Men, has anyone had any success with catalpa? Just daydreaming at work of different woods to use and it came to mind. Fairly straight and knot free.

Too soft.  It is used by woodcarvers a lot if they can get it.

Dan

Brittle too I believe,I thought about it in a glass bow a few years back for lite weight lams,but decided not to pursue.....

Makes good fishing worms but I don't think it is bow worthy.

Makes a great box call.

Haha! Sounds like its good for making anything but bows!

A friend of mine used it successfully, but I don't know how he designed it. Most of his bows were wide and short.

I've got two catalpa trees in my backyard.  They are pretty, but limbs break off them all the time in high wind or heavy snow more than any other tree I know of.  Like was said above, brittle wood.  I wouldn't risk trying it in a bow of any type - self or laminated.

I too was wondering about Catalpa at one point and read everything that's been mentioned here. Not a good bow wood. However, I did turn up just ONE source that mentioned it being used occasionally in Yumi bows. I'm guessing maybe the Catalpa served as that side pieces that flank the laminated bamboo core of a Yumi. However, I couldn't find out anything else on that usage of Catalpa in Yumi bows so I passed up my chance to get a nice arrow-straight log of it.