tried Yew..but have had some lightning fast bows with REALLY HARD maple cores. In the wood cores I'll bet you have a hard time getting 3 fps between the three of them. My opinion....jackdaw
In thicker cored longbows I prefer bamboo or yew, but in recurves a lot more materials work well. If maple is done right it can be as good as anything else. But I really like yew. The only carbon foam recurve I ever saw the first time I was looking to perhaps buy it. It did not look so good, but it was fast. The second time I saw that same bow it was broken. That kind of scared me off of them.
It would be interesting to have tests, both draw and sound, done on bows with different core and limb materials. I'd like to see the results if done while blindfolded.
I have had a few bows with bamboo-glass and they are really nice. I have one with carbon/foam and it is much smoother than all of the others.
Would I trade the ones with bamboo? No and I would not trade the one with carbon/foam either.
I've shot both bamboo and carbon with foam. I like em both but the carbon combo arrows hold their speed down range with less drop.
I'm a bamboo-man! :)
I will be different I like carbon and foam
My Hill Halfbreed is 3 lams of bamboo and two of Yew and feels fantastic to draw. And yet the San Marco I have is of 38 year old Yew and is as smooth as butter. I love both!
Does bamboo really draw smoother. I would really love to see the draw force curve between the different materials on the same bow design.
Repeat post. No idea how this happened.
My 7 most favorite bows have been bamboo, but I also like Elm. I have shot yew a little, but I have not owned one, so I don't have much experience with it - yet. Not knocking anybody, but carbon and foam just don't turn my crank in terms of aesthetics.
Boo or maple but would consider foam anymore...
Keep the mass as light as possible, all things else being equal, and you'll be pointed in the right direction.
Olympic shooters use foam if that means anything to anyone...that suggests something to me.
Kris
My favorite core material for any trad bow is action boo with a carbon strip in the center
So far bamboo seems to be top pick. I have shot mostly boo myself. I have only shot one bow with yew and one with foam. Its nice to get some other opinions.
Yew is my favorite. Both my EagleWing and BW PCH have yew cores.
Bamboo because most of the bows I have had and shot had it. I have only shot a few carbon foam and so far not into it, but I have yet to shoot a Morrison with it. Maple is fine and I have nothing against the couple elm bows I have shot. To my knowledge I have not shot a yew core. I had an osage core with osage lams under clear glass that was very nice.
I love bamboo, but foam is just as nice!! Both seem buttery smooth too me!! Shawn
the smoothest bows I have built were carbon foam core. However the difference in it and yew or boo for smoothness is so little if any that I wonder if its just my imagination. Here is the problem. I feel like one is smoother and then do the draw force curves and they are the same. Sooooooooooooooooooooo. I do not like the look of foam on some bows but do on others;. I just built one that there is a thread on right now that I actually disliked the look of the foam so much that I painted the sides of the limbs black. On that bow it worked so good I may do more of them that way;
The lightest weight cores are ususally going to be the fastest if the rest of the build is the same; Core has that. Yew next and maple so close to yew its a toss; Still I have built some very fast bows with actionboo cores;
God bless you all, Steve
Bamboo sure is sweet and smooth. For the most part though I don't think there is much difference in most woods as far as performance goes though some do feel different. I think what it all comes down to is limb design not the wood in it.
Im a bamboo man also
Adding to my last reply- i'm on the fence about carbon foam because so far the one bow with it i've shot (zipper) just had kind of a hollow/dry feeling/sounding release vs. boo/maple/yew bows I've tried. just wasn't satisfying to me. it drew way smooth though. there was no such thing as stack on that bow. pure linear. i'm about to try another carbon/foam bow this week- ILF riser with TT/Samick BF Extreme 'long' limbs. Supposed to be the top of the line ILF limbs other than Border hex. I will share what I find out. If it has that same 'dry,hollow' feeling/sounding release i may have to sell it also. i'm a sucker for the whole shooting experience, draw, release, arrow hit...don't just care about fps.
concerning maple, my 66" leon stewart t/d slammer has select maple cores and it is one of the sweetest shooting bows i have ever had the pleasure of and flat out smokes an arrow, its my favorite bow. my miller old tom w/ tempered bamboo is tied with it. what a sweet drawing bow that has a lovely soft thump for a hill bow.
nineworlds9 I'll be watch for your post.
Carbon/Foam, then everything else.
Brushwolf-
will definitely share what happens with the TT BF's and the two different risers I picked up (1 Hoyt Excel, 1 Morrison metal)
+++I realized that a differentiation should be discussed perhaps-
REAL boo vs. actionboo
Real boo, heat tempered or however, without question is a smooth drawing material and an old standard. it was HHill's material of choice. 'actionboo' on the other hand is a product made FROM bamboo...it is basically laminated bamboo/ bamboo 'plywood'. Real boo seems to be popular with the Hill style bows like my Old Tom, but a few boywers of R/D style bows use it as well, one I used to own was a River Raisin with real boo lams. Fast and VERY quiet bow. Super smooth, you could just draw and draw that thing. I'm no expert, but please somebody chime in who knows some more and discuss how the boo vs. actionboo plays into 'wolf's original query...
Definitely prefer bamboo or maple. Bamboo feels more consistent to me, maple is right there also.
Tried the foam, just couldn't see it being cost effective for how I shot with what it gained me. It was more stable in extreme temps though.
Carbon/glass is a whole different ball game over core materials. In that case carbon.