Can black palm be used in a glass bow riser? I have never seen it used, maybe a reason for that.
I have seen pics of a palm bellied self bow with some type of wood backing. Cant remmeber what?
a wood vendor told me he used to sell Black Palm to a bowyer..I think it was cari-bow? I'll have to look on their web site and see if he still uses it
I know G.W. Flanagan a local bowyer here in Oklahoma uses it in the riser of his 3 piece take down bow.
Well it sounds like it be OK. It just had a strange looking grain. I though it would look good paired with Osage in a riser.
Thanks
Well they make whole self bows out of it so I guess it would work.
I wondered some of the same stuff about Black Palm. As KellyG mentioned, the wood is used for entire bows, so I figured it must be worth a shot. A buddy had some smaller pieces of it, so we ended up doing some tests, because like you mentioned, that "grain" looked a bit strange...
We noted a few things while testing it. One was it soaked up super glue like you wouldn't believe. Another was it seemed really strong. The pieces that broke under a large amount of stress cracked or broke running the length of the grain. We had a heck of a time trying to get it to break perpendicular to the grain.
I ended up buying a REALLY dense (not because of high moisture content) board of Black Palm from an exotic wood place. I plan on using it for riser material and tip overlays. The piece I got seems to be a lot better than the scrap that we tested on-I'd imagine it will hold up very well. Just my $.02 :) .
Jeremy
I've used it in a riser before.
Pretty nice stuff when you get it finished but it takes a lot of grain filling to get it smooth.
Sure would like to see a few pics of finished bows using it. Three piece risers if possible.
I've oggled over a few pieces of it at wood stores and always wondered if it would work.
Troy
I have made a black palm selfbow and it is a bear to finish. Extremely srong wood and very dense. I bet it would look fabulous in a riser.
Would anyone mind posting pictures of black palm bows and risers? The local wood store near me has it and I've been curious about it. (they sell 1 1/4" X 3" or 4" X 39" pieces for about $60).
Dave.
Oh yeah you can defiantly make a bow out of Black palm. That would be the only type of Palm I would use though unless it is going to be under glass. It has some beautiful grain.
Do it you'll love how it looks, and if you don't you can send it to me!
There was a shop back in 1950's that made black palm laminations.I had seen old letters with there name that the Old Master from Old Master Crafters had. It was called The Black Palm Shop no longer there in Illinois.I have messed around with Palm and find a neet wood to make lams with. You Can usualy only use the outside half of board the other half is to porous and fibers are to far apart and lams break.I guess the same for wood bows. Im told solid half is outside of tree.I do have two or three pcs in my shop if needed.