Quick quesiton guys, what are your thoughts? Would pine handles work?
Do you mean as a riser? If so then no, not the best choice.
I wouldnt pull the bow back unless it was like 35#
I would a pine handle in a R/D not work?
Pine is not a very strong wood.
I would not use pine in a bow in any way.
While true that pine is a conifer and as such a softwood how much stress does the handle deal with? I accidentally made a 80lbs rd with a pine handle and it is handling fine? What reasons and facts are there not to use it not just "it's not used"? I only mean that I have a very logically wired mind and given how thick a HH handle is for example why is it a poor choice?
Let me know after a few hundred shots and a chunk of the riser hits you in the grill. It may be true that many bowyers overbuild their risers for safety and longevity, but still you can underbuild them too, and using pine is a good way to do that. A riser is under a tremendous amount of compression and shock with each draw and release. I have seen posted stout laminated risers fail... so there aint no way I am putting the work into a bow that it takes to make a nice one, only to have a soft pine handle fail.
Not to mention the idea that the stiffer the riser, the less flex, therefore the better the limb action. Risers bend, even very dense, rigid laminated ones. The stiffer the riser, generally all else being equal, the better the cast of the bow.
Thank you DJ that was very helpful. I will have to pick up more 1 1/2 Hickory on Monday and start to use that as the handle material.
I cooked a piece of pine in my oven and the rosin oozed out and made a mess. This would cerainly be a problem in the glue joints.
I do not make the same kind of bows you make but here is 2 reasons I would never use pine...
1. Most pine sap has Terpene which is then distilled (or concentrated) to make Turpentine! I would never want that stuff anywhere near a stressed glue joint.You may be asking for this stuff to dissolved you glue causing catastrophic failure over time.
2. When I glue 2 woods together I try to glue woods with similar density, because they tend to sand more alike and they also tend to swell or shrink the same so you don't feel the joint.
hope some of this helps...
Crushes too easily, so.....