Would natural (unstained) red elm veneers be too light in color to compliment a walnut riser well? There's another thread on here discussing combos for a walnut riser, but I didn't want to hijack it.
I've always loved the looks of red elm but I wonder, would it have to be stained in order to go well with walnut or would it go just as well unstained? Thanks!

Go for it!  

I like the looks of elm also.  Walnut has so many different color variations, it would be hard to say if the woods will match or compliment.  But it ought to look good!

Best of luck!

I have a GN Ghost with a dark brown riser and excellent red elm limbs.......simplicity never looked so good.

Red elm can vary quite a bit in color from fairly light/yellowish blond to almost brown.  See what your bowyer can do for you.  Nothing wrong with a little stain to darken it up some.  You might consider dispensing with the veneers and just use elm as the back and belly laminations.  Elm is a very good core wood.

Herb Meland at Pronghorn Bows says Red Elm is his favortie core wood. It makes for some very nice looking limbs too.

Randy

QuoteOriginally posted by LongStick64:
I have a GN Ghost with a dark brown riser and excellent red elm limbs.......simplicity never looked so good.

Thats part of what I really like about it...the simplicity!

Do you have any pics that you could share?

I'll try and get some up tomorrow night for ya

QuoteOriginally posted by LongStick64:
I'll try and get some up tomorrow night for ya

Thanks!

Red Elm limbs on my Wes Wallace Bolivian Rosewood riser. I think it looks great.

Great stuff leave it Natural. I have been getting some very dark Red Elm Locally. Great wood for limbs and very fast and shock free wood.

The recurve in the background is red elm limb veneers with cocobola and walnut riser.  It is the one we talked about, didn't know if this was a better angle to see the limbs with the riser.
 

You might get a chuckle out of the build report on my bow "Look At Me!".   I set out build a bow with red elm cores and black glass, but the wood wouldn't let me... It kept saying, "Look at me!  Look at me!  I can be a pretty bow!", so I ended up using clear glass and it came out looking real nice.   Used a cherry, not a walnut riser, but I'm sure walnut would look good also.   Here's a link:

http://dickwightman.com/archeryactivity/bowbuilding/gallery/lookatme/lookatme.html

pix of finished bow way down at bottom of page.

The recurve is a Blacktail with Bolivian Rosewood riser and flat grain red elm limbs stained to match riser.  

I had Kempf stain my red elm limbs to offset the dark cocobolo riser. I really liked the combo.

Thanks for the feedback and pics guys. It's very much appreciated. I'm definitely gonna go with the red elm.

this pic is of a mahaska recurve I used to own it had some sweet looking red elm veneers    

Robert,
I can't believe you let that one go!

I think it would look excellent unstained and the contrast would compliment walnut nicely

Here are a couple of pics

GN Ghost



GN Critter Gitter

Thanks for posting them Peter. Very nice looking bows!