Want to have a 2pcs takedown longbow made by my bowyer, But we are not sure if he can use stabilized wood for the veneers. we know we can use it for the riser. asked a couple people and one says yes, for the fact that the veneers are so thin stabilizing won't add that much weight, the other said the complete opposite. so please help me out if anyone knows the right answer.  Thanks

What did John say?

I would trust John's opinion.

Ive used dymond-wood and it works just fine..Tim

John said he wasn't sure,  thats why i'm putting it out here.

Didn't someone recently post a pic of Pacific spalted maple that South Cox of Stalker recurves used? Maybe call and ask South or have your bowyer call.

Just talked to John, he is gonna give Kevin at RER a call tomorrow and try to find out.

What exactly does stabilized mean?

Stabilization is going to make the wood brittle.

Have him grind the veneers down to about .017. Warm up the lams before glue up. The epoxy will saturate the maple from both sides and the wood will be basically stabilized.

Some spalted wood I have seen is starting to get soft.  Others is hard as a rock and used in flooring.  The later would obviously be a better choice.  Chad

chanous,
stabilizing is a process where a epoxy resin is pressure injected into wood that is not structurally sound like burls and in this case spalted maple which is a stage of decaying wood.

As Chad said each piece of wood is different and some spalted maple is punky and soft where others are hard as a regular maple board.

I have to admit spalted woods do have an interesting look to them.

It would be a constant little worry to me knowing I have decayed wood on my bow. Stabilized or not it just seems an inferior material to use.
But I'm a function over form kinda guy.

I wish you the best of luck whichever course you take.

Like I seem to say often on here, " I learn something new everyday". Thanks for the reply IdahoCurt.

You bowyers know far more than I about stuff like this, but aren't the veneers simply for looks anyway?  

I have always thought the core wood and the glass are actually doing the work and affecting the performance.  Do the veneers themselves actually have any impact on the strength of the limb?  And being as thin as they are, does the weight of the wood used have a measurable affect on performance?  

How much does the use of a veneer change the draw weight of a bow?  For example, if one bow is built with clear glass over bamboo cores, and another is built using the same cores but with a pretty veneer, how much affect does that have?  

This is something I haven't really thought about before.  But now you've got me wondering...

the veneers may be for looks..but you still have to glue the glass and cores/tapers to them...

I'd stay away from stabilized for the veneers and go with raw.  You will get a better glue job IMHO.

Mike