I know several big name bowyers are putting carbon in the limbs, adcock, morrison to name a few. What are the advantages of having carbon in the limbs. I am looking at making my first longbow. What kind of limb core makes the best/fastest bow. I have heard maple does but bamboo is more consistant. I am only making 1 or 2 bows so i am looking at performance.

Ask on the Bowyers Bench forum,thats where the experts are.

Long time bowyers using carbon for the first time will often blow-up quite a few before getting one that holds together.  I would recommend staying with glass until you have some valuable experience, unless you have quite a bit of money laying around in "R/D money", because in all likelihood, you will blow up a few.  Most will only see a 2-3 FPS increase in speed when using carbon in an already proven design.  It's more fragile, as well.  The fastest cores are maple, elm, and hickory.  Many are playing with foam now, but that doesn't appeal to me.

The carbon is 40% lighter than the glass but more "torsionally stiff" (stabilized left to right) so you can have a faster, lighter bow that is pretty forgiving. I'm not convinced that the foam core has any real advantage over wood.  I believe smoothness is mostly about bow design, limb geometry etc. Dropping the glass entirely and going with just carbon and wood as with my Griffon GL will give you about a 5-8 FPS I believe. I don't build them though so I have no trouble believing that carbon may be more difficult to work with. Once their made though I have not heard of their blowing up more?

"they're"  

I have a Centaur Double Carbon, Centaur Carbon Elite,had a Black Swan carbon hybrid,Morrision Carbon/foam core Dakota and have a one piece ACS on order and Morrision carbon/foam core Cheyenne limbs shipping next week to me. I know all of the above bows I owned so far have been faster than any wood core bow I have owned in the same draw/poundage using my indoor Chrony setup.I am looking forward to trying out the new Cheyenne carbon/foam core limbs its Bobs new design he didn't use carbon in his recurve limbs(just carbon in his longbow)in the past as he saw no gain in peformance but says he is gaing about 3-4 more fps more now with a change in the carbon plus 3-4 FPS with foam. One thing I have noticed is some of my carbon bows are dead quiet and others have alittle different noise to them vs a wood core bow not bad just different. Being a low poundage/short draw guy if I can sneak out another 5-10 FPS using foamcore/carbon it helps some in the field and while some may not see a benefit to 5-10 FPS at low poundage everything I can gain to help make a clean/fast harvest is a good thing for me. I seem to be buying alot of carbon bows lately but to be honest I didn't pick the above bows just for carbon I liked the total package of the bows and the carbon was just something extra in the mix.I have several bows non carbon and they are some of my favorites so carbon isn't everything in a bow nor does it make every bow a Superbow.

Took the words from my mouth Steel...I can't really add more than that.  

I love my Morrison carbon/foam limbs      

I echo the statements by Cody and JC; however, having stood next to both of them, I can definitely say that my significantly greater height and draw length allow me to put more velocity into an arrow using the same bow.    :D   On the other hand, their shorter draw lengths allow greater stability, which is what I will claim to be the basis of their more accurate shooting. It obviously could not be the ability of the shooter!    

I haven't had any problems with either carbon fiber or foam cores, and I like both a lot. No doubt some limbs "blow up", even those from the best bowyers, but I understand that the problem is not significantly different when using foam and carbon versus only wood and fiberglass, at least when the limbs are built by those who are knowledgeable and skilled in the art of bow making.

Allan

Nothing wrong with carbon if done right.I think however for someone wanting to build there first bow they are better off not useing it.It adds a lot of cost to what most likely is not going to end up being exactly what they want when it comes out of the form.It would be best to stick with cheaper materials before adding hundreds of dollars cost for what might well just be an experiment.jmo

btw..been there,done that.  :D

I think problems with carbon bows "blowing up" are more related to really highly stressed designs with carbon on the belly, and maybe a core that does not match up well.  Carbon does not withstand compression as well as fiberglass.  You rarely see posts about carbon bows blowing, so its probably an isolated issue with good "hobby" bowyers pushing the limits.

I have made quite a few bows now with carbon on the back, and have yet to even have much difficulty, let alone any failures.

Java Man

I love my carbon ACS's-3 piece and 1 piece. I think it is as much about design as it is about carbon. Schafer and Fedora make first class bows without carbon.

You have to control for all the variables when comparing bows-even or especially the shooter being just one of them. Even the same wood type veneer selection can vary and weigh more from one bow to the other. I know I didn't mean to imply that any carbon bow is necessarily better than a wood bow. I'd still bet string to bow geometry and core tapers etc. matter more than foam versus maple say, but I may be wrong. What I know about the type of "faom" they are using you could put in your eye!    I did shoot Bob's foam core hybrid and it is truly a superb bow! I would have liked to have someone blindfold me and hand me his wood core, maybe several of them, and see if I achieved statistically valid differences on all that. Every time I demo a new pair of skis they always seem better than what I've been skiing on so I may be suggestible!  

I went for wood veneers over black syn limbs even though I know it slowed my style bow down a few fps. I wasn't too concerned about speed.

Carbon applied by different bowyers can have different effects and carbon selection/manufacturing and placement (where, how glued on) can all vary. But as I said a properly made carbon lam bow (with ALL variables kept the same) will give you all the advantage of speed and smoothness and more stability and less/almost zero hand shock (which should be less with a lighter limb, no)?

Remember that all top TARGET limbs seem to be made principally of carbon for a reason as a bow to perform like that has to be consistent and very forgiving of technique variations. If wood did that as well, wouldn't the Olympic boys and girls be using it?

I don't know of many complaining of OL Adcock's bow's speed or durability and I believe he gets more that 2 to 3 fps benefit form carbon. (Maybe OL will weigh in here)?  

Cheers!

Steve

I don't pretend to be a bowyer but if I was about to start a bow it would not be with carbon.  I believe everyone here has a valid point.  

Apex is right, for someone just dabbling in the art of bow design/crafting, carbon is another variable, and as many have experienced, a more difficult one to master.  If you didn't waste money and/or tear it up, blow it up, mess it up, whatever, I'd be surprised.

I have had a several carbon backed bows and two with foam cores and both are superior materials.  In skilled hands and with the right application they are wonderful.  Bowyers are getting more speed out of these bows (but we're not talking HUGE increases).

I do not know, but trust those that do, that carbon in the core of a bow may add some stability but no proven performance benefit.  

Risk vs. Benefit & Cost vs. Benefit just don't add up for a once or twice deal.  Plenty of great bows have been, and still are made using regular "old" cores and glass. JMHO.

Carbon is a poor core choice, it isn't good in compression and tends to be noisier as a core material. It does well on the back of a limb, not very well on the belly in most designs(compression thing again). Carbon takes research to be done properly and you'll notice that most have moved to a carbon weave that use carbon for it's torsional stability among other benefits. For one or two bows a year, glass is much wiser choice for most.

I think youll have convinced me to stay away from carbon for now. Thanks for the replies is foam hard to use?

The smoothnes in the draw of carbon- foam limbs is
unbelivable , i love my shawnee dacota combo doesn,t get any better - my hat of to Mr.Bob.M
ASL

Looks like Bob has started making some wood veneer foam carbon limbs! Very nice!!!

Hey Snag good job! When I saw those the wantmeter scored an instant high for the day!

You and me both! Turned black into something pretty and functional.