padauk

oldnut

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AIUK Saviour
evening all, I am going to attempt to make another bow . my first attempts were at making longbows and they both broke. I am going to try making a pyramid style bow this time and I am able to get hold of a piece of padauk. is this timber suitable, I have read it can be brittle and shatter, another person said it makes a pretty fast bow, any help with knowledge of its suitability appreciated
 

bobnewboy

Member
In my experience with dense tropical timbers, including ipe and padauk, its pretty difficult to be absolutely sure of the quality and direction of the grain along the piece, including run off at the edges. If you get an exceptional piece of wood, then perhaps a self bow could be made in the pyramid style. However you'd probably get far more reliability and peace of mind using a hard backing, such as bamboo or a clean thin slat of hard maple. Bamboo is a pretty tough backing but can overpower some belly woods, leading to set or chrysals. Padauk would probably be a reasonable match though, especially with the bamboo backing kept thin and tapered towards the nocks.
 

oldnut

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thanks, I was considering either silk or linen as a backing, less likely to come off as its easier to make sure it glues properly!
 
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