Tropical and exotic belly woods.

Started by LittleBen, January 21, 2013, 10:36:00 PM

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LittleBen

Has anyone used any if the tropical woods for a laminated Bo belly. I'm interested in experiences with shedua, wenge, zebra wood and others.
I know ipe is super common and awsome. Jatoba is also used and I've used cumaru which worked well but chrysalled more easily than ipe.

Any experience helpful.

bigbob2

Only used Zebra from that list but it worked fine.

rainman

Coco Bolo and Bloodwood both work well.  For Coco Bolo you need to make the bow narrower than you would with Osage.
Semper Fidelis
Dan Raney

LittleBen

Anyone tried Gonzalo Alvie's/tigerwood, masaranduba, bocote, bubinga, purpleheart

Pat B

It all depends on the compression strength of the exotic wood you want to use. Purple heart is a very strong, dense wood but not the best as a belly wood because, like black locust, it is brittle and easily frets. Ipe on the other hand is strong and dense and does make a good belly wood. I don't use many tropical woods so these are two that I know something about.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!
TGMM Family of the Bow

okie64

Ive used purpleheart, ipe and massaranduba with hickory backs. Like Pat said purpleheart will fret easily and isnt worth the effort it takes as it is the hardest wood Ive ever worked. Massaanduba and ipe are both good belly woods but I would choose massaranduba over ipe. I'll try to post some pics of a few later today.

LittleBen

Pat- totally agree but I can't seem to find any good database on wood compression strength and stiffness. Unless someone starts printing stress strain curves for various woods it'll be hard to predict set, and fretting. Figured I'd just shoot for personal experiences.

Okie- I'd be interested to see that.

Sal

Dan (rainman) I would love to see a picture of one of your cocobolo bows, I'll bet they look awesome.

rainman

Sal Last one I made that held together the Coco Bolo turned real dark after a couple of years.  I gave to a young man who wanted to start shooting real bows and don't have any Pics.  Might have to do another one this year.  They look great when first finished kinda like Osage.
Semper Fidelis
Dan Raney

okie64

Heres a couple of bendy handle hickory backed massarandubas, 50 and 70 pounds

Hickory backed purpleheart with belly frets


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