Guys,
I see bowyers offer bows with Tonkin cain lams. Where can you get these?
I mean where can you purchase the lams to build your own bows?
some of the sponsors sell it. three rivers
Tonkin does NOT grow large enough for 1.5 lams....
Most is Moso, but called something else, me thinks. Probably just as good in a fiberglass lam bow.
yes, after reading some in my Trad Bowyer book it looks like tonkin cane only grows to about a 3 inch diameter is very labor intensive and not cheap to purchase either..I have seen bamboo listed as tonkin but like Apex says its likely something else like moso cane. Jack H says in his book that it takes 12 pieces of tonkin to make one bow. He was making his own actionboo with it.
Check with Mike at Dryad Bows, he carries Tonkin Boo (not cane) and makes his own laminations. However, I don't know if he sales the laminations. Performance wise, his Tonkin boo out performs any of the Moso I tried on BBO's & BBI's. As far as laminated glass bows are concerned, one bowyer told me switching from Moso laminations to Mikes laminations increased the speed of his bows by an average of 6 feet/second.
Yep Walt,
I have a piece of tonkin boo backing from Mike that is patiently waiting for bow building season to arrive. I've been meaning to build a nice little BBO recurve ala Dean Torges.