I was cutting some pieces for a wood lam and I have some elm. some of the pieces have quite a bit of sapwood in them. Will that be ok for core or belly?
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Yes! Elm is very strong wood so under glass you should have no problems with it.
There will be no glass on this bow. These pieces at planed to 0.20" now with thoughts of being used on belly. I like the looks of having the sapwood there, but not sure if there is a strength difference that might cause a twist.
I've split the heartwood and sapwood 50/50 with hickory and pecan before and it worked fine. On the belly I dont think it will matter.
I don't know how well elm would be for a belly lam. A more compression strong wood like osage, ipe or yew would be more appropriare.
I just finished a 60" elm static recurve for the Bow Trade and it came out real nice. I did temper the belly though.
Elm is great in tension.
The sapwood and heartwood seem to be about the same.
For my elm self bows I just peel the bark and tiller with the sapwood as the back.
CJ