Has anyone ever used ironwood for a riser? I know that you can make a selfbow out of it and that its used in knife handles and pistol grips. But I've never seen it used in a riser. Here's a pic of some turned into clubs. It has alot of character to it and looks like it would make a beautiful riser.

Black Widow uses Ironwood in some of there bows

I've handled some ironwood widows but they didn't have that kind of figure. If I had some that looked like that I'd have a riser made for sure. I don't recall other bowyers using it although it's properties suggest it would be excellent.

Widow ironwood is not that type of ironwood.  I had the same questiona few weeks back, no one could give a difinative "yes" on the good looking ironwood like the above.  Totally different type of ironwood.  

My conclusion was that, although beautiful and tough enough for a riser, finsing a block big enough is hard to do, it is a REAL slow growing desert wood.

Mike

hey i personal dont see why it wouldnt work i know they use iron wood as bearing for propeller shafts on sea going freightships  as to its very durabal and wear ristent as well and it slow to rot from the salt as well  twisted

Barry, I agree, I think it would work well as a riser wood but I'm no bowyer so maybe one of them will chime in here.

I get down to Mexico about once a year or so and I always admire the ironwood figurined in the tourist shops.  I once went on a trail ride for a couple days and most of the firewood used when we camped was ironwood.  Some of the pieced were quite large in the ten to fifteen inch diameter range.  A 3 foot log of that stuff will burn ALL night long and you'll have to put it out with water after breakfast.  Wish I'd have thrown a few logs in my father in laws truck.  I did bring a small log back one time.  I just had my wife (she speaks spanish) ask at one of the shops if they had any uncarved pieces and the lady came up with one firewood length piece of log.  Funny, since I'd "asked" for it, it was suddenly worth money.... as opposed to just being a piece of wood for propping open the door like it was...

It has VERY tight grain.  If you cut it cross grain with a smooth cutting saw, you can't hardly see any poors in the end grain.  I guess that is why it carves so well.  It is VERY brittle (IMO) but that is part of it's strength.  In a riser I think it might be best as a layer or several layers layed up with some other wood.  I'd try to keep the ironwood out of the actual fadeouts just because it does seem brittle to me but I've never built a recurve so I'm just speculating.  In fact, I wouldn't be suprised if my reasoning was 180 out from the truth...    

Sure is pretty wood though

I have a damascus knife with Ironwood scales,very beautiful wood.The maker says he doesn't even have to finish the scales with anything they are so dense and tough.

Those clubs look both beautiful and dangerous.

Back when I was handcrafting bows I built a longbow for my father-in-law and used Iron Wood in the riser. Sure did dull my bandsaw blades. But after it was all said and done it looked sharp. He liked the heavier riser. He shot a bull elk with it this year.

If I'm not mistaken, I saw an Ironwood riser on the Bob Morrison website a year or so ago...it was for one of his takedowns, and he may of had another on a cougar/dakota one-piece.

It looked very grey, little figure, and nothing like your examples above.  And it was the wood species, not a diamondwood synthetic.

See Ya,
Marc

I believe Ipe' pronounced "ee-pay" may be what you're looking for. Try running a search on that to see if you get a couple hits. The bowyers may be using that name instead of ironwood.
I just built a few Adirondack chairs out of it and it is tough stuff.
Hope that helps

The question might be  , what are you calling Ironwood ?Practically every region of the US and likely the World has a wood they refer to as "Ironwood". We have two distinct species of trees on our farm that the locals refer to as "Ironwood". American Hornbeam and Hophornbeam, and both would grow big enough for riser wood.

I have a Striker TD longbow with an ironwood (pau ferro) riser. It's not as highly figured as the examples you showed above, but it is a beautiufl chocolate brown with black swirls. It provides good mass and is very tough. I've had no problems with it.

Ron

Desert ironwood, pau ferro, and ipe, are totally different kinds of wood.

I believe the pics above are of Desert Ironwood.

Desert ironwood is what I was referring to.  There are many different types of lumber called ironwood depending on where you are.  Not sure if you could build a club if the wood was brittle.  The stuff I have seen and delt with was extremely tough.
Mike