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.

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?